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Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Noah, Sullinger

January 19th, 2017 at 1:29pm CST by Will Joseph

The Knicks are not headed in any particular direction, which is arguably the worst position for franchise to be in, and New York president Phil Jackson is a significant reason for that, Chris Herring of ESPN.com argues in a panel of fellow ESPN scribes (Insider subscription required). Carmelo Anthony is also partly to blame because his large contract, which includes a no-trade clause is hamstringing the team, is holding the franchise hostage, Bradford Doolittle opines. The panel suggested, however, that Anthony still has something left and in the right situation he could be a positive part of the Knicks. There are differing opinions on whether or not the Knicks should be in win-now mode or start tanking, with the latter being difficult to do, considering it would mean shedding players with contracts teams would have to take on creatively.

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Joakim Noah hasn’t lived up to his $72MM contract and it’s possible that the Knicks will take him out of the starting line-up once Kristaps Porzingis is healthy enough to return to action, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Noah is averaging 5.6 points per game this season.
Jared Sullinger made his season debut for the Raptors on Wednesday and although the team lost, he felt like he exceed his own expectations, as Doug Smith of the Toronto Star relays. “I was able to keep up with the game,” Sullinger said. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to keep up, especially how hard and how fast the Sixers play, but I was able to keep up with the game.”
Jae Crowder is more valuable to the Celtics than Anthony could ever be, Logan Mullen of WEEI.com contends. Mullen argues that Anthony doesn’t provide the intensity that Crowder brings on a nightly basis. The scribe admits that the Celtics need one more star player, but cautions that Anthony isn’t the right fit.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post

Community Shootaround: Crowder’s Fan Comments

January 4th, 2017 at 8:50pm CST by Austin Kent

The Celtics wrestled a hard-fought victory away from the Jazz on Tuesday, thanks largely in part to the contributions of small forward Jae Crowder. Crowder’s 21 points tied his season high, but the takeaway from the evening would prove to be neither his production nor the result on the scoreboard but rather his unexpected comments about the fans in attendance.

Supporters at the TD Garden could be heard cheering for rival forward Gordon Hayward, writes Christopher L. Gasper for The Boston Globe and it’s this to which Crowder took offense.

“[It’s] a sign of disrespect to me from the fans,” Crowder told the media, before doubling down on his unconventional reaction over Twitter.

The C’s have long been rumored to be interested in Hayward (here in 2014, for example, and here in October), but it’s the Butler alum’s connection to head coach Brad Stevens that gives the notion continued validity. As the 26-year-old wing approaches free agency via his player option for 2017/18, speculation about Hayward joining the Celtics and theoretically supplanting Crowder in the starting lineup has gained traction.

Given the circumstances, is Crowder’s reaction warranted? Is it bad form for fans to cheer for opposing team players? You tells us in the comments below.

Celtics Notes: Lee, Crowder, Green

November 26th, 2016 at 6:27pm CST by Arthur Hill

David Lee‘s 15-point, 12-rebound effort in the Spurs’ win at Boston Friday gave the Celtics a glimpse of the performance they expected from him last season, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Boston acquired Lee in a trade with the Warriors in the summer of 2015, but started the season out of shape and was quickly pulled from the rotation. He played just 30 games for the Celtics before agreeing to a buyout in February. Lee signed with the Mavericks, then joined the Spurs over the summer on a minimum contract. “Everybody makes mistakes in their career and I think I came in not in the best shape and it wasn’t by design,” he said. “It was not laziness. I just didn’t do what I needed to do. I’ve been up front about acknowledging that. It’s easier to look at the coaching staff and say ‘Brad should have played me more.’ But I’ve been very open in saying I should have been in better shape and it takes that for me to be successful on the court. The staff did an unbelievable job of getting me in shape here but by that point I think it wasn’t coach’s wish to play me. We went our separate ways.”

There’s more news out of Boston:

Jae Crowder is starting to get comfortable again after an eight-game absence with an ankle injury, according to Taylor C. Snow of NBA.com. After two difficult games, Crowder has scored 15 and 18 points in his last two outings, and his teammates are noticing the difference. “When you come back from an ankle injury you’re kind of second-guessing yourself,” said Isaiah Thomas. “You don’t want to jump. You don’t think you can cut and do the things that you’re normally used to doing. So I think he’s gaining confidence in that ankle and getting back to his old self.”
The Spurs represent the kind of successful veteran team the Celtics believe they can become if they stay together, according to Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com. Friday’s game was in doubt until a late sequence where San Antonio hit a critical 3-pointer. “I was just talking with [Thomas] about how [Spurs coach Gregg Popovich] knows what he wants to get, and those guys run it to a T,” Crowder said. “… That’s one of the best teams that I ever saw in the fourth quarter.”
Veteran forward Gerald Green remains in the Celtics’ plans even though coach Brad Stevens held him out for the sixth time Friday, Forsberg tweeted. “The biggest thing is that you can’t play everyone,” Stevens said. “Gerald has been a great pro. Missing a lot of training camp was a really tough thing … but he’ll help us this year. I feel really good about that, and his attitude is really good. I’m glad he’s here.”

