The Celtics will promote Ron Harper Jr. to their standard roster and sign him to a new two-year contract, ESPN’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter link).
Boston had to make a roster move today to add a 14th man after Charles Bassey‘s second 10-day contract expired overnight on Friday. Teams are permitted to carry fewer than 14 players on standard contracts for up to 28 total days during a season, but the Celtics had already reached that limit.
Harper, who is currently on a two-way deal, has played 26 games for the Celtics this season after spending the previous three years with the Raptors and Pistons.
The 6’5″ forward is averaging 3.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per contest, with a majority of his games played coming in the second half of the season.
As Keith Smith of Spotrac notes (via Twitter), because Harper will be signing a multiyear contract instead of a rest-of-season deal, his cap hit will be equivalent to the prorated minimum for a three-year veteran instead of a two-year veteran. That means he’ll count against the cap and tax for $123,045 this season.
The Celtics, who have made a series of roster moves since the trade deadline with an eye toward remaining out of the tax, will remain about $38K below that threshold after signing Harper, meaning they’ll have enough flexibility to add a 15th man during the final days of the season without becoming a taxpayer.
