With the shooting of Knicks forward Cleanthony Early on Wednesday, plus a number of other unfortunate player incidents over the past year, Frank Isola of The New York Daily News opined that free agents may avoid signing with New York based franchises going forward. Nets point guard Jarrett Jack acknowledged that living and playing in New York is different than many other NBA locales, and believes players are targets because of the popularity of the sport in the area, Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes. “Since being in New York for a couple years, and how seriously sports are taken in this city, you’re a lot more visible than your typical team. When the Knicks draft somebody it’s headline news, or when they trade for somebody it’s headline news,’’ said Jack.
“That’s where New York separates itself from a lot of cities. That can be good and bad, but I think you’ve just got to understand what it is and just take it for what it’s worth. Whenever I go somewhere … day or night, we always survey the crowd,” Jack continued. “We always understand what the crowd is wherever we’re going. Like I said, no matter where you go, no one deserves for that to happen. A lot of people want to say ‘It’s his fault, he [Early] shouldn’t have been [out]. How is it his fault?”
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Sixers coach Brett Brown is still trying to figure out how too best utilize Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel, and admits the answer to this particular riddle still eludes him, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer relays.”The four-five, five-four you know it’s still a mystery right now,” Brown said of deciding where to play the two big men. “It really is. And I think we are going to have this conversation throughout the whole year. Trying to grow those two guys is a challenge. So for me, it ends up more matchups than this overwhelming responsibility where it hurts the team. You know we want to win games. How I navigate that is a challenge.“
- The Celtics have assigned power forward Jordan Mickey, point guard Terry Rozier and shooting guard R.J. Hunter to their D-League affiliate in Maine, the team announced. This will be Mickey’s ninth stint with the Red Claws on the season, the fourth for Rozier and the first for Hunter.
Jahlil looked good last night coming off the bench. He picked up a double-double in spare minute and it seemed effortless, but Noel should continue to get run at the five, especially with the way he’s played over the last few games.
Hunter was giving the Celtics solid minutes, averaging over a 3 a game. Very surprised he was sent down to Maine. Also, Mickey is a legitimate big man prospect. While many of the Celtics big men are versatile shooters and passers, Mickey is a rebound dominate Forward/Center, which is a great attribute to have in the NBA. As a long time and die hard Celtics fan, I’d really like to see Mickey get some playing time. And Rozier needs to stay at Maine. Although he was solid at Louisville, he doesn’t fit the Celtics system, especially with Marcus Smart coming back off one of the nastiest bones bruises you’ll ever see. Never liked the pick to begin with, I think there were a lot of solid options last year with the number 16 pick, and no offense Danny Ainge, you went with the wrong guy. I would’ve like to see a guy like Sam Dekker currently in that Boston green after drafting him with that 16th pick. Overall, if none of those three guys of Rozier, Hunter, and Mickey aren’t gonna get much playing time at the big stage, trade them. They deserve to playing in the league and also are good prospects. The Celtics good package them for possibly a solid scoring option, to take the scoring load late in game off of Isaiah Thomas’ back.
Hunter is not going to develop on 3 minutes a game, so I get the move.