Celtics News Now: Ben Bentil Waived, Ryan Kelly Signed
The Boston Celtics said good bye to second-round pick Ben Bentil and signed former Lakers forward Ryan Kelly Friday.
To get their roster down to the league maximum 15 players, the Boston Celtics waived former Providence College forward Ben Bentil on Friday.
The move wasn’t a surprise considering the team is pretty stacked at the power forward position. The Celtics need to trim the roster down to 15 players by 5 p.m. Monday. Waiving Bentil got the team a step closer at the time.
Bentil, who was selected in the second round of this year’s NBA draft, does have the option of signing with Boston’s NBA Development League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws. That option appears unlikely, which played a role in the Celtics making the decision.
"“I think that Ben will look for other opportunities,” Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said via CSNNE.com. “We’re so loaded at that position with Jaylen [Brown] and Jae Crowder and Kelly Olynyk and Al Horford … we have a lot of guys that play the four [power forward] position. I think he might want to look somewhere that has more of an opportunity.”"
Ben Benil played in just three preseason games for Boston. He averaged 5.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
Hello Ryan Kelly
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While the team needs to get down to 15 players, they actually added a player also. The team announced Friday night that they have signed former Los Angeles Lakers forward Ryan Kelly.
The move is a big surprising considering the team cut Bentil due to the log jam at the power forward position. But it is believed the team signed Kelly with the idea of him playing for the Maine Red Claws.
Kelly, who spent the preseason with the Atlanta Hawks, was waived earlier this week. The 6-foot-11 forward appeared in six preseason games for the Hawks. He averaged 4.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. His career average is 6.5 points in 147 total games played.
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