Kennedy Chandler hopes to have convinced the Nets

Despite a promising start, particularly on the contractual level, the first season of Kennedy Chandler in the NBA, on the side of his hometown of Memphis, did not go as the young leader passed by Tennessee hoped without doubt, and even concluded in a rather abrupt way and one imagines it bitter.

Cut off by the Grizzlies at the end of the regular season, Kennedy Chandler found himself in an uncomfortable situation, having to look, less than a year after entering the Great League, for a new base. A search whose first stop was the Summer League this month, with brooklyn…

” That’s why I played this summer », thus confirmed the 20-year-old point guard. ” I wanted to play every game possible, with the objective of dominating. And above all to concentrate on my game without worrying about the rest. I had told my agent that he was concentrating on his part of the job, and I on mine. »

Still no progress in outside shooting…

With the summer squad of netthe short-lived Memphis player (36 games for 7.8 minutes) showed good things, turning in 14 points, 5.4 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 2 steals per game.

Recalling in particular his very good ability to attack the circle, even if conversely he has still not managed to reassure on the big weak point of his game: the outside shot, completing the summer league at 2/14 in the exercise, after a rookie campaign with 13.3% success, even if the volume was insignificant (0.4 shots per game)…

” My percentage last season was not good, but I barely played “, he recalls, moreover, anxious to put things in their context. ” I was taking shots once every ten or twenty games, something like that. So I don’t really judge my ability to shoot last season. I know I can shoot. And I tried to show it. But if a defense defends me close, I will also attack the circle. »

But these shortcomings inevitably worry Brooklyn, which could take a gamble by offering its third “two-way contract” to Kennedy Chandler. Especially since the two other players with such a contract, rookie Jalen Wilson and Armani Brooks, are good shooters (45.8% in Las Vegas for the first, 47.6% for the second)…

Capitalize on a first year of learning

In any case, Kennedy Chandler, now awaiting a decision from the Nets, intends to take advantage, no matter where, of his first year in the NBA, during which he mainly listened to the advice of Ja Morant and Tyus Jones.

” The core of their talk, especially Tyus, was keeping a cool head “, he concludes. ” I was sitting next to him on the plane, so we talked a lot. He was a good mentor for me, I watched everything he did in the field, his readings. Now I will implement this year. »

Now it remains to know where…