Charles Bassey’s second 10-day contract with the Boston Celtics is officially up, per Spotrac’s Keith Smith. Smith added that the expiration leaves the Celtics at just 13 players, which means that they’ll have to sign someone by the end of the day Saturday to bring themselves back up to the 14-man minimum.
It could be Bassey, but if they were to do so, they’d have to sign him through the end of the season. The 25-year-old initially returned to the Cs, after a successful Summer League stint, for the Ides of March, quite literally, when he inked his first 10-day on Mar. 15.
“He was good for us in summer league,” Joe Mazzulla praised before Boston’s Mar. 16 matchup with the Phoenix Suns. “I think anytime you can just continue to build a relationship, relationships with the assistants, relationship with our language, with some of the stuff from summer league that carried over to now. Anytime you can have that continuity, it kind of helps you, especially in a short period of time, right?”
He became the first multi-time 10-day signee in Boston this season with both sides re-upped for another week-and-a-half-long partnership on Mar. 25.
During the second stint, he actually saw some real playing time-- a surprising feat for a 10-day guy on a team of this caliber. Bassey logged six minutes in Monday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks as Neemias Queta had the night off. He tallied three points, two rebounds, and two blocks in his short opportunity.
Bassey saw some more time in Friday’s beatdown of the Milwaukee Bucks, this time when the game had already been decided. Even so, he impressed with a crisp six points and six minutes on a perfect 3-3 from the field.
Maybe the Celtics have seen enough to feel comfortable bringing him back through the end of the 2025-26 campaign. We’ll all just have to wait and find out.
Ron Harper Jr. remains part of the Celtics' end-of-season plans
One thing fans won’t have to worry about, however, is the future of Ron Harper Jr., it seems. When prompted by a fan on Twitter, Smith made it clear that signing Bassey, or anyone else, through the end of the year wouldn’t prevent the Cs from doing the same for Harper Jr., who has clearly earned his keep in Boston.
The two-way guard has taken every opportunity he’s gotten this season in stride, impressing time and time again.
“Trust doesn't just come from what you do in the games,” Mazzulla explained back in February. “You know, it comes from what you do in workouts. It comes from what you do in the film session. It comes from what you in Maine. It comes what you do on an optional day. If you're working one on one with your coach, like trust happens in so many ways.”
Harper Jr.’s eventual conversion from his two-way to a standard deal has felt like a given for some time now. The caveat has always been that the Cs need to wait to do so in order to see out their plan to avoid the luxury tax.