There's a point when everyone's just about ready for the season to begin, and that couldn't be more accurate, as demonstrated by the fact that the most exciting current Boston Celtics storyline is whether they'll get their hands on Devin Carter or not. Well, after days of speculation, we got our answer.
The Boston Celtics and Devin Carter have agreed to a deal, league sources told @hoopshype. Carter will compete for an NBA roster or two-way spot in camp. Carter averaged 8.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 18.4 minutes during 38 games for the Sacramento Kings last season. pic.twitter.com/eo4U82bCg2
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) September 14, 2026
This is exciting, but not because he's a former lottery pick, nor because over a year ago Carter delivered an impressive performance against the Celtics in one of their most surprising losses of the season because of Carter and the Sacramento Kings.
No, it's because Carter has all the makings of yet another addition to Joe Mazzulla's best success stories since taking over as coach.
It's not like Carter is the most proven player. If he were, Sacramento never would have dumped him this offseason, let alone Atlanta. However, Mazzulla Ball is all about "possession-maxing," which means shooting threes (the most a team can make out of a possession), offensive rebounding (getting the most possessions possible), protecting the ball (limiting as many mistakes as possible), and forcing turnovers (forcing as many mistakes as possible).
So how would Carter fit into something like that? Well, he protects the ball, he forces turnovers, but perhaps most surprisingly of all, he's actually a pretty good offensive rebounder despite being smaller than most NBA players.
Dan Greenberg and Bryce Cutler illustrated this pretty eloquently before Carter joined the team.
Devin Carter would be a perfect fit with Boston’s possession maxxing identity:
— Bryce Cutler, CSCS (@_BryceCutler) September 12, 2026
-84th% OTOV%
-89th% OREB%
-76th% STL%
-73rd% BLK%
Carter would bring the possession creation and defensive disruption that Boston covets aside a developing offensive game. pic.twitter.com/pIWoKDiYHN https://t.co/RYiyocURUA
Gee, if only we had an idea as to why Brad Stevens may be interested in kicking the tires of Devin Carter pic.twitter.com/OQJmlDCfxb
— Dan Greenberg (@StoolGreenie) September 12, 2026
It's not like he would come in and automatically be one of the Celtics' most valuable players, but Mazzulla's history demonstrates that he likes having a full roster of players that can come in and get the job whenever they are asked.
Carter has the makings of that kind of player, just like the others who came in before him.
He's not a perfect fit, but he doesn't have to be
The most obvious aspect of Mazzulla's style is the heavy number of threes. Carter doesn't help with that. He is a career 27.4% shooter from deep, which isn't just meh. It's quite bad. But hey, Boston likely won't ask him to be a floor spacer, and they have had some success stories turning non-spacers into elite spacers like Derrick White.
That doesn't mean Carter is guaranteed to have the same story in Boston. Some Celtics thrived in the past because the team told them not to shoot threes, period, like Luke Kornet. Carter just has to do what he does best to thrive under Mazzulla, and those aforementioned percentages suggest that he would if given the chance.
Because there's a lot to like about what Carter could do as a Celtic, don't be surprised if he goes the Ron Harper Jr. route and goes from a training camp deal to the "Stay Ready" route between now and the start of the next calendar year.
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