Boston Celtics sign 6-year veteran on camp deal to replace Danilo Gallinari

The Boston Celtics have added former Minnesota Timberwolves and Portland Trail Blazers combo forward Jake Layman to a non-guaranteed training camp deal to attempt to replace the injured Danilo Gallinari.

Gallinari, who was signed to the taxpayer’s mid-level exception on the first day of free agency this past July, suffered an ACL tear during FIBA competition that will not only cost him a good portion of the 2022-23 NBA season, but also EuroBasket 2022.

His absence was one that spurned Carmelo Anthony rumors for a while. The Boston Globe reported that there was traction towards Melo being signed–and Jayson Tatum seemingly endorsed such a move with his social media activity–but it appears the Cs went in a different direction.

Now, it appears Layman, the six-foot-eight Maryland product who started 11 games two seasons ago in Minnesota before becoming a reserve during the Timberwolves’ first postseason run since the 2017-18 season under Tom Thibodeau, will be called upon to supplant the production the Cs won’t be getting from Gallinari’s injury.

The Boston Celtics won’t get Danilo Gallinari-level production from Jake Layman

Unfortunately, though Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens aimed to find a shooter with size that can step into Danilo Gallinari’s shoes, they didn’t exactly find that with Jake Layman.

Layman has shot over 30% from beyond the 3-point line just twice during his six-year career, topping out at 33% in 2019-20. Gallinari has shot below 33% just once in his career, and has averaged 38% from the 3-point line.

Boston might have had the right idea finding someone that’s more of a catch-and-shooter than the isolation-heavy Carmelo Anthony–to be fair to Melo he has become more of a complementary scorer in the past several years in Portland and Los Angeles–but Layman may not be the most perfect option to do so.

Who knows. Players improve with the right opportunity, and Layman has never been known to cause problems behind the scenes. Still, he’s on a training camp non-guaranteed deal for a reason. It’ll be interesting to see who else Stevens adds to compete for Gallinari’s roster spot in training camp.