![\"Celtics](\"https:\/\/bostonglobe-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/WOGK3H7LN5QDCLGZZXUOODLBJU.jpg?auth=08818b2faa8fdef5cb9f5c9f38b49b8a2a0d9c2f32975374d2e4d3946f49137d&width=1440\")
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The Celtics made their first non-draft pick addition to their championship-winning roster Thursday, agreeing to terms with free agent forward Torrey Craig.<\/p>\n
Craig is a well-traveled NBA veteran, and he\u2019ll bring a new element to the back half of Boston\u2019s bench, which had been occupied by younger, less established depth players. The 6-foot-5 wing will wear No. 12 for the Celtics, he confirmed in a post on his Instagram story.<\/p>\n
What can the Celtics expect from their post-trade deadline pickup? Here\u2019s a closer look at Craig\u2019s resume:<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old Craig is in his eighth NBA season, and the Celtics are his sixth franchise, not counting the clubs he played for in Australia and New Zealand at the start of his career. He\u2019s appeared in 441 games with 168 starts since breaking into the league with Denver in 2017, with subsequent stops in Milwaukee, Phoenix, Indiana and Chicago.<\/p>\n
Craig also has 75 games of playoff experience, most recently with the Suns in 2023, and was part of the 2020-21 Phoenix team that reached the NBA Finals. The Bulls waived him on Monday.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a stark contrast to Boston\u2019s other deep reserves \u2014 second-year pro Jordan Walsh, rookie Baylor Scheierman, two-way player Drew Peterson and the recently traded Jaden Springer \u2014 all of whom have not looked ready for regular NBA minutes. Craig should give the Celtics a more reliable wing option behind Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Sam Hauser, especially on nights when Boston is missing one or more rotation players.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s happened quite a bit for Joe Mazzulla\u2019s squad this season. The Celtics have had all of their regulars (Tatum, Brown, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Luke Kornet and Hauser) available for less than a quarter of their 52 games.<\/p>\n
Craig can fill a role similar to Oshae Brissett\u2019s last season (55 appearances, 11.5 minutes per game) while Walsh, Scheierman and Peterson continue to develop.<\/p>\n
Craig is best known as a feisty and versatile defender. He\u2019s ranked in the 93rd percentile or better at his position in shot-blocking percentage in four of his seven full seasons, per Cleaning The Glass, and has been an effective rebounder at both ends (71st percentile in defensive rebound rate with Chicago last season; 88th percentile in offensive rebound rate).<\/p>\n
Opponents shot better than 40% on 3-point attempts with Craig as the closest defender last season, per NBA player tracking, but that number was down to 33.3% this season, albeit in a small nine-game sample size. It was 34.8% in 2022-23 and 33.6% in 2021-22.<\/p>\n
Craig won\u2019t stuff the stat sheet (he\u2019s averaged 6.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game in his career), and his 35.5% career 3-point shooting percentage is unremarkable. But he\u2019s improved as an outside shooter over the past few years while increasing his 3-point volume. Craig shot 39.5% from beyond the arc in 2022-23 (3.2 attempts per game) and 39.2% last season (2.9 per game), and he made 42.9% of his threes in his nine games for the Bulls this season (15-for-35).<\/p>\n
In his final game before his release, Craig went 5-for-7 from three and scored a season-high 18 points in an overtime win over Charlotte. He also made 3 of 5 threes in a Nov. 29 loss to Boston.<\/p>\n
Craig\u2019s last game for Chicago was more than a month ago, on Dec. 30. He\u2019s been sidelined since with an ankle sprain, which the Celtics will evaluate when they put him through a physical ahead of Saturday\u2019s matchup with the New York Knicks, according to a report from The Athletic\u2019s Jared Weiss. Craig appeared in consecutive games just twice this season before his release (though some of his DNPs were games he dressed for but did not play) and also missed time with knee and foot issues last season.<\/p>\n
So, durability will be an important factor for Craig as he begins his Celtics tenure. He\u2019ll also be the third-oldest player on Boston\u2019s roster behind Horford (38) and Holiday (34).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Celtics made their first non-draft pick addition to their championship-winning roster Thursday. Here\u2019s what Torrey Craig can bring to their group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12,133,1626,1593,1264,918,1167,1625,1624],"class_list":["post-31718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-rumors","tag-celtics-trade-deadline","tag-jaden-springer","tag-nba-trade-deadline","tag-torrey-craig","tag-torrey-craig-celtics","tag-torrey-craig-stats"],"yoast_head":"\n