The Boston Celtics’ G-League affiliate may not be playing basketball this season.
The Maine Red Claws are opting out of the expected NBA G-League bubble, sources told The Athletic. The G-League does not yet have plans for a second phase of the season, so the team expect to punt on the season unless there are further developments.
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Though a proposal for a bubble campus in Atlanta with teams playing around 12 games before a playoff tournament has gained momentum, the G-League is still in the preliminary stages of forming its plans. A major factor toward determining the format was to have teams provide their commitment to play or sit out this week, giving the league a more concrete understanding of how to proceed with finalizing a format, per league sources.
Organizations will likely have to pay a $500,000 entrance fee to help fund the logistics of operating a bubble campus with a start date around late January. The league does not have a plan for a second bubble at the moment, but things could change depending on a variety of factors. These include the effectiveness of whatever the first G-League phase proves to be, as well as advancements in health logistics surrounding COVID testing and vaccine development.
COVID is spiking across the country as winter approaches, but there are also expected to be significant enhancements to rapid and wide-spread testing, as well as a vaccine rollout, sometime in the first half of 2021. This uncertainty means plans could change on a monthly basis as the pandemic hopefully signs of abating.
Multiple league sources told The Athletic there have also been concerns that players who sign Exhibit 10 training camp deals with NBA teams may not receive the $50,000 bonus they are entitled to when they are waived and then join that team’s G-League affiliate. This bonus is a vital tool teams use to entice players on the fringe of an NBA roster to join their organization.
As of now, the Red Claws organization continues to be on basketball hiatus. Last year’s head coach, Darren Erman, joined new coach Tom Thibodeau’s staff with the New York Knicks. The rest of Maine’s staff are still in wait-and-see mode as they explore options. G-League contracts are just for one season, so the team does not have a roster at the moment as well.
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The Celtics, who bought the Red Claws in 2019, have used the G-League, like most teams, to get minutes for their young players at the back of the bench. Last season, Romeo Langford and Carsen Edwards spent time in Maine, while two-way players Tremont Waters and Tacko Fall were vital cogs of the Red Claws rotation and won G-League season awards for their performances. Maine also has served as a pipeline for coaching development, with its last three head coaches earning promotions to assistant coach jobs in the NBA.
Two-way players are now allowed to spend most of their time with the parent clubs this season after the rules were amended to allow them to play 50 NBA games with unlimited practice and travel time. So Waters and Fall, who became the NBA’s first two-way pairing to return to the club on two-way deals the following season, will be able to step into the rotation if injuries and illness whittle down the roster as the NBA returns amid the pandemic.
(Photo of Tacko Fall: Rich Obrey / NBAE via Getty Images)
