Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
When the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics roll around, Team USA’s men’s basketball will surely have some new faces … starting with the head coach.
Could that be Boston’s Brad Stevens?
Team USA and Duke University men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski reiterated recently to ESPN that he will not coach the team beyond the 2016 Rio Olympics, something that was widely accepted knowledge in basketball circles for months.
Prior to Boston’s 111-106 win over Brooklyn on Monday, Stevens told CSNNE.com that talk of replacing Krzyzewski has “never once been brought up to me on any front.”
Stevens added, “Obviously I have a great deal of respect for what they do and what Mike’s done, and that whole staff. Those guys have done it well for a long time. They’ll get all that stuff right.”
According to Krzyzewski, a plan to replace him will be announced prior to the Rio Games next summer.
Sherrod Blakely with some interesting speculation here about the next head coach for Team USA. I stress speculation because Sherrod doesn’t cite any type of source in his story.
Still, he was compelled to ask Stevens about the possibility prior to last night’s game and Brad denied any knowledge.
If Stevens isn’t on the short list, someone should email this story to Jerry Colangelo and Coach K. It makes sense.
And while it’s not a story that impacts the Celtics on the court, I love the idea that Stevens could be in the mix because it further enhances his reputation as a great coach.
On Page 2, high praise for Terry Rozier and his practice habits.
“His quickness to the ball on defense; I thought he got to loose balls multiple times,” Stevens said. “Got balls off the floor. Pushed the pace offensively. I’d say that those were the two things [that stuck out]. I’d say defensively as far as how he guarded, he did much better in the second half, and the whole time he was in his tempo was really good.”
Another thing that stood about Rozier’s night? He shot 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. The NBA three-point line is a little further than NCAA’s three-point line, but that adjustment hasn’t seemed to affect Rozier negatively. He’s 6-for-8 through three preseason games. There’s a reason for that.
“You get out what you put in. I put in a lot of work shooting threes,” Rozier said. “A lot of people said that’s what I was going to struggle with, that’s probably not my best thing. So that’s something that I always worked on even early I went to the practice gym and got up a lot of shots with my friends. So you get out what you put in. I worked on it so it’s starting to carry over to the game. So that’s the most important thing.”
It was nice to see Terry Rozier flash the skills that made him the Celtics 1st round pick. Extending his range will only endear him more to Brad Stevens, but I still think Rozier is a 5th guard at best on this roster.
Related: Herald – Rozier, Johnson fuel Celtics win
And finally, Perry Jones doesn’t sound optimistic about his chances.
Jones acknowledged that for much of the past two weeks, he has not been at his best.
“I just wasn’t doing too well in practice, overthinking in practice and just not playing basketball,” he said. “Just being too afraid to make mistakes, and that caused me to make more mistakes and things like that in practice. But my effort was always there. It’s just that my performance wasn’t what I wanted it to be.”
The Celtics have 16 players under guaranteed contracts and will need to reduce that number by one before the regular season starts Oct. 28. Though the team has given no hints on how it will proceed, it appears Jones has the most to prove as he attempts to make the final roster.
Despite Jared Sullinger’s struggles, I just can’t imagine the Celtics shipping him out for 50 cents on the dollar in order to give Perry Jones a shot.
The guy hasn’t shown us anything.
The rest of the links
Yahoo BDL – Celtics season preview
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