CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The Island Storm has made a move in an effort to get more production from their shooting guard position.
The National Basketball League (NBL) of Canada squad released Jarrell Tate Thursday and signed Kareem Canty.
“We had to get help at that position,” head coach Tim Kendrick said.
The shooting guard, also known as the two spot, is traditionally one of a basketball team’s top scorers, but the Storm has struggled to find consistent contributions there this season.
Tate came to the Storm from the Drew League, but was unable to get on track in the NBL.
He was fourth in team in scoring, averaging 10.3 points per game. He shot 49 per cent from the field, 23 per cent from beyond the three-point arc and 44 per cent from the free-throw line.
Canty, a 25-year-old Harlem, N.Y., native, played a year with Storm forward Tirrell Baines at Marshall and also played at Auburn, where he was one of the top scorers (18.3 points per game) and assist (111) leaders in the Southeastern Conference (SEC).
“He’s an explosive scorer,” Kendrick said. “He can really shoot the ball.”
While Canty can create his own shot, he is also able to get good looks for his teammates. Kendrick said the six-foot-one, 185-pound Canty is versatile enough to play any of the guard spots.
The Storm leads the league in rebounds and assists per game while being second in scoring, despite not receiving the production from the two spot it had hoped to with its off-season moves.
The Storm is 2-4 this season, but three of its four losses have come by single digits.
“It certainly had an effect on the decision coming now,” Kendrick said, when asked about the team’s spot in the standings.
Canty will meet his new teammates today in Ontario where the Storm starts a two-game road trip on Friday against the expansion Sudbury Five (7-5) at 8 p.m. Atlantic. It concludes the trip Sunday at 3 p.m. in Windsor.
