Your Morning Dump… How Nader became a Green Party candidate

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Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

The Celtics essentially drafted Nader because they wanted to fill their NBADL Maine roster. But Nader turned himself into an NBA prospect.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Nader said. “Definitely a bunch of fun. From the moment I stepped on the floor, even just watching Kyrie [Irving], Gordon [Hayward] play, it’s a lifelong dream come true. I’ll keep working and hopefully get to that point.”

It came to a point where Nader became so impressive the Celtics had to lock him up to a contract. He averaged 21.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.9 assists during his first season with the Red Claws while Young and Jordan Mickey failed to make an impression with the Celtics. Nader kept grinding in the G-League, knowing there was no chance he would get an opportunity to play with the Celtics last season.

But the Celtics signed him to a NBA deal during the summer and allowed Mickey, Young and Jackson to pursue other opportunities.

“He’s done a really good job,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “I think the biggest thing is just continuing to learn our system defensively and offensively. They did a lot of [defensive] switching last year in Maine by design. So he learned a few other things that we do here and then he’s been really good in the switching stuff that we do.

Globe — Abdel Nader’s debut with Celtics a significant step 

Slow Celtics news morning as we’re in between pre-season games and the eyes of Boston sports fans shift to the Sox, Bruins and Pats on this loaded Thursday of must-see-TV. So, let’s grab a link from Chuck’s dump yesterday morning and spotlight Abdel Nader.

Being realistic, it’s going to be difficult for Nader to crack the Celtics’ rotation this season. Heck, he’ll probably be inactive on most nights. Still, Nader’s arrival at this point, a guaranteed NBA contract, is pretty impressive.

Washburn mentions in his piece from Tuesday that Nader was an afterthought in a draft where the Celtics made a handful of picks — James Young, RJ Hunter, Ben Bentil and Demetrius Jackson. Nader was the last of five picks and is the only one who remains.

With three pre-season games left, I’ll be pulling hard for Nader to make some more noise at the bottom of the roster.

On page 2, someone get Kyrie the Waze app

Your Morning Dump... How Nader became a Green Party candidate

That’s Kyrie Irving in Newton (easier to pronounce than Waltham). He was lost. He asked Ben Volin’s sister (Volin writes about the NFL for the Globe) for directions and then took a photo with her 7-year-old son, a huge Kyrie fan.

That’s all great, but who asks for directions? Sure, if you’re over 70 years old and don’t have a smart phone you can put your window down and ask for help, but Irving is 25. Who needs a human when you can use GPS?

 

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