On September 12, CLNS Media’s Bobby Manning reported that Massachusetts Jake Layman would sign a training camp contract with the Boston Celtics. In that report, Manning also confirmed that the Celtics would sign NBA and NCAA champion Justin Jackson.
“The source also confirmed that Summer League standout Justin Jackson and last season’s Maine Celtics guard Denzel Valentine will join the team this preseason, as previously reported.”
Jackson, who won an NBA championship with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021 and an NCAA championship with the University of North Carolina in 2017, played briefly for the Celtics last season. Jackson has signed a 10-day hardship waiver contract on December 18th. Jackson only played one game in which he scored two points in two minutes.
Jackson also played six games for the Phoenix Suns last season, averaging 2.2 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.3 assists in 5.8 minutes per game.
Jackson played for the Celtics during the 2022 Las Vegas Summer League. In the three games Jackson played for them, he averaged 16.7 points, 3.7 rebounds and three assists in 30.4 minutes per game, according to NBA.com. Jackson also shot 43.2 percent from the field and 32.1 percent from three.
That included a standout performance against the Golden State Warriors in which Jackson had 24 points on nine of 14 shots from the field, including five three-pointers.
On August 3, The Athletic’s Jay King said that Jackson was viewed as a “strong candidate” for admission to their training camp.
“As of Tuesday, the main expectation for the Celtics was to fill the rest of the training camp roster with young veterans ready to fight for those spots. Newcomers Noah Vonleh and Bruno Caboclo will be in that group, while last year’s two-wayer Brodric Thomas and former Kings draft pick Justin Jackson are seen as strong candidates to join them, league sources told The Athletic.”
Nothing was confirmed until Manning reported that Jackson would be joining the team on September 12.
Jackson was originally drafted 15th overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2017 NBA Draft, but his rights were traded to the Sacramento Kings that same night. Jackson was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in the middle of his sophomore year in the NBA in 2019. The next year he was then traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder. After the Thunder waived him in 2021, Jackson had brief stints with the Bucks, Celtics and Suns.
As of September 13, the Celtics have Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart, Robert Williams III, Al Horford, Malcolm Brogdon, Danilo Gallinari, Derrick White, Grant Williams, Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser all with fully guaranteed contracts for 2022-23 roster.
Luke Kornet has a partially guaranteed contract, which Spotrac says will be guaranteed for $1,066,639 if he makes the opening night roster and then fully guaranteed for the season at $2,133,278.
Mfiondu Kabengele and JD Davison are both signed to the Celtics on two-way contracts.
Jackson, Layman, Valentine, Noah Vonleh and Bruno Caboclo have all signed training camp contracts, bringing the Celtics training camp list to 19. The Celtics have an open pitch for their training camp.
The training camp starts on September 24th.
