Here’s the Akron Beacon Journal on Cavs shooting guard J.R. Smith, who surely had an interesting experience on the day of the NBA trade deadline, as his squad made a dramatic shakeup that could very well have included him as well:
J.R. Smith said he had never heard his name mentioned so often before the NBA trade deadline.
But it wasn’t just the rumors leading up to Thursday that weighed on the 32-year-old Cavaliers guard. The final hour or two as the clocked ticked down to 3 p.m. may have been the most stressful.
“My name was being thrown around a lot out there, so it was nerve wracking for sure,” Smith said after Sunday’s 121-99 victory over the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. “When you see six guys getting traded and there’s still more than an hour to the trade deadline, there’s no telling what can happen.”
But after three trades involving four teams as general manager Koby Altman orchestrated a total roster makeover, Smith survived.
After Smith scored 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting in Sunday’s rout of the Celtics, friend and teammate LeBron James observed, “J.R. gave us something tonight to let us know that he’s still here.”
