Tyshawn Taylor played a few minutes with his squad Taylor Made in an organized street game at Dyckman Park in Washington Heights, Manhattan, and he may get fined for it.
NBA players are not permitted to play in organized street summer leagues until July 1. Taylor told ESPNDeportes he had no knowledge of the rule.
“I didn’t know that. That’s my story, I’m sticking to it.”
Taylor played against Brooklyn high school star Isaiah Whitehead in the game (a loss for Taylor’s squad Taylor Made), but spoke more at length about his NBA challenges, including the team’s loss of confidence:
“I think we all felt like we could have played better and done some things to help us advance further in the playoffs. I think next year, coming back, we’re going to put it together. It’s another new change. I think we still got the same pieces. Hopefully it just works out.”
While Taylor couldn’t pinpoint one particular thing that caused Brooklyn to bottom out in the playoffs, he did point out the firing of Avery Johnson and how the rotation often changed.
“I think it would have helped if we would have had one coach throughout the whole season. I think rotations changed when we lost our first coach and got a second one. People lost confidence. Things like that, little things that I think are definitely controllable. So we just got to fix it.”
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“But it’s hard not to lose confidence when you’re sitting on the bench. You don’t really know what you can do, but you don’t really know because you’re not playing, which is frustrating,” he said.
“I think I lost confidence a little bit but when you’re playing around with talented guys like D-Will and Joe [Johnson]; when you even see them going in slumps and not playing as well as they want to play, it just goes to show you that it happens, man.
“It’s a long season. You’re going to have some ups and downs. You got to stay with it.”
Taylor is also ecstatic to learn under new head coach Jason Kidd. “I got one of the greatest to ever play the game, and that’s a blessing. I think he’s going to bring a new dimension to our team.”
ESPN New York — Taylor plays at Dyckman despite NBA rules
