Summer fun continues
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
SALT LAKE CITY — Assistant coach Micah Shrewsberry likens this Celtics summer league team to Noah’s Ark.
“There’s two of everything,” Shrewsberry said yesterday. “Two of them at every single position. They all do the same things, so we’ll just fill in the next guy. It’ll give another guy a chance.”
And so the call went out last night, with Jaylen Brown (hyperextended knee), R.J. Hunter (sore right wrist) and Jordan Mickey (sore shoulder) all on ice. Hunter, who landed on his wrist in Monday night’s summer opener and watched it swell up yesterday, was a game-time scratch.
Enter Guerschon Yabusele, the 265-pound rookie Shrewsberry has referred to as a dancing bear, and James Young, who heading into his third NBA season needs games like the one he turned in last night’s 89-82 win against the Utah Jazz entry. The Celtics are 2-0 and using every inch of their bench.
Yabusele had some opening-night problems, but last night he went for 13 points, including a stanchion-shaking dunk, and eight rebounds.
“I got Twitter, too. I read it. People said he didn’t play very well the first game and part of that is we didn’t call his number too much,” Shrewsberry said. “It’s not because of him. He’s playing as hard as can be, each and every day. I’ve seen what he can do in practice. I wanted him to come out and make a little bit of a statement. So we wanted to feature him, focus him, let him do some things and he can show his game a little bit. He made big plays down the stretch for us, which is great. It was good for him.”
Young settled in on all fronts for a fine performance that included a team-high 17 points (4-for-5 3-point shooting) and five rebounds. A right-corner trey put the game away with 13 seconds left.
Perhaps the realities of his situation are bearing in on Young, but teammates can notice a difference.
“He’s more serious about his grind time performance,” guard Terry Rozier said. “You could tell he wanted it more. He’s relaxing, you can tell he’s taking it more seriously. When you see that growth, it shows he’s maturing.”
The Celtics nearly fell prey to a player who is clearly a level above the rest of his fellow summer leaguers. Trey Lyles’ 26 points and 11 rebounds came largely at the expense of the smallish C’s.
Options come due
The Celtics appear on the verge of picking up the option on at least one and probably both of their veterans in Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko.
Though the team indicated it’s still sifting through the free agent market before making a decision before tomorrow night’s deadline, a league source said yesterday that the C’s have held discussions about returning Johnson to his starting role. That would mean an opening night front line of Johnson, free agent addition Al Horford and Jae Crowder, a fairly imposing defensive combination, with Horford a clear offensive upgrade over what the team had to work with in the paint last season. . . .
On his way up to Boston, Horford tweeted the following message to his legion of fans in Atlanta: “This was one of the most difficult decisions for me and my family, but I will cherish my nine years in Atlanta. From the bottom of my heart to each and every Hawks’ fan, thank you.”
Thomas in big role
Everyone in the organization has been heavily involved in the C’s free agent work, with coach Brad Stevens one of the main talking points in the recruiting pitch. But Stevens had to admit that Isaiah Thomas has been a force of nature in this process.
“He’s been great. Isaiah has a passion for the game, but he’s also got a passion for life,” Stevens said. “He enjoys being around people. He’s a person that gets a lot from that. He enjoys helping others. He’s fun to work with. He’s excited to work. He’s got all those things. I know he was in Boston last week at the end of the week and he was doing some events, then he shows up at 5:30 and he wants to work out. That’s kind of who he is. That’s how he bides the time until the next season, I guess. That’s good.
“Everybody in our group has been involved. And that’s important. But I think obviously he’s really passionate about being a Celtic. And really passionate about selling the Celtics.”
Mickey update
Stevens said an MRI taken of Mickey’s shoulder Monday was negative, likely meaning he will rejoin the summer league action, possibly once the team flies to Las Vegas on Friday to begin the second leg of the schedule.
“From everything I’ve been told, the MRI looks good. it doesn’t sound like it was a subluxation like we talked about with Kelly ( Olynyk),” Stevens said. “It sounds like he’s going to go through a light workout today, probably another workout tomorrow and then, if all goes well, he’ll be on a plane to Vegas.”