Boston Celtics: B/R predicts Luke Kornet signing with Bucks in offseason

As the Boston Celtics prepare for their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets, some publications are already looking ahead to the offseason trying to project how the Cs roster will shake out.

Bleacher Report’s Zach Buckley recently penned a piece projecting landing spots for the Celtics’ top free agents, and for those that weren’t aware, there are very few members of the roster that are due for a new deal in the offseason.

The Boston Celtics core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams are all under contract until 2024 at the earliest. Derrick White is on the books until 2025, Grant Williams, Payton Pritchard, and Aaron Nesmith are all under several more years of team control and even Al Horford has a partial guarantee on his 2022-23 salary.

That said, there are a few guys on the roster fringes that are due for either a renewal or a dismissal.

While Sam Hauser (team option) and Juwan Morgan (non-guaranteed camp invite) were predicted to return to Boston, big man Luke Kornet was not. Instead, the Vanderbilt product is projected to re-join the Milwaukee Bucks on a ‘make-good’ non-guaranteed deal:

"Five NBA franchises have seen Luke Kornet and deemed him worthy of a roster spot. The Celtics have reached that conclusion twice, rostering him first in the 2020-21 season and then reuniting in February.Someone will probably want another look at Kornet next season, but it almost certainly won’t be Boston. At full strength, the Celtics are well covered up front, with Robert Williams III, Al Horford, Daniel Theis and Grant Williams all capable of manning the middle.Prediction: Kornet signs a training camp contract with the Milwaukee Bucks."

The Milwaukee Bucks signed Kornet to a 10-day deal this past January amidst the NBA’s struggle keeping players in uniform while dealing with the Omicron variant of COVID-19. Kornet had signed a 10-day deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers in December as well.

Assuming the Bucks liked what they saw in practice–since it’s probably not fair to judge the three minutes of floor-time he got against the Brooklyn Nets on January 7th–resigning the lengthy stretch big with a similar skillset to incumbent center Brook Lopez has some common sense attached to it.