Durant Surprised Celtics Fans Have Beef With Him

November 17th, 2016 at 5:23pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kevin Durant is baffled by the notion that Celtics fans are angry at him for not signing with their team, Chris Haynes of ESPN.com reports.

Boston was one one of six clubs that had a meeting with Durant during free agency before the All-Star forward surprised nearly everyone by signing with the Warriors. The Celtics did land one of the biggest free agents on the market, power forward Al Horford, though he’s been sidelined this month by a concussion. Horford verbally agreed with the Celtics just before their brass met with Durant, giving them a chance to create their own ‘Super Team,’ according to Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe.

The Warriors make their annual trip to Boston on Friday.

“What can they be mad about?” Durant told Haynes and other members of the media. “I never played there. I never said I was going there. … No matter who goes in there, they’re going to boo them. But I have no attachment to Boston at all.”

Himmelsbach declares that Celtics fans felt abandoned by Durant, despite his lack of history with the club.

Durant said he has no beef with Celtics forward Jae Crowder, one of the players who tried to recruit him. Crowder criticized Durant this summer for selecting the Warriors.

“Why am I going to be mad about a guy who has an opinion? I respect all these players,” Durant told Haynes. “If they don’t respect what I did, I can’t control that.”

Boston point guard Isaiah Thomas, who was part of the team’s meeting with Durant, said he exchanged text messages with Durant last season and into the summer until he chose the Warriors, Himmselbach continues. But Thomas holds no animosity toward Durant, Himmelsbach adds.

“For whatever reason, he picked the Warriors,” Thomas told Himmelsbach and other media members. “I know one thing: He wanted to have fun playing basketball, and he thought the style of play and the coaching staff we had, it was fun playing here. He loves the style of play that we played at, and we just came up short.”

Injury Notes: Horford, Crowder, Thomas, Beal

November 15th, 2016 at 9:45pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Al Horford is still dealing with the lingering effects of a concussion and the big man isn’t sure when he will play again, Mike Petraglia of Green Street writes. “I’m just not where I want to be right now, but trying to work through it,” Horford said. “This is something very new to me, so it’s just trying to get used to this.” Horford added that he is eager to return to the court in order to help the Celtics win games, but doesn’t want to risk a setback. “We’re trying to be as smart as we can about this. I just want to make sure that when I’m ready to go, I’m good to go,” he said.

Here’s more injury notes from around the league:

Jae Crowder took part in shooting drills today, something he hasn’t done since spraining his ankle earlier this month, Petraglia passes along in the same piece. Crowder will remain sidelined for the Celtics match-up with the Mavericks on Wednesday night.
Lance Thomas has plantar fasciitis in both of his feet, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News reports. “It’s been hard to move at the speed that I’m used to and the speed that my teammates are used to me moving, especially defensively,” Thomas said. The forward remains sidelined because of a bone bruise in his left ankle and it has limited his impact on court. The Knicks signed Thomas to a four-year, $27MM deal during the offseason and expected him to be a solid contributor off the bench, but the 28-year-old has only scored a total of 31 points during the eight games he has played this season.
Bradley Beal‘s status for Wednesday’s game against the Sixers remains up in the air, but if he is able to play, he’ll be on a minute restriction the following night against the Knicks, J Michael of Comcast Sportsnet writes. Beal is dealing with a hamstring injury this year and it has caused him to miss the last two games. The shooting guard has struggled with an injuries to his leg during his four years in the league, but coach Scott Brooks said that the two injuries are “totally unrelated.”

Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Knicks, Raptors, Crowder

November 11th, 2016 at 9:00am CST by Luke Adams

With the Sixers off to another slow start, head coach Brett Brown asked Hall-of-Fame guard Allen Iverson to provide some encouraging words to his frustrated team (link via ESPN.com). Iverson suggests that he still believes the 76ers have a promising future ahead of them, despite the fact that the club is 0-7 to start the 2016/17 season.

