The Celtics have signed Ron Harper Jr. to a three-year, $9 million contract, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Saturday afternoon. It’s a win for both sides: Harper Jr. gets his first long-term NBA contract at 26 years old, fresh off the best season of his career.
And the Celtics get a hard-playing role player with plenty of upside on a financially savvy deal, someone who can stretch the floor, defend, and rebound at a high level.
It’s been a long journey for Ron Harper Jr. to get here
Ron Harper Jr. went undrafted in 2022 after a standout career at Rutgers. Since then, he’s bounced around the league, spending some time with the Toronto Raptors and Detroit Pistons.
Last year, he began the season with Boston on an Exhibit-1o, training camp contract, and ultimately secured one of the team’s three two-way contracts. Then, after excelling with the Maine Celtics, he began to spend more time with the parent club and ultimately signed a standard, rest-of-season contract with the Celtics in April.
But Harper’s tenure with Boston began before last year. He was on the Celtics Summer League team in 2024 and was on a training camp deal that fall. At that Summer League, he was coming off a season-ending shoulder injury but told reporters he was ready to play with toughness and grit.
“I’m a player that’s going to play hard, play the right way, play within himself,” he said then.
In turn, began the 2024-2025 season with the Maine Celtics, before signing a two-way contract with the Detroit Pistons. After that contract expired, he returned to Boston. This year, he’ll begin his third consecutive training camp in Boston – though for the very first time, he’ll have guaranteed money.
The former Rutgers standout averaged 11 minutes in 29 NBA games last year, getting three starts. He scored a career-high 27 points to go along with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in a win over the Orlando Magic in mid-April. But his breakthrough moment came before that, when he started his first-ever NBA game in Houston, guarded Rockets forward Kevin Durant, and scored a then-career-high 11 points.
“I feel like I know the system; the coverages are like the back of my hand,” Harper Jr. said after the game. “That was a big part of the process and the decision to be coming back in the summer — I just knew the team, I knew the coaches, I knew the system.”
The decision clearly paid off. Harper Jr. averaged 4.2 points and 1.7 rebounds, shooting 41.8% from the field and 35% from three last year.
Now, he gets his first-ever guaranteed contract.
Ron Harper Jr. could be the first of several Celtics extensions
The Celtics will also have the ability to extend Jordan Walsh and Neemias Queta this offseason, and Payton Pritchard in October. Jaylen Brown is also eligible for a two-year, $140 million extension in July, though his future in Boston remains uncertain after he was reportedly offered in a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
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