Jabari

Bird

He has been out all season due to personal issue, and his NBA career is likely over with his off-court issues.

The Celtics have a logjam at shooting guard and took Kadeem Allen with the 53rd pick, meaning Bird has his work cut out for him. They also have vets Avery Bradley, Terry Rozier and Gerald Green, further clouding Bird’s future. He’ll need to emerge as a “3-and-D” guard, which he has the potential to do, but there is no guarantee he’ll be on Boston’s roster at the start of the season.

Following the Kyrie Irving trade, the Celtics have an open spot on their 15-man roster, but Boston is expected to use that space to sign an established veteran. Bird, who the Celtics selected with the 56th pick in the 2017 draft, is not projected to snag that final spot, instead signing a two-way deal. Bird can be ignored in all fantasy formats, as he’ll likely spend the majority of the season in the G-League.

The two-way deal guarantees that Bird will spend a majority of the 2017-18 season in the G-League, so he can safely be ignored in all fantasy leagues on draft day.

Bird averaged 10.0 points and 4.0 rebounds in 17.8 minutes over five games for the Celtics at the Las Vegas Summer League. Boston already has its full complement of guaranteed roster spots accounted for, so a two-way deal is the best Bird can hope for. Either way, Bird can be ignored in all fantasy formats.

Bird is officially back for the Celtics. Kidding aside, Jabari did play well in summer league and the No. 56 pick of the 2017 NBA Draft could sneak onto the NBA roster at times. He’s still not even close to being on the fantasy map.

Bird was coming off a career-high 15-point outing, but with Jayson Tatum back in action, he didn’t see quite as much opportunity. Because Bird is on a two-way deal, he will not be available to the Celtics during the postseason unless they sign him to a rest-of-season contract, but in order to do that, they’d need to cut someone.

He was electric tonight and he’ll be getting more minutes. After the game, he was asked about a highlight-reel block down the stretch. “Highlight for me tonight? Just getting into the game, to be honest. I’ve been waiting so long.” He’s a solid defender and the Celtics could play him a bunch in the last two games.

That means the Celtics only have 10 healthy bodies, and perhaps all 10 of them get minutes tonight.

Al Horford, Terry Rozier, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Morris were all rested tonight as a precaution, since Boston had nothing to play for in their regular-season finale. The result was Bird logging 29 minutes, while guys like Guerschon Yabusele (28 minutes), Abdel Nader (39 minutes) and Jonathan Gibson (25 minutes) also stepped up in the rotation.