Hunter cut

Sorry for lack of a link , but it has been reported that R.J.Hunter is waived and on his birthday to boot. Confirmed by his dad

As expected.

dboss

The Boston Celtics will waive second-year guard R.J. Hunter, reports The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski. James Young will make the Celtics’ final 15-man roster.

The Celtics tried to find a trade for Hunter for a second-round pick, but were unsuccessful since Hunter can be acquired without sending out compensation through the waiver wire. Danny Ainge’s front office still has to determine whether to pick up James Young’s team option for the 17-18 season by Halloween.


Adrian Wojnarowski
✔
@WojVerticalNBA
Sources: With Young winning job, Boston wasn't able to unload RJ Hunter for a second-round pick. Celtics had to waive Hunter today.
12:01 PM - 24 Oct 2016

https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/790583926888796160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Hunter, who turned 23 Monday, will be placed on waivers Monday. The Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets hold the top waiver spots in that order, with Hunter likely being claimed by one or both. The Sixers have a slew of wing prospects at the back of their roster, including first-round pick Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and former lottery pick Nik Stauskas.

If they plan to move forward with Stauskas, they may not put a claim in for Hunter and leave him to the Nets. The Nets would likely waive either Joe Harris, Sean Kilpatrick or even Luis Scola to make room for Hunter.

Hunter and Young’s battle for the final roster spot was the biggest competition in the preseason. Young had a disappointing summer league that fizzled out significantly after a solid start. Hunter came in to camp as the slight favorite, as highlighted by his shootout against Devin Booker in Vegas. His potential to be a lights out shooter from anywhere on the court is tantalizing.

But Hunter is physically far from being a reliable player on both ends of the court. He can be muscled off his spot easily and struggles to get through the lane. When he has defended NBA-level competition, his strong instincts often could not overcome superior strength, as he could be moved around off the ball and taken out of the play easily by a screen.

Hunter is without question a viable prospect and will be claimed on waivers, but he was the victim of circumstance on a Celtics roster overloaded with NBA talent.

“He’s disappointed,” RJ’s father and college coach Ron Hunter told the Boston Globe. “For a kid to get waived on his birthday isn’t the best way to celebrate your birthday. But he understands this is a business and there will be another opportunity for him.”

Hunter had a good experience in Boston, even though he played just 315 minutes in the regular season. He was given a chance in the playoffs, but struggled chasing Kyle Korver through the trees.

“He’ll move on,” Ron Hunter said. “He appreciates everything Boston has done for him. They drafted him and he definitely appreciates that. Now he goes to find his next opportunity. He knows he’s an NBA player.”

Hunter, who was the 28th pick in the 2015 draft — a pick shipped over from the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for coach Doc Rivers — will be taking his talents elsewhere in the NBA.

“In R.J.’s mind his deal was he wanted to get better,” Ron Hunter said. “He felt he improved. The rest of it is a business, and his part of his business, R.J. Hunter Corp., moves on.”

As for Young, he exemplified how slow and steady can win the race. Young had proven to be solid in most facets of the game, and is actually shooting the ball more reliably from three than Hunter (33.3% to 29.2% this preseason). Considering Young is two years younger than Hunter, he has more room on his growth trajectory. Even though Hunter has potential for one blue chip skill over Young with his potential shooting range, Young looks more likely to be a rotation player at this point.

It is unclear at this juncture whether the decision to keep Young is more based on his viability as a player in the near future or his younger age leading to a better growth projection. Regardless, Young will still fight for minutes this season behind Jaylen Brown and Gerald Green.

He is still the age of most rookies coming into the league this year, so he has plenty of room to grow. When the Celtics drafted him, the expectation was that he would need his entire rookie contract to prove his worth in the league. Now he can still get that chance in Boston.


MY COMMENTS:

RJ Hunter was chosen in the draft with the pick we received from letting Doc go to LaLa land.  *shrugs*

Young better not assume that this is his get out of jail card.  The first bag of balls or 2nd round pick that comes our way could be Young's ticket out of town.

gyso

I really think Danny would have traded a 2 for 1 deal if he could have found one. You are right, Young better not get too comfortable, I think if a deal comes along he is gone.

As has often been predicted, and completely understandable.

More importantly, Demetrius Jackson stays.  That was another easy move to predict.  Jackson was probably the steal of the draft and an excellent pickup to reinforce our depth at point-guard.  He'll sit third in the order for now, but is probably at least the best ballhandler of the three, and may show an edge in playmaking skills given the chance.

Neither Hunter nor Young had any trade value, so cutting one was the only move.  If I was Young, I'd go month-to-month on the rent.

Overall, the roster is looking promising.  This should be a fun bunch to watch.

Rosalie , in an earlier post, did a good job of explaining why Young stuck .He built his body up to where he can compete in the post. RJ  needs a higher skill set because his body type doesn`t seem too susceptible to building muscle. I expect JY is celebrating making the team no matter how vulnerable his position. The Celtic decision with respect to picking up his team option for next season is Young`s next  hurdle, a higher one for sure.

Watching Jackson play made it very obvious that he was going nowhere. He is a talented player who could move up when needed and run the team. He took advantage of this situation and, in my opinion, could move ahead of Young and obviously did move ahead of RJ. Maturity, that is the key to success when you have talent. That is what worked against Young for two years, immaturity. RJ, they say, has a basketball mind but certainly not a basketball body. I honestly hope, for his sake, he catches on some where and works on his strength and endurance on a team that has the space that lets him grow. Good luck to him.

