Boston adds another name to the board while Tatum watches from the sideline

The Celtics are reportedly interested in Devin Carter, the former lottery pick who spent two years with Sacramento before being waived by Atlanta on Friday. It's a low-cost look at a young guard with upside, the kind of move a front office makes when camp is open and the roster still has soft edges.

The timing is notable mostly because of what's happening around it. Tatum remains day-to-day — a designation that has now run from mid-July through the opening of camp, with no resolution in sight. Paul George is here, the new pieces are in place, and the franchise centerpiece still isn't practicing at full go. Every day that slips by is integration time Boston isn't getting.

Carter is a footnote in that larger picture, but he fits the profile of what this team needs on the margins: a guard who can defend and move without demanding the ball. Whether he sticks or not matters less than the fact that the front office is still actively shopping. With Philadelphia now carrying LeBron, Embiid, Maxey, and Brown on the same roster, Boston can't afford to leave any reasonable option on the table.