“I want the fans here to be patient with those guys,” said the former Sixers star. “We’ve got the talent. It’s here. Just be patient with them. And I just want those guys to believe in each other and trust in each other. That’s it. The future is bright for us.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic division:

Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek says that the decision to install Kurt Rambis as a defensive assistant was his own, and didn’t come from team president Phil Jackson. Marc Berman of The New York Post has the details, along with the quotes from Hornacek.
The Raptors are off to a hot start this season, despite shooting just 28.8% on three-pointers in a league that values three-point shooting more than ever. With that in mind, Scott Stinson of The National Post wonders if DeMar DeRozan has become an exception to an NBA rule, while Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun examines DeMarre Carroll‘s continued adjustment to a different style of play in Toronto.
Jae Crowder remains on the shelf for the Celtics, and according to head coach Brad Stevens, the veteran forward is unlikely to return to the court for Boston until at least next Wednesday (link via A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com).

Atlantic Notes: Rose, Crowder, Nets, Thomas

November 4th, 2016 at 8:57am CST by Luke Adams

One former MVP faced his old team for the first time on Thursday night, as Kevin Durant led the Warriors to a win over the Thunder, and Friday’s schedule has another such reunion on tap, with Derrick Rose‘s Knicks set to face the Bulls for the first time this season. It will be a bittersweet return for Rose and Joakim Noah, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News, who observes that the new-look Bulls are off to a much better start than the retooled Knicks.

Meanwhile, Rose spoke to Sam Smith of Bulls.com about not knowing what to expect upon his return to Chicago, adding that he’s anticipating a “couple of boos here and there.” According to the Knicks’ starting point guard, his primary regret stemming from his time with the Bulls is that he wasn’t able to lead the team to a title. “I had so many visions of winning a championship there,” Rose said.

As the Chicago native returns home, let’s check in on a few more items from around the Atlantic division…

Jae Crowder is now expected to be out for two weeks due to a sprained left ankle, per Celtics head coach Brad Stevens (link via Jay King of MassLive.com). Crowder’s absence likely won’t lead to a roster move for Boston, but it figures to result in increased roles for offseason additions like Jaylen Brown and Gerald Green for a couple weeks.
As we noted on Thursday, Nets point guard Jeremy Lin will be sidelined for at least two weeks with a strained hamstring. Fred Kerber of The New York Post takes a look at which players should be counted on to pick up the slack for Brooklyn during that time.
In a piece for ESPN.com, Chris Forsberg details the unlikely path Isaiah Thomas took to become a potential franchise player for the Celtics, including a look back at the 2015 trade deadline, when a trade from Phoenix caught the young guard by surprise. “My agent was like, ‘There might be something, but it’s like a 10% chance,'” Thomas said, referring to a conversation he had shortly before that 2015 deadline. “And he didn’t even bring up Boston.”

Atlantic Rumors: Raptors, Crowder, Embiid

September 29th, 2016 at 3:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Raptors coach Dwane Casey admits he will not be able to replace Bismack Biyombo with just one player, Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun reports. Biyombo signed a four-year, $72MM contract with the Magic, leaving the Raptors without an obvious backup to center Jonas Valanciunas. Potential candidates include Jakob Poeltl, Pascal Siakam and Lucas Nogueira. Jared Sullinger could also see time there, Ganter adds. “Somebody in that group is going to step up and protect the paint,” Casey told Ganter. “It’s going to be not just on the bigs, but on the guards and wings to make sure they contain the ball and do a better job of not letting the ball get to the paint, so we don’t put as much pressure on our rim protection and our rim defense.”

In other news around the Atlantic Division:

Celtics small forward Jae Crowder believes the high right ankle sprain he suffered in March caused his shooting numbers to take a tumble late last season, Taylor C. Snow of Celtics.com reports. Crowder shots 45.3% from the field and 35.4& from 3-point range during the first 65 games and 32.9% and 24.0%, respectively, following his injury. “My ankle was more fatigued than I really realized,” Crowder told Snow. “The way the season ended really gave me a chip on my shoulder to get better and to get in the lab and work and get better at the things I needed to work on.”
Sixers coach Brett Brown is practically giddy over the play of oft-injured Joel Embiid in training camp, Brian Seltzer of Sixers.com writes. Embiid has missed the last two seasons with right foot injuries but the center has shown great desire to get out on the court even while battling flu-like symptoms, Seltzer adds. “You just continually see how much he loves basketball,” Brown said to Seltzer. “He really loves playing basketball. He doesn’t like being pulled out. He wants to play.”
Veteran power forward Luis Scola, who signed a one-year, $5.5MM contract with the Nets this offseason, has taken a leadership role during training camp, Brian Lewis of the New York Post reports. New coach Kenny Atkinson offered high praise of Scola’s early impact. “I don’t think you can overstate it, everything he brings to the table, how he’s shown our young guys how to work, how to be professional, how to play the game, intelligence, composure,” Atkinson said. “I know it’s early, but he’s been everything, as advertised.”

