Just one month after being traded to his hometown team, Georges Niang is on the move again.
The Celtics reached an agreement Tuesday to ship the Massachusetts native to Utah, according to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Jazz also will receive two future second-round draft picks from the Celtics, with undrafted rookie RJ Luis Jr. going back to Boston in return.
Minutes later, Charania reported the Celtics had agreed to a one-year, $3.3 million contract with free agent forward Chris Boucher to fill Niang’s vacated roster spot.
Boucher, 32, spent the last seven seasons with the Raptors, appearing in 403 games with 23 starts. Last season, he averaged 17.2 minutes, 10.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game off the bench for a tanking Toronto team, shooting 49.2% from the field and 36.3% from 3-point range. His scoring and 3-point shooting marks both were the second-best of Boucher’s NBA career.
Listed at 6-foot-9, Boucher can play multiple positions in the frontcourt, where he’ll compete for playing time with the likes of Neemias Queta, Luka Garza and Xavier Tillman. Frontcourt depth is a major concern for the Celtics’ new-look roster following the offseason departures of Kristaps Porzingis and Luke Kornet and the likely exit of Al Horford, whom the team does not expect to re-sign.
Swapping out Niang for Boucher will save Boston $4.9 million in salary and result in substantial luxury tax savings. President of basketball operations Brad Stevens and his staff have made cost-cutting an offseason priority as they look to avoid prohibitive second-apron penalties and reset the roster in the wake of Jayson Tatum’s season-ending Achilles injury.
Once Tuesday’s moves are official, the Celtics will be roughly $8 million below the second apron and $4 million above the first apron. Both aprons carry restrictions on the types of trades and signings teams are permitted to make, as well as financial sanctions.
“I’ll repeat it over and over and over: We need to regain our flexibility,” Stevens said after the 2025 NBA Draft in late June. “We need to maximize assets in return, and we need to regain some flexibility here. And whatever that means from a final cost standpoint is what it means.”
Though he has not started a game since the 2021-22 season, Boucher could enter this season as a Celtics starter. With Tatum sidelined for the foreseeable future, the only locks for Boston’s starting five are Jaylen Brown and Derrick White, with Payton Pritchard, Anfernee Simons, Sam Hauser, Boucher, Queta and Garza all among head coach Joe Mazzulla’s potential options for the other three spots.
Rounding out the Celtics’ current roster are Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, Josh Minott and first-round draft pick Hugo Gonzalez.
Charania reported Boucher’s veteran-minimum contract is guaranteed, and that he “is expected to have a significant role in the frontcourt.”
Niang, who was born in Lawrence and raised in Methuen, joined the Celtics in early July as part of the trade that sent Porzingis to Atlanta. The 32-year-old journeyman projected as a rotation player for Boston if he stuck around. Instead, Niang will begin his second stint with Utah, for whom he played from 2018 to 2021. He’s also spent time with Indiana, Philadelphia and Cleveland.
The Jazz organization is littered with Celtics connections: CEO Danny Ainge, first-year general manager Austin Ainge and head coach Will Hardy all previously worked for Boston.
Luis signed a two-way contract with Utah last month. The 22-year-old wing played one season at UMass and two at St. John’s, averaging 18.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists for the Red Storm last season. He was not part of the Jazz’s NBA Summer League team.
It’s unclear how the Celtics plan to utilize their three two-way slots after adding Luis. They already had two players on two-way deals in returning wing Miles Norris and rookie point guard Max Shulga, and now have no spots available for Amari Williams, the big man they drafted in the second round this year.
The Celtics said after the draft that Williams – who did not look like an immediate NBA contributor during Summer League – was expected to sign a two-way contract, but he had yet to officially do so as of Tuesday.
Boston still has one vacant 15-man roster spot after waiving 2024-25 G League MVP JD Davison last week, but it could choose to leave it open entering the season to save money and maintain flexibility. The Celtics entered each of the last two seasons with 14 rostered players.
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