J.R. Smith has never been one to shy away from a microphone and this week he gave Knicks beat writers some solid late-August material. Somewhere in between firing shots across the East River at Paul Pierce and the Nets, Smith was asked about Carmelo Anthony's opt out in the summer of 2014. "I don't see him leaving, but I said the same thing in Denver so it's up to him," said Smith. Here's more out of the Atlantic..
- Smith told reporters, including Marc Berman of the New York Post, that he signed with the Knicks rather than the Nets when he returned from China in February 2012 because “the Nets weren’t good. Now they’re still not good.’’ Meanwhile, Berman's colleague Fred Kerber tweets that the Nets never had any interest in the New Jersey native.
- Smith says that he's unsure of whether or not he'll be ready for the Knicks season opener against the Bucks, but Berman (Sulia link) gets the impression that he won't be. Berman expects him to miss a week or two of action.
- Don't be surprised if former Temple standout Khalif Wyatt receives a training camp invitation and spends some time with the Sixers during the regular season, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The guard could fill a void on a team in desperate need of a long-range shooter, Pompey writes. Wyatt averaged a team-best 13.8 PPG for Philadelphia in summer league.
- Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com breaks down the Celtics' training camp invites.