Celtics' Offseason Remains On Point With Yet Another High-Reward, Low-Risk Addition

The Boston Celtics used their second, two-way contract to sign 24-year-old Mfiondu Kabengele, a former first-round pick from the 2019 NBA draft who was one of Boston's best summer league performers.

LAS VEGAS -- The Boston Celtics didn't waste any time filling its second, two-way contract by inking forward/center Mfiondu Kabengele moments after Boston's summer league season was over.

Adding a promising big man makes a lot of sense for the Celtics when you consider how their roster is currently constructed.

Al Horford and Robert Williams III will log most of the minutes in the frontcourt, with recently signed Luke Kornet adding depth as a stretch big.

But as much as Boston is all-in on competing for an NBA title now, there still has to be some semblance of player development beyond their core rotation guys.

How would they do it, has been a common question making the rounds this summer with Boston wheeling and dealing while showing no hesitation to include their own first-round picks in the deal to get it done.

Void of first-round picks, Boston will have to continue to be creative in its approach to player development.

Signing a former first-round pick from a couple of years ago, to a two-way deal?

Yeah, that's creative.

That's why this summer league session was so important to Boston from a player development standpoint.

In addition to seeing 2022 second-round pick JD Davison improve from one summer league game to another, Boston came in hoping one of their big men would rise to the top and make it a no-brainer that Boston find a way to keep him around.

Kabengele did just that with his defense, rim protection and from time to time, 3-point shooting. In the four games in Las Vegas, Kabengele shot 55.9 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from 3-point range while averaging a near double-double of 14.0 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.

He becomes the latest high-reward, low-risk addition to the Celtics roster. The 27th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft, the journey he has taken to this point has been anything but the norm.

Kabengele's story is not all that different from many of the participants this month on the various summer league teams.

But the difference with him is that unlike most of the other players that were on summer league rosters eager to get a taste of what it's like to be in the NBA, Kabengele knows better than most how quickly that dream can quickly become a nightmarish experience.

In a conversation he and I had recently, he explained what it was like when he was traded by the Los Angeles Clippers to Sacramento, which waived him shortly before the start of the season. Kabengele would soon latch on with the Cleveland Cavaliers, only to be waived again.

"It definitely hits you in the face, especially that first day you get waived," Kabengele said during our conversation. "The worst part wasn't me getting cut, it was telling my people that. They have so much support and love. They want the best for you."

He recalls vividly the contrast in emotions he felt when the Los Angeles Clippers traded for him on draft night which reunited him with his college teammate Terance Mann who is from Lowell, Massachusetts, with the disappointment of being traded by the Clippers.

In between stints in Los Angeles and with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he also spent time in the G-League where he was part of the G-League champion Rio Grande Valley Vipers. He averaged a near double-double of 17.5 points, 9.7 rebounds along with 1.5 assists and 0.94 blocks in 29.3 minutes per game. He also shot 58.9 percent from the field and 39.6 percent from three-point range.

But none of that matters now.

He's on a two-way contract, with what should be more than a couple of stints with the Boston Celtics. It's not out of the question that Kabengele could play his way onto the regular 15-man roster before the season's end.

While Kabengele admits the journey to get to where he's at has not been easy, he sees tremendous value in having gone through all that he has thus far in his basketball career.

"All those things build character," he said. "And it made me a lot more grateful for the opportunities I have now, knowing I can make it back to the top."

The 24-year-old native of Toronto has the kind of upside and potential to bolster a Celtics frontline that already has some good defenders but could use another rim-protector like Kabengele.

And if for some reason things don't work out, it's not a huge loss for Boston. Two-way contracts help minimize the risk teams take when adding players like Kabengele who for whatever reason, hasn't panned out but shows promise nonetheless.

"If I do make it back, I'm definitely going to make it last, for sure," he said.

And if he does, this will be yet another Celtics signing of a high-reward, low-risk talent.