According to Bobby Manning of CLNS Media, the Boston Celtics have signed Jordan Schakel to an Exhibit 10 deal for training camp and the preseason. The move brings their roster total up to 21, which is the maximum number of players a team can have in the offseason.
Schakel spent this past season with the Maine Celtics, with who he made 11 appearances. In those games, Schakel played 28.3 minutes per contest and averaged 12.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 0.7 assists while shooting 39.2% from the floor and 39.3% from beyond the three-point line. He attempted 7.6 threes per game.
While this move is almost certainly nothing more than a way for the Celtics to keep Schakel around in their G League system, it does provide the training camp roster with a perfect additional skill set: Shooting.
The Celtics already have a ton of three-point specialists on their roster. The entire top six can shoot the lights out, and Sam Hauser and Payton Pritchard are elite from beyond the arc, too. But past that, the Celtics don’t have any pure shooters. Drew Peterson is probably the closest thing to that on their deep bench.
Xavier Tillman has a workable shot, and the same can be said about Jaden Springer, Anton Watson, Lonnie Walker IV, and Baylor Scheierman, but none are knock-down like Schakel is.
At 26 years old, Schakel is entering the point of his career where he needs to stick somewhere. That place could be Maine, but for now, that’s okay.
He’s always been a top-tier three-point shooter. The issue is that the rest of his skills leave much to be desired.
Despite being 6-foot-6, he’s not a great defender, and his playmaking isn’t really there, either. At this point, he’s basically a shooter and not much else, but for this Celtics roster, that’s perfectly fine.
With Svi Mykhailiuk gone, the Celtics needed to snag someone whose best skill is three-point shooting. That’s what Schakel is.
He’s not going to make the 15-man roster. He’s not even going to land a two-way contract. But for training camp and the preseason, he’ll add a perfect skill to the mix for the Celtics.
