Kris Joseph made his way onto the Celtics opening day roster to the joy of Canadian basketball fans everywhere. But after getting few minutes in the Cs first few games he, along with fellow rookie Fab Melo, were sent to the Maine Red Claws of the D-League. This may be the best thing that's happened to Joseph so far this season and Can Ball Ray weighs in on the reason why ...
If you didn't know, Montreal's Kris Joseph was assigned along with fellow rookie Fab Melo to the Boston Celtics D-League affiliate the Maine Red Claws recently. After having made the opening day roster for the Cs, Joseph would certainly have seen little, if any, court time in the immediate future with future Hall-of-Famer Paul Pierce and Jeff Green in the rotation. So the Celtics sent him to the farm team to get minutes and play everyday.
This should be viewed as a good thing since sitting on the bench of the big club, though great as it may be, does not exactly make you any better or ready to play when they call on you. I'm thinking that playing everyday for Kris is a lot better at this juncture of his career. As well all know, you can't recreate "game environments" in practice no matter what you do (I know, I've played on teams).
Well, in his first game as a Red Claw Monsieur Joseph reminded everyone one why he was the captain of the Syracuse Orange and selected by the Celtics.
In 39 minutes, he put up 28 points and 8 rebounds (both team highs by the way) along 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks helping Maine beat rival Canton 123-115. Not bad for a debut I'd say.
Now, like I said, I'm on the assumption that Maine is a stop for him in his early time with the Celtics and it's not a bad place for him right now. And unless Pierce and/or Green go down to an injury I would expect that this is where Joseph will be spending most of his rookie NBA season.
Here he should be able to work on his "in game" game and get into situations that are meaningful. We all know that garbage time is great in the NBA for journeymen but as a rookie, Joseph will need meaningful minutes to fail and succeed to be a better player. This is a much better situation for him than riding the bench with Fab Melo and cracking jokes with the ball boys. It's all going to be fine tuning for him from this point on to be ready for the call up.
Regardless, it's a great start to what could be a very good place for him. He's only a call away now from suiting up in the green and white and with really only two other players on this Red Claw team who play his position he will likely bear most of the minutes at the three spot. (I'll refrain from making any Micah Downs jokes here.) For now, let's see keep an eye on what he does here as the season progresses and you can bet that if these types of games happen more often than not, he could have the coach telling him to pack his bags for Beantown eventually.
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