Needing to fill a roster spot over the weekend to satisfy NBA rules, the Celtics reacquired a familiar face.

Boston on Sunday signed veteran big man Charles Bassey — a 6-foot-10 journeyman who starred for the Celtics’ Summer League squad last July — to a 10-day contract.

The team also converted rookie guard Max Shulga’s two-way contract to a standard deal to get back to the league-mandated minimum of 14 rostered players.

In explaining why the Celtics brought in Bassey, head coach Joe Mazzulla pointed to the 25-year-old’s prior ties to the organization. Bassey was a late addition to Boston’s Summer League roster and only contracted to play in three of the team’s five games in the annual Las Vegas tournament, but his on-court performance was impressive.

Over his first two Summer League outings, Bassey racked up 36 points, 24 rebounds and five blocks, with the Summer C’s outscoring their opponents by 35 points with the 25-year-old on the court.

“He was good for us in Summer League,” Mazzulla said before Monday’s matchup with the Phoenix Suns at TD Garden. “I think any time you can just continue to build a relationship — relationships with the assistants, relationship with our language, with some of the stuff from Summer League that carries over to now — any time you can have that continuity, it helps you, especially in a short period of time. Just the ability for him to potentially be able to help us was huge.”

There was speculation after Summer League that Boston might invite Bassey to training camp to compete for a spot on what, at the time, looked like a dangerously unproven center depth chart. Instead, he signed with Atlanta, was cut in October and spent the season bouncing around the NBA. His 10-day contract with the Celtics is his third such contract after brief stints with Memphis (two games) in October and Philadelphia (one game) in January. He’s also appeared in 20 G League games for the 76ers’ and Golden State Warriors’ affiliates.

Now, Bassey will add short-term depth to a Celtics frontcourt that has far exceeded expectations this season — thanks to career years by starter Neemias Queta and reserve Luka Garza — but will be without veteran Nikola Vucevic for at least another two weeks while he recovers from a fractured ring finger. Rookie Amari Williams rounds out that position group.

Bassey has appeared in 116 career NBA games, most of those coming during his three seasons with San Antonio from 2022 to 2025. He’ll wear No. 99 for the Celtics.

“He was great for us in Summer League,” Mazzulla reiterated, “and I think just having him on the roster for this time period will be good for us, as well.”

NBA expansion lookahead

There is “momentum” building within the NBA’s board of governors to approve two new expansion teams in Seattle and Las Vegas, according to a report Monday from ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The board will hold its first vote on the matter next week, Charania reported, and is eyeing the 2028-29 season as the start date for the league’s 31st and 32nd franchises.

The last time the NBA expanded was in 2004 with the Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets). It previously added the Toronto Raptors and then-Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995.

In both years, the league held an expansion draft to fill out the new rosters. Each non-expansion team was allowed to “protect” up to eight of its players. Players with contract options for the upcoming season and restricted free agents could be protected, but pending unrestricted free agents could not be.

It’s unclear whether the NBA plans to keep this same format for a theoretical Seattle/Vegas dispersal, but it’s worth looking ahead to how such an event could impact the Celtics.

It’s nearly impossible to project which players Boston would choose to protect, though, partly because it only has six under team control through the 2028-29 season, including a player option for Derrick White, a club option for Hugo Gonzalez and RFA status for Baylor Scheierman. The others: Jayson Tatum (signed until 2030, including a team option), Jaylen Brown (until ’29) and Sam Hauser (until ’29).

Queta, Garza and Jordan Walsh all are set to become UFAs after next season, meaning they’d need to sign extensions to be considered for this exercise. (Queta, in particular, has looked like a prime candidate for one during his impressive first season as an NBA starter.) Payton Pritchard’s four-year, $30 million contract — one of the team-friendliest long-term deals in the NBA — expires after the 2027-28 campaign. Vucevic is on a contract that expires this summer.

Still, this current Celtics team has close to a dozen players who are or have been in Mazzulla’s rotation at some point this season. If they’re still this deep two years from now, they’d need to leave a few useful contributors unprotected.

Fun fact: Boston lost power forward Brandon Hunter to Charlotte in the 2004 expansion draft and big man Acie Earl to Vancouver in 1995.

Horford to miss Garden return

Former Celtics center Al Horford was scheduled to play back at TD Garden for the first time this week, but an injury will prevent him from doing so.

Horford suffered a calf strain during Golden State’s loss to Minnesota last Friday and will be sidelined for at least a week, according to the team, rendering him unavailable for Wednesday’s Celtics-Warriors matchup.

It’s unclear whether Horford will make the trip to Boston. The 39-year-old told the Herald last month that he was looking forward to returning to the arena where he won his lone NBA championship in 2024.

“Going over there, it’s going to be very, very nice, because it’s like going back home,” Horford said.

Wednesday’s game also will be center Kristaps Porzingis’ first time back on Causeway Street since his departure from Boston last summer, assuming he is healthy enough to suit up. Porzingis has battled injuries and illness throughout the season, including a bout of Achilles tendonitis that prevented him from playing for the Atlanta Hawks when they visited TD Garden on Jan. 28.

Atlanta traded Porzingis to Golden State on Feb. 5, and he’s appeared in just four games for his new club. He made his first start for the Warriors last Friday but sat out Sunday’s loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, which was the front end of a back-to-back.

Off the rim

As part of the team’s “Legendary Moments” series, the Celtics on Monday celebrated their epic triple-overtime win over Phoenix in the 1976 NBA Finals. The first 5,000 fans received a Red Auerbach bobblehead. … The alma maters of eight Celtics players qualified for the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball tournament: Duke (Tatum), Virginia (Hauser), Arkansas (Walsh), Iowa (Garza), Utah State (Queta), Kentucky (Williams), VCU (Shulga) and Wisconsin (John Tonje).

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