The Celtics just made an interesting move...

The Celtics just made an interesting move as they have officially signed a new player, a guy who played for the main Celtics this past season, is particularly known for his shooting abilities, did a very good job in his time at UC San Diego, and also had a small little stint on a standard contract with the Utah Jazz last season. But who is this player? Is he actually going to make the Celtics roster? Is he just a training camp body? What is his story? Well folks, we are going to break all of that down here today on Celtics Digest. I am your host, Kellen Frangione. It's a pleasure to be back talking about Celtics basketball. As always, I cannot wait for training camp to come officially. It's about a week away, and then we get into preseason, and then we slowly roll into regular season. It is September 23rd at my time of recording this. We are getting closer and closer to Celtics basketball. I cannot wait. But folks, who am I talking about today? Well, I am talking about the following news right here. The Boston Celtics have signed Hayden Gray to a deal. Agent George S. Langberd told Hoops Hype, Gray finished the year with the Utah Jazz last season, and now not much is known about Hayden Gray, to be honest. He has mainly been a G League guy ever since he left college and his career at UC San Diego. I don't really expect him to be in a full, big role with the Celtics. But folks, before I go any further, if you're extremely confident in the Boston Celtics performance this upcoming season, well, I invite you to place a yes or no contract on that on Cauchy, where you can place something for 45 plus wins, 50 plus wins, or even 55 plus wins. If you are supremely confident, folks, you can even look to things, different outcomes across sports, across politics, across the weather. 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What is the story of this guy, Hayden Gray? What's his deal? Well, as I was already prefacing a little bit, there's not too much to talk about with him. No offense to him, but more likely than not, he's just going to be a training camp body. Another guy competing with the following people right here. As Celtics Dale tweeted, unless I'm missing someone, the following pool of players will compete for the final standard contract and or final two-way contract on the Boston Celtics. Devin Carter, Milos Uzan, and Tucker DeVries, and Hayden Gray. I can't wait for training camp. And I agree, my honest prediction. So we know Uzan and DeVries played with the Celtics in the summer league. I expected that Devin Carter is going to get some type of deal, whether it be two-way or standard. I just expect that he has a lot more pedigree than the rest of these guys do. And maybe Uzan, maybe Uzan for another one. But hey now, I'm not sure. I think there's going to be two spots, one standard, one two-way. I don't really expect Hayden Gray to be in the conversation, but who knows? Maybe he has a really good training camp. Maybe he shows out with his shooting ability. That is the number one thing that I'm seeing people talk about in my research of him, primarily his shooting ability and his scoring. But his scoring wasn't really all there when he was in Maine. If we take a look at his stats in the G League last season, we will see a little bit of that story. As you can see, Hayden Gray, 6'4", 190 pounds, not 231, 23 years of age, undrafted out of UC San Diego, in 13 games, 22 minutes in those games, 8 points, 43.6% from the field, 0.9 three-pointers made per game on a percentage of only 34%, which is not really great. Only 70% from the charity stripe, 2.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, one and a half turnovers, one and a half steals, which is actually quite good. That is another part of his story that we're going to talk about, his ability to be a little bit of a ball hawk and steal it. But honestly, overall, not really eye-popping stats and adds to the argument that he's probably just going to be a training camp body. But if we look at his stats in college ball, you can see that they were a little bit better. There's a little more of a story here to discuss. You see it right here, you see it right here at home in 30 minutes per game, he shot 49% and 43% from three, a lot higher than he was showing in the G League, 2.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists per game, 3.2 steals per game, which is very, very good. 11.6 points, and that's only in his home games. In the away games, 47% from the field, 41% from three, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 0.2 blocks, 3.2 steals still. So in both home and away games and 10.7 points. So small dip there with home in comparison to away games, but not bad in college, especially efficiency wise. We're not really looking at the volume. The volume is not there too much. He's not, obviously he's not a 20 plus point scorer per night, but if he can come in and hit a few threes and be efficient, that's always a reliable thing. That's always something the Celtics are looking for, especially under the Joe Missoula system, which consists of high volume, three point shooting. But what are people saying? Well, three point stats also had the following to say about him. The Celtics are taking another look at a familiar face because he played in Maine this past season. Hayden Gray's NBA sample is tiny, but the profile is fascinating. 99th percentile in true shooting percentage, effective field goal percentage and free throw rate and blocks among guards. The scoring volume is not there yet, as we were discussing, but the defensive upside is real. He was the 2025 big West defensive player of the year and led division one in steals before spending his rookie G league season with Maine low volume defense first guard with some very intriguing efficiency flashes. They also made the following graphic of his percentiles, which I'm going to show you guys right here. As you can see, this is his percentile profile. He's up there with his true shooting and effective field goal percentage. 99th percentile, 99th percentile in blocks as well and free throw rate. He's close to being high up there with steals, but just a helpful little graphic to understand the picture of Hayden Gray, who he is as a player, what he could maybe bring to the Celtics, what he's hoping to show off in training camp, fighting for a roster spot. Once again, folks, I don't really expect him to be with the Celtics the beginning of the season. I think Devin Carter is going to be in there over a guy like Hayden Gray. Sorry, folks, hit the wrong thing right here. More that I want to show you, obviously, NBC tweeted about this. Gray played for the G league Maine Celtics before getting signed to a standard deal by the Jazz this past April. He shot over 40% from three-point range as a senior at UC San Diego, as I was just showing you. Another little interesting thing from his previous season with the Maine Celtics, as Angelo tweeted, Hayden Gray broke the Maine Celtics record for steals in a season and is back with Boston on this deal. There's not too much else to say about him. Bob Manning had the following to say, another player in the camp mix for Boston with Devin Carter, DeVrys, and Uzan as we were discussing, 19-21 allowed in preseason. Other likely Maine Celtics include Morgan and Grill were waived earlier in September. Gray averaged 9.9 PPG, 2.8 RPG, two steals per game, and 5.8 APG on 41.7% from the field, 33.2% three-point last year in Maine. As we know, not very up there with the volume. He's not a huge scorer, but he can be an efficient shooter and he is defense first. Very, very good. He's a ball hawk, can steal the ball a ton, but as I have been saying, I don't expect to hear too much about Hayden Gray. Unfortunately, past training camp, I wish all the best to him. This is a great opportunity for him. Obviously, he already knows the Celtics system a little bit, the organization as a whole, because he was with Maine. He did not see any time with the actual Celtics. As I said earlier, standard contract with the Jazz is what he was on for a little bit, but barely. I don't know, folks, let me know your thoughts in the comments. What do you think about the Celtics signing Hayden Gray to a deal? Do you expect to even hear about him ever again? I personally do not, really, unfortunately for Hayden Gray. Once again, congratulations to him for getting this deal. It's going to be exciting. I'm really excited to see what training camp brings, but folks, that is all I have for you in today's video. I want to thank you very much for watching Celtics Digest. Make sure you subscribe if you have not already, and folks, do not forget from earlier, if you are interested in trying out Calci to use promo code DigestNBA, we really appreciate it if you do. Thank you so much, folks, for watching this video. I'll see all of you guys in the next one. Thank you.