By JOSH NEWMAN
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – The way Nets head coach Lionel Hollins tells it, there was little doubt that Ryan Boatright would be at training camp with the Nets.
The former Connecticut star worked out for the Nets on June 15, 10 days before the NBA Draft. Then, after the 6-footer went undrafted, the Nets took him to Summer League in Orlando and Las Vegas, where he averaged 14.1 points on 41.2 percent shooting from the field and 43.6 percent from 3-point range.
“I wasn’t even looking at Boatright that much during the summer,” Hollins said matter-of-factly on Monday morning at Nets Media Day at PNY Center. “Coaches would tell me what he was doing, but I’m looking at the game, the overall game and guys outside of somebody like Boatright that we might bring back. Looking at him, we already knew we were bringing him back and whatever he did in the Summer League wasn’t going to determine if he stuck in the fall anyway.”
“After my workout, I knew that they liked me, but you know how that goes in the NBA,” Boatright said. “It wasn’t a guarantee I would be back. It wasn’t even a guarantee after Summer League. I knew that I increased my chances a lot after the way that I played, but it was never a guarantee until I got the call.”
With Shabazz Napier gone to the NBA last season, Boatright took on more of the scoring load for the Huskies as a senior, averaging 17.4 points on 42.3 percent shooting. During his visit to East Rutherford as part of the pre-draft process, he was adamant that he had the goods to stick with an NBA team.
“That undrafted thing is political,” Boatright said. “That’s something that I learned. The guys that went ahead of me in the draft, I’ve destroyed. Multiple years. Like I said, it’s political, but I feel like I’m here, I feel like I’m in the best situation possible. I think it was actually better I went undrafted because I landed here with the situation we have with the point guards.
“I’ve always had that chip. Going undrafted just fueled my fire.”
The question now becomes, what does Boatright have to do to stick with the Nets.
The franchise bought out the final two years of Deron Williams’ contract in July, leaving Jarrett Jack, Donald Sloan, Shane Larkin and Boatright as options at the point. Jack is a 10-year veteran, but Sloan has played in just 157 NBA games in three seasons. Larkin played in 76 games last season, including 22 starts with the Knicks.
With a lack of experience at the position beyond Jack, the door is open for Boatright and the possibility of taking all four point guards on the roster has not been ruled out.
“It’s what he does in training camp and exhibition season that will determine that,” Hollins said. “I saw him a little bit. He’s aggressive, he can shoot the ball, he can get in the paint, doesn’t do it as much as he probably should, and he has to learn there’s a lot of big people in this league.”
