According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Orlando Magic just signed rookie Noah Penda to a four-year, $8.7 million deal after landing him in a trade with the Boston Celtics. The first two years of Penda’s deal are guaranteed (for $3.4 million), the third year has a non-guaranteed date, and the fourth is a team option—the standard structure for the new second-round exception deal.
Orlando selected Penda with the No. 32 pick in the draft, a selection that originally belonged to the Celtics. Boston traded the pick to the Magic on draft night, sending Boston the No. 46 and No. 57 picks, alongside two future second-round picks.
But the contract Penda just signed with the Magic signals an ulterior motive that the Celtics are working with this summer.
Celtics didn’t want to pay second-round exception
One of the biggest goals the Celtics have this summer is to shed salary. Since they have been a second-apron team in each of the past two seasons, dipping below that line will help them avoid significant CBA-induced penalties.
On top of that, the Celtics were slated to pay a ton of money in luxury taxes, but based on the first few moves they have made this summer, they don’t want to do that as much. They have already traded Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.
Since then, the Celtics have signed two players, Luka Garza and Josh Minott, taking them back over the second apron. That means more moves are inevitable at this point.
Most of the players who got drafted in the early second round looked for guaranteed contracts. They wanted to sign deals with the second-round exception rather than settle for two-way contracts or shorter deals.
If the Celtics had stayed in their draft spot, they likely would have been forced to pay a guy more money than they will currently have to with the two guys they took later in the second round, Amari Williams and Max Shulga.
Adding Penda’s salary to the books rather than two two-way contracts (which Williams and Shulga are projected to sign) will help reduce the Celtics’ payroll heading into next season.
And if Williams was close enough to guys like Penda, Ryan Kalkbrenner, and Maxime Raynaud on their board, then saving that money could have been a priority in that spot of the draft.
Orlando inking Penda to that type of deal almost certainly signals that the Celtics were right in assuming the players they could have drafted would have wanted a bigger contract than they were willing to hand out.