https://celticswire.usatoday.com/2018/03/28/boston-celtics-xavier-silas-first-big-3-player-to-sign-back-in-nba/
Boston Celtics' Xavier Silas first Big 3 player to sign back in NBA
Jared Weiss
Xavier Silas has officially signed his 10-day deal with the Boston Celtics, becoming the first player to return to the NBA after playing in the inaugural Big 3 season last summer.
"I'm the first!" Silas exclaimed when speaking to reporters in Utah Wednesday, per Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald.
Silas has been counting the days to this moment, quote tweeting a slew of tweets in the past 24 hours with #2082.
#2082 days of waiting, hoping, wishing, and praying. It's okay to fail but it's never okay to give up. https://t.co/s4HQRO8gER
— XavierSilasGives (@XavierSilas) March 27, 2018
Silas turned down more lucrative opportunities overseas to grind it out in the G-League. Why did he do it?
"This. This, happening right now, is why," he said per Marc D'Amico of Celtics.com "I think with me being older, I think I understand a little bit that it's not about trying to do too much, or trying to make a big bang or a big splash. It's just, do what I'm supposed to do, and helping out the team, even if it's little increments here and there."
Well that's a shame, because his new coach Brad Stevens told reporters that he will be expected to replicate everything Kyrie Irving does and nothing less.
"You're going to replace Kyrie Irving, so we expect 25 points a game on 50/40/90 shooting," Stevens said he jokingly told Silas when he came on board per D'Amico. Stevens then revealed the real message, which was to be a dedicated 3-and-D wing.
"Just do what you do best, and come in and be you, and we'll adjust to you," Stevens said. "When you get in the game, just try to impact it by playing hard defensively, and by being ready to run a basic menu of offensive options based on what we go through today (at shootaround)."
Silas will be brought up to speed on how to work his spot-up spacing on the weak-side, how the team runs some of its flex actions to get him on the move and so forth. The bigger challenge is usually learning how to handle Boston's defensive schemes, which mix between plenty of switching and icing.
If there's anyone who isn't worried about him finding his way, it's Brian Scalabrine. Scal trades for Silas in the Big 3 last season and has been a major supporter of Silas, motivating him to become that first vet to make it back from the Big 3 to the NBA.
"He said that he believed in me and he knew I was an NBA guy," Silas said of Scalabrine. "He told me that last summer. He said just keep doing what I'm doing."
Stevens also cited Jeff Van Gundy as a key reference for Silas. The 30-year-old played under the current ESPN color commentator earlier this year for the US national teams the Basketball World Cup qualifiers.
"Through it all, (he) has developed a reputation as an outstanding teammate, an outstanding person," said Stevens, "and obviously we wouldn't be bringing in a guy right now, at our age and stage of our season, if that wasn't the case."
Nick Schwartz
Sportico released their latest valuations of every NBA franchise on Monday, and despite the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the NBA's business model, most franchises have never been as valuable as they are in 2021.
The New York Knicks lead all teams with a valuation of $5.42 billion, and are followed by the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers, all with a projected value of more than $5 billion. There's a bit of a dropoff after the Top 3, but the Celtics ranked fifth overall with a value of $3.18 billion, just behind the Brooklyn Nets...
Cavs reportedly to trade or cut Kevin Porter Jr.; should Celtics inquire?
The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly looking to trade young shooting guard and small forward prospect Kevin Porter Jr. after a post-James Harden trade locker room incident caused the team to sour on the promising young player.
Should the Boston Celtics do their due diligence on a potential trade?
To be clear, there is a very defensible reason the team is considering a move as drastic as cutting the University of Southern California product. Evidently after the team took on former Brooklyn Nets power forward Taurean Prince as part of the four-team James Harden trade, Porter became angry upon seeing his...
New York nixes Celtics at home, win 105-75, snapping Boston's streak
The good news is that Boston Celtics starting point guard Kemba Walker finally made his season debut.
The bad news is that it came in one of the worst-shooting games in the history of the franchise. The Celtics couldn't find the basket if it was the sea and they were skipping pebbles in it, connecting on a season-low (and near-historic low) 29.8% fromm the field and a jaw-droppingly poor 15.2% from beyond the arc. In an effort that hardly qualifies as worthy of such a word, the matinee debut of the UConn product saw the team mostly stand...