Long Island drafts three guards ... and adds to its Princeton flavor

Hello Princeton?

With Devin Cannady, Princeton’s star shooting guard, already on their roster, the Long Island Nets drafted his teammate Myles Stephens on Saturday, one of three guards the team picked up in the G League Draft.

With less than 48 hours till the opening of training camp, the Long Island Nets drafted Stephens of Princeton in the second round and Joe Cremo of Villanova and U. of Albany in the fourth, then traded for Jahmal McMurray of SMU and South Florida, who had been taken at No. 21 in the first round.

Stephens and Cremo are 6’5” and 6’4” respectively while McMurray is 6’0”. Stephens and Cremo are (somewhat) local products, Stephens from Lawrenceville, NJ and Cremo from upstate Scotia.

Long Island originally took Miles Reynolds, another guard who played at Oklahoma and U. of Pacific at No. 27, but traded his rights to Northern Arizona for Jeremy Senglin, who last played for Long Island two years ago, for McMurray.

Cannady and Stephens played four years together at Princeton, The 6’2” Cannady was a last minute signing by the Brooklyn Nets, being inked October 15, just after the team returned from China. He was waived three days later, then assigned to Long Island.

Stephens recorded averages of 13.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 33.4 minutes per game in 27 games during the 2018-19 season en route to First Team All-Ivy League and Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year honors. Cannady, who left the team early after a confrontation with a campus security guard, led the Tigers in scoring at 18.2 points a game and finished his Princeton career with shooting averages of 43/40/90. He was second team all-Ivy as a junior.

Although undersized, McMurray is a scorer. He played in 32 games for SMU last season, posting averages of 18.1 points, 2.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 32.7 minutes per contest while shooting 44.9 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from deep. He played his freshman and sophomore seasons at the University of South Florida.

Cremo played 36 games (five starts) with Villanova as a graduate transfer during the 2018-19 season, recording averages of 4.0 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 16.6 minutes per contest. In his last year at Albany before transferring to Villanova, Cremo averaged 17.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. He shot a scorching 46 percent from 3-point range. In 2014, he was the New York State Class A Player of the Year. Cremo worked out for Brooklyn prior to the 2019 NBA Draft.

Even before the Draft, Long Island Nets had a number of guards on the training camp roster. Jaylen Hands, who was drafted at No. 56 in the second round of the 2019 NBA Draft, has been practicing in Long Island and is expected to be officially signed in the next few days. Like Cannady. CJ Massinburg of Buffalo was signed to and Exhibit 10 deal earlier in the month. He played for the Nets summer league team.

Following training camp, Long Island will have to cut their roster to 10 players. Two-way players are not included in the 10 player limit. In addition, Long Island can expand their roster to 13 players, if Brooklyn decides to assign players to their affiliate.

Henry Ellenson and Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot are the Nets two-way players, Ellenson signed in July, Luwawu-Cabarrot on Wednesday. Both Ellenson and Luwawu-Cabarrot can spend no more than 45 days with the Brooklyn Nets under the two-way contract rule. Once they reach that limit, the team will have to decide whether to sign them to a standard NBA contract or let them go.

Both were on Brooklyn’s sidelines, in street clothes, for Friday’s win over the Knicks. Luwawu-Cabarrot, still only 24, has more NBA experience (171 games) than eight of his Nets teammates — Nic Claxton, Theo Pinson, Dzanan Musa, Rodions Kurucs, Henry Ellenson, David Nwaba, Jarrett Allen, and Caris LeVert.

In addition, Long Island holds the G League rights of 6’7” forward Deng Adel, 6’11” center John Egbunu and 6’5” small forward C.J. Williams.

Starting next Thursday, the Nets can sign a replacement player for WIlson Chandler who has been suspended for the first 25 games of the season. Once he is eligible to return on December 15, the Nets will have to adjust the roster once again.