Just 29 days after the Boston Celtics made the trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis and a 2026 second-round draft pick to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Georges Niang and a 2031 second-round draft pick (via Cleveland) official, Niang has been rerouted.
The Celtics reached an agreement on Tuesday to ship the Methuen, Massachusetts native to Utah, along with two future second-round picks, to the Jazz in exchange for rookie wing RJ Luis Jr., who was on a two-way contract with Utah.
In a separate deal, the Celtics inked free agent big man Chris Boucher to a one-year $3.3 million minimum contract. After both moves, the Celtics are now $7.8 million below the second apron and have saved $34 million in luxury tax penalties. They are only roughly $4 million over the first apron.
Luis signed his two-way deal with the Jazz after going undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft. The 22-year-old played his freshman year of college ball at UMass before transferring to St.John’s for his sophomore and junior seasons. Last season, Luis appeared in 35 games (32 starts), playing 31.8 minutes per game, averaging 18.2 points (43.9% FG / 33.6% 3PT), 7.2 rebounds, and 1.4 steals. He was a consensus All-American (second-team), just the 12th consensus All-American in Johnnies history and first since Ron Artest in 1999.
Luis was also named the BIG EAST Player of the Year, as he was one of two players to rank top-five in the BIG EAST in scoring and rebounding, led the conference with 10 double-doubles, and recorded 33 double-digit scoring efforts and 14 20-plus point outings. His 229 made field goals were the most by a St. John’s player in a single season since Marcus Hatten in 2002-03 (277).
Boucher is an eight-year veteran who has spent the last seven seasons with the Toronto Raptors after signing with the Golden State Warriors as an undrafted free agent in 2017. The 32-year-old was the final member of the 2018-19 championship team still on the roster.
With 7,393 (regular and postseason) career minutes played, Boucher has played more minutes than the rest of the Celtics centers (Neemias Queta, Xavier Tillman, and Luka Garza) combined (6,976), despite only making 43 career starts. Boucher holds the Raptors franchise records for most points, rebounds, blocks, made threes, games played, and minutes played off the bench.
A college teammate of Payton Pritchard, Boucher averaged 10.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in 50 appearances off the bench last season. Notably, he shot 36.3% from three on 3.9 attempts per game.
Here is how the roster looks after the moves:
Standard roster (14/15): Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Anfernee Simons, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Sam Hauser, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh, Josh Minott, Neemias Queta, Chris Boucher, Luka Garza, Xavier Tillman.
Two-way (3/3): Max Shulga, Miles Norris, RJ Luis Jr.
The Celtics have filled all three of their two-way spots but have yet to sign second-round pick Amari Williams. After the draft, Vice President of Basketball Operations Mike Zarren said he expected both Williams and Shulga to join the team on two-way contracts.