Brad Stevens: RJ Hunter had 'really good offseason' but has struggled with making shots early in preseason

http://www.masslive.com/celtics/index.ssf/2016/10/boston_celtics_brad_stevens_rj.html


Boston Celtics' Brad Stevens: RJ Hunter had 'really good offseason' but has struggled with making shots early in preseason



R.J. Hunter
R.J. Hunter and James Young are competing for the same roster spot. (AP photo/Antonio Calanni)
Jay King | mjking@masslive.com By Jay King | mjking@masslive.com


on October 06, 2016 at 8:30 AM




The Boston Celtics have too many players on guaranteed contracts.

Actually, let me rephrase that: The Celtics have enough players on guaranteed contracts that they will need to cut at least one of them to trim the roster down to the legal regular-season limit, 15 players. Because of that fact, one of the team's young players will likely be in trouble. The early speculation has centered around R.J. Hunter and James Young, two wings who have not accomplished much during their short NBA careers.

Entering training camp, I would have guessed Hunter had the early lead. When Avery Bradley got hurt during the playoffs, he got a crack at the minutes before Young and played more time the rest of the series. Hunter, 22, is actually older than Young, 21, but has one more year left on his rookie contract -- which could factor into the race because that means he's under cheap team control for an additional season.

Despite all that, Young had more flashes of competence during an intrasquad scrimmage last week, then appeared before Hunter in the preseason opener. Those things might not mean much -- it's still super early in the preseason -- but it's all the action we have seen publicly. The race could be tight, and Hunter has apparently missed more shots than the errant ones he fired Tuesday night against the Philadelphia 76ers.

From the Boston Globe's Gary Washburn, here are some of Brad Stevens' thoughts on the wing:

"I think R.J. had a really good offseason, really prepared," Stevens said. "And the one thing he's struggled with in the first couple of days is making shots and that's usually the case when you're going harder and there's more wear on your legs. So I'm not overly reacting to that. That's a small sample size. We know what he's about. We know how good he is. We know he passes the ball and can shoot the ball. And he'll play better."
Hunter has nice court vision and can use his long arms to make some defensive plays, but he would help the most if he can develop into a 3-point shooting role. He came out of college with a shooter's reputation, and he definitely has an effortless outside stroke. But he hasn't really made shots at a high rate since his sophomore year of college.

As a junior, Hunter hit just 30.5 percent of his tries from behind the arc. As an NBA rookie, that number dipped to 30.2 percent for the Celtics, and 29.6 percent when he played for the team's D-League affiliate in Maine. While those percentages all look bad, there are extenuating circumstances to consider. In college, defenses sold out to stop Hunter and he often succumbed to the desire to force difficult shots. In the NBA, it's really tough to knock down shots in spare minutes, and Hunter's sample size is tiny. If he had hit six more 3-pointers between the NBA and the D-League -- just six -- his combined percentage between the leagues would have jumped from 29.9 percent (really bad) to 35.0 percent (pretty good).

Regardless of all the reasonable excuses, Hunter hasn't made shots. Young, another alleged shooter, didn't either during his first two seasons. Though he did have one D-League season with 44.2-percent shooting, I could have done a breakdown for him pretty similar to the one I did for Hunter above. Young's career NBA 3-point percentage, 25.0 percent, is no good.

But here's part of what Stevens said about Young over the past weekend: "His catch-and-shoot accuracy, especially in workouts and practice and drills and everything else -- when we charted it here, with closed doors, he's been very good."

Shooting through one week of preseason doesn't mean much. The sample size is tiny. I don't know what's going to happen with the final roster spot, but the next few weeks could be stressful for both Hunter and Young.


bob


.

It is likely to be way too early to pick between Young and Hunter as practices only started a week ago.
But, there is no question that neither guy has much of an advantage over the other guy and also that it appears that both guys may be fighting for the 15th spot on a 15 man roster.

Not likely that either guy will serve to help the team very much again this season although I would like to be proven wrong on this thought. It is always nice to see our own draft picks make solid contributions, but getting the best players to fill the roster is always the goal of the general manager. Green may still be injured but he is still probably ahead of both Young and Hunter for meaningful playing time once real games begin.

wideclyde wrote:

 It is always nice to see our own draft picks make solid contributions, but getting the best players to fill the roster is always the goal of the general manager.   Green may still be injured but he is still probably ahead of both Young and Hunter for meaningful playing time once real games begin.

Good thing Green was our draft pick too then.

-V