LAS VEGAS \u2014 Some members of the Celtics\u2019 Summer League team played for Boston last season.<\/p>\n
Others are on summer tryouts, hoping to impress the Celtics brass enough to earn a permanent spot.<\/p>\n
Only one player is part of both of those groups.<\/p>\n
John Tonje, a second-year shooting guard, spent the final two months of his rookie season with the Celtics after arriving in the trade-deadline deal that sent Chris Boucher to Utah. He appeared in 12 games for the G League Maine Celtics and another six for the big club, including an extended 30-minute cameo in Boston\u2019s regular-season finale.<\/p>\n
Earlier this offseason, Tonje\u2019s two-way contract expired. Since then, the 25-year-old has received only an invitation to join Boston\u2019s Summer League squad, making him one of the hundreds of unsigned hopefuls competing in the annual young player showcase.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that\u2019s kind of in the back of my mind,\u201d Tonje said last weekend, referring to his contract status. \u201cBut I\u2019m really just focused on getting better each day. I love to improve, and I\u2019m blessed to be here, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
That improvement has shown up on the court in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
Tonje opened his Summer League campaign by dropping 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting with five rebounds and three steals in an overtime win over Toronto. Two days later, he scored 17 on 6-of-10 and grabbed five boards in a victory over Charlotte<\/a>, with the Celtics outscoring the Hornets by 14 points with him on the floor.<\/p>\n Game 3 was a flop for Tonje (and most other Celtics<\/a>); he went 2-for-8, scored five points and was a minus-26 in a 102-90 loss to Atlanta. But he responded with another strong outing Wednesday against Sacramento, scoring 18 on 6-of-10 shooting and sinking three late free throws to help Boston secure an 86-78 W<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tonje is the only Celtics player to start all four games so far in Vegas. In the three wins, he\u2019s averaged 18.3 points while shooting 52.9% from the field and 55.0% from 3-point range. He\u2019s also totaled six steals, second-most on the team behind rookie Dillon Mitchell\u2019s eight.<\/p>\n Celtics Summer League head coach Amile Jefferson said Tonje has given the team exactly what it wants to see out of a tryout player. And Jefferson knows well how difficult that position can be, having participated in Summer League while unsigned during his own playing career.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s become a leader. We can lean on him,\u201d Jefferson said after Wednesday\u2019s game. \u201cThe thing you want as a coach is dependability. You want guys that you know what you\u2019re going to get from them, and for me, that\u2019s exactly what he\u2019s been. And then the one thing that I just want to praise him on is how hard he\u2019s playing.<\/p>\n \u201cThis dude, you know, we\u2019re trying to make people\u2019s dreams come true and help them in their journey, and he\u2019s one of the guys I\u2019m most proud of, because he wants to make it. And when a guy wants to make it, and when a guy wants to be in the NBA, that\u2019s how you look. Like, if somebody wants to know how hard it is to be in the NBA, you go see how good he is. And he\u2019s given himself a really good chance. I think he is definitely an NBA player, and when he plays that hard, it just makes everybody on the team better.\u201d<\/p>\n The Celtics currently have one open spot on their 15-man roster and two available two-way slots. Mitchell, a second-round draft pick who has yet to sign, likely will fill one of those three. Tonje has put himself in contention for one of the remaining vacancies, as has undrafted rookie point guard Milos Uzan.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really proud of his growth and the way he attacked this Summer League,\u201d Jefferson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 Some members of the Celtics\u2019 Summer League team played for Boston last season. Others are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":939372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[3125,18165,82418,375717,378226,44477,378225,94811,1260,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-939371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics","tag-celtics-roster","tag-celtics-summer-league","tag-celtics-summer-league-stats","tag-john-tonje","tag-john-tonje-celtics","tag-milos-uzan","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116931051406042293","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}