Phil Jackson Regrets Not Acquiring Jae Crowder

August 26th, 2016 at 12:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Knicks president Phil Jackson met with Charley Rosen of TodaysFastBreak.com throughout the 2015/16 season to discuss the state of his franchise, and Rosen has been passing along the Zen Master’s comments in a series called “The Phil Jackson Chronicles.” In the latest installment of the series, Jackson admitted that he passed up on acquiring Jae Crowder in a 2014 trade, and views that as the “biggest mistake” he has made since joining the Knicks.

“One of the first deals I engineered when I came back to New York was to trade Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Jose Calderon, Wayne Ellington, Samuel Dalembert, plus a second-round pick that the Mavs owed to the Celtics,” Jackson said. “In talking with Boston, I was given the option of taking that pick or else taking Jae Crowder.

“I liked Crowder but I thought he wouldn’t get much of a chance to play behind Carmelo [Anthony], so I took the pick which turned out to be Cleanthony Early. While Cleanthony has missed lots of time in the past two seasons with us, he still has the potential to be a valuable player. Even so, I should have taken Crowder.”

Either Jackson’s comments or Rosen’s transcript seem a little off here, since the Celtics should have had no involvement in the Knicks’ negotiations with the Mavericks. The second-round pick that ultimately became Early was sent to Dallas by Boston in 2013, and the Mavs traded Crowder to the Celtics a few months after the Chandler deal, but the C’s weren’t involved in that Knicks/Mavs trade at all.

In any case, the main point of Jackson’s anecdote – that the Knicks had a choice of taking the No. 34 overall pick or Crowder – appears accurate, and of course Jackson ultimately choice the pick, using it to select Early.

At the time of the trade, Crowder was coming off a season in which he averaged just 4.6 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 16.1 minutes per contest. He was a career 40.9% shooter at that point in his career and hadn’t been more than a part-time role player, so it’s hard to criticize Jackson too much for not seeing a breakout coming — or not thinking that he could potentially get a similar player early in the second round of the 2014 draft.

Since then, however, Crowder has developed into one of the Celtics’ most valuable pieces. In 2015/16, he set career highs with 14.2 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.7 SPG, and a shooting line of .443/.336/.820. He’s also locked up on an affordable long-term deal through the 2019/20 season.

It’s impossible to know if Crowder would have enjoyed the same success in New York, or if the team would have been able to lock him up long-term, or even how his presence would have affected the Knicks’ other roster moves. But it’s still an interesting “what if?” worth considering, particularly since it may have had a domino effect on the Rajon Rondo trade between Boston and Dallas.

Celtics Notes: Allen, Crowder, Thomas, Young

August 17th, 2016 at 8:51pm CST by Arthur Hill

A 41-year-old Ray Allen wouldn’t be a good fit on a young team like the Celtics, argues Josue Pavon of WEII 93.7 FM. The former Celtic has been considering a return to the NBA and has reportedly had discussions with Boston and Milwaukee. But with Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Jae Crowder already established and Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart and R.J. Hunter all needing more playing time to improve their games, Pavon believes Allen would be an unnecessary addition. The writer also suggests that Allen is using this move as a way to get back in the good graces of Celtics officials and fans and increase the chances of having his number retired. Allen has promised to make a decision before training camps open next month.

There’s more tonight out of Boston:

Crowder’s brief absence with a high ankle sprain last season underscored his importance to the Celtics, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE. Crowder posted career-best totals last season with 14.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.7 steals per night, and Blakely contends that Crowder has All-Star potential if he keeps improving. He’s also becoming one of the best bargains in the league after signing a five-year, $35MM deal last summer.
It may have worked out to Thomas’ benefit that the Celtics passed on him in the 2011 draft, Blakely writes in a separate story. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge had his eye on Thomas with the 55th pick, but opted for E’Twaun Moore. Thomas slid to the 60th pick and came into the NBA feeling like he had something to prove. Coming off his first All-Star appearance, Thomas may have to adjust his game with Al Horford in town, giving up a few shots for more assists.
The battle for the last roster spot may come down to Hunter and James Young, according to Brian Robb of CelticsHub. Commenting as part of an ESPN.com panel, Robb says they will both need to perform well in training camp to stand out from the Celtics’ large collection of draftees.