Shane Larkin a pleasant addition

http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20171024/celtics-journal-shane-larkin-pleasant-addition




Celtics Journal: Shane Larkin a pleasant addition








By SCOTT SOUZA / The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Oct 24, 2017 at 9:14 PM








BOSTON — Shane Larkin wears a team-issued green Boston Celtics flexible bracelet on his right wrist as he sits at his locker before a game.


On his left wrist he wears a black bracelet reading “Fueled By Doubt” that is all his own.


“I’ve been told since I was 13 that I had no chance to make it to the NBA,” the 5-foot-11 guard said prior to Tuesday night’s game against the New York Knicks at TD Garden. “I was too short. Not skilled enough. Not good enough. I wear this every single day, every game, so whenever I’m not playing well, or tired, or running sprints and don’t want to do it anymore, I can look down and [see it] and think that this is for everyone who said you couldn’t.”


Larkin carried some of those same thoughts with him to Europe last season after he found no NBA takers for his services despite what he thought were three relatively promising years. This summer, he decided to come back to the NBA, to the Celtics, and was met with some of the same doubt from those who questioned where a forgotten former prospect would fit in as the then-16th guaranteed contract on a team already stacked with point guards.


“I just believe in myself,” he said of his reasoning. “There are going to be great players on every team you go to in the NBA. You’ve just got to believe that if you get your opportunity, you’re going to go out there, and through the hard work that you put in, that you’re going to make an impact.


“When I signed on, I knew this was going to be a winning team. My first few years in the league, one year I went to the playoffs with Dallas. But my other two years we were on really bad teams where we didn’t win too many games. That reputation that you have as a guy who plays on losing teams is not a reputation I wanted to carry around.”


On Friday, Larkin got his first significant opportunity with the Celtics and contributed to the team’s first win of the season when he scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting off the bench, and was a plus-16, in 19 minutes of a 102-92 victory in Philadelphia.


“When we signed Shane this summer we thought Shane was going to be an important part of our team,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said before Tuesday’s game. “When you have a guy who can play with other point guards, it gives you some versatility there. But I’ve always believed that you need a guy who can change the tempo of a game. If things aren’t going your way, if you’re not able to score, if you need to pick up full court, and all that other stuff.


“He’s able to do that stuff. It’s something that he can really build off from Friday night.”


With Marcus Smart still out Tuesday with ankle pain, and Gordon Hayward likely lost for the year after his leg injury, Larkin’s scoring and veteran presence could become a big part of what Stevens is looking for in his second unit.


“He’s an important part of our team,” Stevens said, “whether he plays four minutes or finishes the game like the other night.”




Smart improving
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Smart missed his second straight game after spraining both of his ankles in the home opener last Wednesday. “He did a greater progression of running [Tuesday] and started to go through some of the lateral movements,” Stevens said. “He had some soreness going through it. He’ll stay on this day-to-day thing. Hopefully, he will progress enough to be able to give it a go on our trip. The plan is for him to travel.” ... Marcus Morris remained out with knee pain. He said on Monday his target for his Celtics’ regular-season debut is Monday night against the Spurs.



bob
MY NOTE:  I've been pretty hard on Larkin through pre-season and the first game or two, but the last two games he has been playing well.  He played really good defense last night on Hardaway and played really good defense in the Philly game against Fultz and McConnell.  


Better defense than we've seen from Kyrie Irving so far.


.

I'm happy for him to get opportunities. He gave up a big pay day to be part of the NBA and it wasn't clear to me when he signed, where minutes would come from.