It’s been almost a year since D.J. Kennedy’s knee fell apart.
On March 10 of last year, Kennedy, a guard for NCAA Tournament-bound St. John’s, fell to the floor in the Red Storm’s loss to Syracuse. He’d torn his ACL. His season, done. His recovery, six to eight months, if you’re being optimistic. His career, on hold.
Now, skip the intervening period and flash forward to today. Three months into his first season in the NBA Development League, Kennedy’s turned into one of the league’s premier NBA prospects, turning out 17.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game over his last eight contests for the Erie BayHawks, the New York Knicks’ NBA D-League affiliate. And on Tuesday night, when Kennedy, Keith McLeod and the BayHawks host Darnell Lazare, Ron Howard and the Fort Wayne Mad Ants (7 pm ET), you can watch it live on SportingNews.com.
Kennedy’s season opened in early December. And while he’s increased his production over the season, he came to the NBA D-League prepared to contribute. With his rehab firmly in the past and his knee back in order, he averaged 33 minutes and 12.4 points through his first month of the season. He came into the D-League Showcase in early January as a potential call-up for later in the season, after he’d gotten back to 100 percent.
He left January as one of the league’s best bets for a triple-double on any night he takes the court. His minutes are up – he’s played 40 or more minutes in four of his last eight—and so are his numbers. Most importantly for NBA teams, he’s defending, too. He’s averaged 2.2 steals per game over his last six, and helped hold Dakota Wizards star Edwin Ubiles to 14 points (on 4-of-14 shooting) in the BayHawks’ win over Dakota on Feb. 18.
On Tuesday, the 6-6 swingman should draw Lazare, who spent time with the Pistons in training camp and just competed in the NBA D-League All-Star Game over the weekend (where he scored 13 points with six rebounds). Lazare’s bigger (6-8, 240) than Kennedy, so the matchup should give scouts a chance to see how Kennedy matches up against a player built like an NBA power forward and, on the other side, how Lazare can keep up with a forward with a guard’s quickness.
Running the show for Erie will be Keith McLeod, who joined Lazare on the Eastern Conference team in the All-Star Game. McLeod, who played 200 games in the NBA between 2003 and 2007, came to Erie in late January after opening the season with Canton. Seeing the need for an experienced, quality point guard to run their (and Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni’s) system, Erie management shipped away Devin Green in favor of the veteran McLeod.
McLeod and Kennedy will both have to pick up a little bit of the scoring load going forward, too, as the BayHawks just cut third-leading scorer Tirrel Baines due to injury.
没有评论:
发表评论