BOSTON – The Celtics are in the process of putting together a day-to-day plan for Marcus Morris who has missed four of Boston’s past five games due to left knee soreness.
“We’re still working on that, on a timetable,” Danny Ainge, the Celtics president of basketball operations, said on 98.5 the Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich show. “Marcus is going to be playing periodically. I don’t think he’s going to be shut down for a long period of time. I do anticipate him playing some through this process. How much that is, I’m not quite sure yet.”
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Morris’ has missed 14 games, which is almost as many as he has played in (16) this season.
More testing will be done to get a better feel for the extent of Morris’ injury, which kept him out for the first eight games of the season.
If it’s determined that Morris will be out for an extended period of time, the Celtics have a few options it can pursue.
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Among the most likely will be the $8.4 million disabled player exception they received following Gordon Hayward’s dislocated left ankle injury on Oct. 17.
Ainge said there’s always motivation to use the exception but currently “there’s nothing that really excites us.
He added, “the reason we haven’t used it is, we need to be careful with it because we don’t know what injuries may happen over this next stretch. That could be important for us, heading into the late season and into the playoffs and if our roster changes if somebody’s not healthy at a particular position.”
And Ainge made it clear that if they were to use it, they wouldn’t use it on a player to just fill a roster spot and provide depth.
“It’s justified we use it anytime if we feel we have a good use of it,” Ainge said. “If we find something we’re excited about, a player that can really help us as opposed to somebody who can help us get through a rough patch that’s not gonna play for us come playoff time. I’m not really interested in using it for that right now.”