C.J. Leslie Will Join Knicks Summer League Team, Phil Pressey to Celtics | Zagsblog
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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Thursday / March 28.
  • C.J. Leslie Will Join Knicks Summer League Team, Phil Pressey to Celtics

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    By ADAM ZAGORIA & JOSH NEWMAN

    N.C. State’s C.J. Leslie and Missouri’s Phil Pressey went undrafted Thursday night but both have reached agreement to play summer league ball.

    The 6-foot-9 Leslie was projected as a second-round pick but went undrafted after suffering a hip injury. He will play with the Knicks summer league team.

    The news was first reported by Yahoo! Sports and confirmed to SNY.tv by a source.

    Leslie worked out for the Nets June 17 but told SNY.tv then he had a hip issue.

    “We shut it down,” he said then.

    Leslie averaged 15.1 points and 7.4 rebounds this past season as a junior with the Wolfpack.

    “[I can bring] rebounding, scoring when they need it, getting to the basket, getting fouled, all that stuff,” he said during a workout with the Knicks June 11. “So just wherever I’m needed and hopefully I’ll be able to step in.”

    As for the 5-11 Pressey, he will play summer ball with the rebuilding Boston Celtics, who on Thursday traded Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry to the Nets in a blockbuster deal.

    Projected as a second-round pick, Pressey has long faced questions about his size, but is a natural playmaker.

    “I’ve played against bigger point guards, I really don’t see them as being more athletic than me, just taller,” the Dallas native and University of Missouri product told SNY.tv last month after a Nets’ workout. “When it comes to athleticism, I match up with the best of them. If a guy is a couple inches taller than me, I don’t feel like that affects me at all. I feel like what I do is a lot better than what they do.”

    As a junior he averaged 11.9 points and 7.1 assists on his way to All-SEC first team honors.

    He flirted with declaring for the 2012 NBA Draft after going for 10.3 points and 6.4 assists per game for the 30-5 Tigers.

     
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    Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle. A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013. He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.

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