{"id":17983,"date":"2025-07-24T07:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17983\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T07:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:29:08","slug":"celtics-notes-niang-simmons-bassey-nicholas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/17983\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics Notes: Niang, Simmons, Bassey, Nicholas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Celtics got back another floor spacer in the trade<\/a> that sent Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> to Atlanta, but Georges Niang<\/a> hasn\u2019t been feeling welcomed by Boston fans, relays Daniel Donabedian of ClutchPoints<\/a>. In a recent appearance on the OGs podcast (YouTube link<\/a>), the Massachusetts native discussed his reception since the deal was announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cI then get traded for Kristaps Porzingis \u2014 which, you know how tough Boston fans are. They don\u2019t give a (expletive) if I\u2019m from Boston or not,\u201d Niang said. \u201c\u2018You just took our Unicorn and replaced it with a Minivan. Get the (expletive) outta here.\u2019 I\u2019m like public enemy No. 1. They\u2019re like, \u2018What is this? This ain\u2019t shiny. It\u2019s got scratches on it, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reaction may be the result of lingering bitterness over an incident where Niang grabbed Jaylen Brown<\/a>\u2018s knee from the bench during the 2023 playoffs (Twitter video link<\/a>). It may also be related to uncertainty<\/a> over whether the team intends to keep Niang\u2019s $8.2MM expiring contract as it continues to look for ways to reduce payroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be in Boston losing, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d Niang added. \u201cWhat can I do this summer? Can I come in, in the best shape that I\u2019m in, and also mentor, and kind of teach, and also learn \u2014 because they\u2019ve won championships. And kind of dial all that into one, and focus every day on how can I win the day, and then win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more from Boston:<\/p>\n

The Celtics have been mentioned<\/a> as a possible destination for Ben Simmons<\/a>, but Matt Vautour of MassLive<\/a> advises them to look elsewhere for free agent help. Vautour states that although Simmons still has positive aspects to his game, the team wouldn\u2019t be able to count on him staying healthy and signing him would most likely lead to disappointment as it did in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.
\nCharles Bassey<\/a>, who made a strong impression<\/a> with Boston during three Summer League games, is attracting attention from Virtus Bologna, according to Italian media outlet Pianeta Basket<\/a>. Bassey could receive a training camp invitation, but that\u2019s far from certain as the Celtics sort through their center options.
\nDrew Nicholas will join the Celtics as executive director of player personnel, league sources tell Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype (Twitter link<\/a>). Nicholas was a scout for Brooklyn last season and previously served as director of scouting in Denver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Celtics got back another floor spacer in the trade that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Atlanta, but Georges…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,15607,19317,19318,15608,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-17983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-ben-simmons","12":"tag-charles-bassey","13":"tag-drew-nicholas","14":"tag-georges-niang","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}