BOSTON -- Greg Monroe has arrived in Boston to undergo a physical, with an official announcement of his signing likely to be made sometime on Thursday.
Boston came to terms on a one-year deal worth $5 million shortly after Monroe agreed to a buyout from Phoenix last week. However, the deal has not been consummated because the Celtics wanted to keep as many options open to swinging another possible deal prior to Thursday’s trade deadline.
Once the trade deadline passes, the Celtics will move quickly to make the Monroe deal official.
With the addition of Monroe, the Celtics will have a roster with the league maximum of 15 guaranteed contracts. However, the makeup of the roster could change if the Celtics swing a deal and land one of their two primary targets via trade -- Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams or Memphis’ Tyreke Evans, who are among the more sought-after players who are available via trade. The Celtics prefer to have an open roster spot up to the deadline in case they need to take two players back in a deal. If so, they'll waive a player off the roster to make room for Monroe.
Williams, a borderline All-Star this season, is the front-runner for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, which he won in 2015. Memphis shut Evans down a few days ago just to ensure he doesn’t suffer some kind of freak injury playing that could blow up a potential trade.
Multiple league executives have indicated that Boston is open to deals involving its entire roster except Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. Al Horford is also deemed close to being untouchable, with the only possible change to that being if the New Orleans Pelicans were open to trading Anthony Davis. But multiple league sources told NBC Sports Boston over the weekend that the Pelicans have shown no signs of engaging such talks at this time.