SAN FRANCISCO — According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Boston Celtics have signed Dalano Banton and John Tonje to 10-day contracts.
Banton was on the Celtics for the first half of the 2023-24 season before getting traded to the Portland Trail Blazers at the deadline.
He spent a year and a half in Portland and was not on an NBA roster to start this season. However, he is fresh off a recent 10-day deal with the LA Clippers.
The 26-year-old, 6-foot-8 guard holds career averages of 6.7 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists while shooting 40.3% from the floor and 30.4% from behind the arc on 2.4 three-point attempts per contest.
As for Tonje, he joined the Celtics on a two-way contract at the deadline. They acquired him as part of the deal that sent Chris Boucher to the Utah Jazz.
Utah selected Tonje, a 6-foot-4 guard, with the No. 23 pick in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft. In his sixth and final year of college at Wisconsin, he averaged 19.6 points per game.
Tonje has spent all of his time in the G League this season (35 games and 34 starts), including his last two with the Maine Celtics.
In those games, the 24-year-old has averaged 18.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.5 assists while shooting 46.2% from the floor and 37.0% from deep on 6.0 three-point attempts per contest.
BSJ Analysis
These moves had to happen today. The Celtics traded away three players at the trade deadline, receiving no players in return, leaving them with 11 total standard roster guys. Then they converted Amari Williams to a standard deal, bringing them to 12.
The NBA's roster minimum is 14. Teams are allowed to be under that mark for 28 total days in a season, but no more than 14 days in a row. Since the trade deadline was February 5, the 19th was Boston's deadline.
This is merely the beginning of the Celtics' season of cap gymnastics, all with the goal of staying under the tax line.
After their deadline antics, Boston is $842,292 under the tax. Obviously, that's not enough to sign one player, let alone two. But since they will be signing someone this late into the season, if they time it right, they can sign two players to prorated contracts that add up to less than that number.
Since Tonje has no NBA experience, his number will be small. And this is only Banton's fifth NBA season, so he won't make a lot, either.
By signing players to 10-day deals, they are delaying the inevitable, meaning the eventual prorated contracts they sign two players to will be even smaller deals.
This is how the Celtics will stay under the cap.
Also, I still fully expect Ron Harper Jr. to get one of the standard contracts. He's earned it the most, and Boston wouldn't let that go unrewarded, as we saw with the Williams contract.
They're probably just trying to time everything perfectly in accordance with their plan to stay under the tax line.