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Watching Jackson play made it very obvious that he was going nowhere.  He is a talented player who could move up when needed and run the team. He took advantage of this situation and, in my opinion, could move ahead of Young and obviously did move ahead of RJ.  Maturity, that is the key to success when you have talent.  That is what worked against Young for two years, immaturity.  RJ, they say, has a basketball mind but certainly not a basketball body. I honestly hope, for his sake, he catches on some where and works on his strength and endurance on a team that has the space that lets him grow.  Good luck to him.

Agreed on all counts. Jackson is actually a point guard. Rozier who played a scorer`s role in college , is learning to be one. Smart, to me is a 2 guard minus the shot . Someone earlier mentioned Don Chaney as a similar player. If  Thomas or Rozier were to go down, heaven forbid, Jackson would see, I believe, a lot of time running the show. I`m not saying Smart can`t run the point, just that his skills aren`t ideal for the position. The Bradley point guard train obviously left the station long ago. Young is an end of the bench guy . If he started hitting threes in bunches , he might see some playing time. I`d love to see it, but I`m not holding my breath.

My giving this kid a real shot, having him on the bench learning as the games go on, at some point it may become apparent that they are a loaded backcourt and will be able to use one of these guys as, as Danny would say, "a piece to the puzzle" for a major trade.

Don Chaney had the longest arms of any guard I ever saw play for the Celtics. He was a defensive genius and learned to shoot to make himself a cog in the wheel of a championship team. He was great to watch if you loved defense!

RosalieTCeltics wrote:My giving this kid a real shot, having him on the bench learning as the games go on, at some point it may become apparent that they are a loaded backcourt and will be able to use one of these guys as, as Danny would say, "a piece to the puzzle" for a major trade.  

Don Chaney had the longest arms of any guard I ever saw play for the Celtics. He was a defensive genius and learned to shoot to make himself a cog in the wheel of a championship team. He was great to watch if you loved defense!

I actually saw Chaney play with Elvin Hayes at Houston. I was going to Loyola New Orleans and they beat us about 300 to ten.The Duck had a pretty good baseline jumper in college and could stretch it out to what would now be a corner 3. His release was slower than molasses though, and he didn`t shoot much in the pros. He and Jojo White were a pretty good tandem for a minute

jrleftfoot wrote:

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Watching Jackson play made it very obvious that he was going nowhere.  He is a talented player who could move up when needed and run the team. He took advantage of this situation and, in my opinion, could move ahead of Young and obviously did move ahead of RJ.  Maturity, that is the key to success when you have talent.  That is what worked against Young for two years, immaturity.  RJ, they say, has a basketball mind but certainly not a basketball body. I honestly hope, for his sake, he catches on some where and works on his strength and endurance on a team that has the space that lets him grow.  Good luck to him.

Agreed on all counts. Jackson is actually a point guard. Rozier who played a scorer`s role in college , is learning to be one. Smart, to me is a 2 guard minus the shot . Someone earlier mentioned Don Chaney as a similar player. If  Thomas or Rozier were to go down, heaven forbid, Jackson would see, I believe, a lot of time running the show. I`m not saying Smart can`t run the point, just that his skills aren`t ideal for the position. The Bradley point guard train obviously left the station long ago. Young is an end of the bench guy . If he started hitting threes in bunches , he might see some playing time. I`d love to see it, but I`m not holding my breath.

wasn't Smart our starting point his rookie year when we went to the playoffs? whenever hes paired with AB we know who the offensive point is too.

I believe Evan Turner ran the offense a lot of the time in Smart`s rookie year. Could be wrong , though.

jrleftfoot wrote:I believe Evan Turner ran the offense a lot of the time in Smart`s rookie year. Could be wrong , though.

Yes, Smart played the most of his mins by far in lineups with Zeller, Turner, Bradley and Bass. If he wasn't out there with those 4 the 2nd and 3rd most used lineup he was in had Olynyk or Sully in there instead of Zeller and 4th most was with Thomas and Crowder instead of Turner and Bradley. 

Of the 1808 minutes he played as a rookie 1178 of them came with Turner (950)and Thomas (228). He didn't play enough with Rondo for that to even register on any of his top 5, 4, 3 and 2 man combinations top 10's. He was here like the first 1/4 of the season. Thomas the last 1/4 of the year. With a smattering of Pressey in there in the middle of the season it is likely Smart was only the primary ball-handler like 15-20% of the time he was on the floor. He also played a surprising number of mins with Marcus Thornton (286). 

For sure there were some lineups early in the year with Smart, Thornton and Green together and later in the year with Smart, Bradley and Crowder. But they were in the minority as Turner ran the offense for the most of Smart's time on the floor.

I was surprised that Hunter was cut and not Young as I have not been a fan of Young's due to his slowness in learning how to become an NBA player, but it should not mean much either way as now Young is the 15th man on the roster. 15th men usually have very little to do with a team's success unless they are detrimental to team attitude.

If nothing else, Young is more valuable if needed in a trade to make salaries work out if Ainge can find a trade that he likes between now and the trade deadline in February.

I doubt that Young's contract will be renewed by Halloween as it just does not seem likely that the team would want to guarantee a spot on next year's roster for more money at this time for their 15th man.

I hope Danny made sure all the negatives of the pictures James Young has of him in delicto flagrante were destroyed.


bob


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