BOSTON \u2014 Jose Alvarado never got far enough ahead of himself to think about playing for his hometown team. A four-star recruit out of Christ the King who went undrafted after four seasons at Georgia Tech, Alvarado was more concerned with whether or not he\u2019d have an NBA career at all.<\/p>\n
His journey led him to the New Orleans Pelicans on a two-way contract he eventually turned into a guaranteed deal. And in the latest wrinkle of a journey setting up to have a storybook ending, after four-and-a-half seasons with the only NBA team he\u2019s ever known, the Brooklyn-born Alvarado has come home. Grand Theft Auto Five is coming to Madison Square Garden \u2014 and the acquisition couldn\u2019t have come at a better time.<\/p>\n
The Knicks made a series of trades ahead of last Thursday\u2019s NBA Trade Deadline<\/a>, first moving off of the ill-fitting Guerschon Yabusele (and his contract) in a deal with the Chicago Bulls for swingman Dalen Terry, then flipping Terry with a pair of second-round picks to the Pelicans for Alvarado just in time to compensate for Miles McBride\u2019s extended absence<\/a> due to a core muscle injury.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the homecoming Alvarado never saw coming.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I can\u2019t say I ever dreamed about this,\u201d the Knicks\u2019 newest guard said in the TD Garden\u2019s visiting locker room ahead of tipoff against the Celtics on Sunday. \u201cIf you know my story \u2014 I\u2019m not saying I wasn\u2019t gonna make it to the NBA \u2014 but there were big questions for me. So just to be part of the city, it\u2019s such a surreal feeling. I can\u2019t wait to put the jersey on and get a few stops in it.\u201d<\/p>\n His friends and family may not have seen it coming, either, but they sure saw the news when it broke, his phone blowing up with welcome home texts.<\/p>\n \u201cToo many [messages], but this is a blessing. I\u2019m from here. My family never left the city,\u201d he said. \u201cSo just to be in the atmosphere\u2014they\u2019ve been Knicks fans probably since before me, and to be on a team that\u2019s trying to contend for something and me be part of it is pretty special.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a lot of mixed emotion when I heard it on the news, coming back home and stuff, so it was exciting. Being here in the city that raised me is a dope feeing and putting a Knicks jersey on is pretty surreal for me. Just trying to stay in the moment, you know what I\u2019m saying?\u201d<\/p>\n Alvarado has a relationship with Josh Hart, who was one of his veterans during his rookie year with the Pelicans. He\u2019s competed against a number of current Knicks players when they were on different teams over the course of their careers, as well.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s so dope. Everybody welcomed me with open arms. I\u2019m excited,\u201d he said. \u201cI watched them play a lot. Some of the guys I played with on different teams. I played against the Knicks. So it\u2019s a dope feeling. Everybody\u2019s excited. Im excited and I can\u2019t wait to go play with them.\u201d<\/p>\n That excitement, of course, will soon fade if the Knicks fail to live up to expectations. Alvarado understands the magnitude of his opportunity in New York, where he\u2019s gone from a Pelicans team perennially near the bottom of the Western Conference standings to a Knicks team expected to compete for a title.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gotta contend. We wanna win games, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I get to be a part of that. I\u2019m excited for that. I\u2019ve just gotta be myself. Let\u2019s get this ball rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n If the Knicks are going to contend \u2014 particularly without McBride \u2014 they\u2019ll need Alvarado\u2019s point-of-attack defense to help keep opposing scoring guards in check. Head coach Mike Brown believes his newest addition fits the bill. Alvarado averaged eight points, three assists and about a steal on 36% shooting from deep in New Orleans this season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe brings a level of toughness to this team, his energy is unmatched,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWhat he can do defensively in the full court and even in the front court with the ball especially on the pick-and-rolls and stuff, is at a pretty high level.<\/p>\n \u201cHe shoots it better than people think, too. We want to play fast and we believe he\u2019s a guy who will come in and push the pace, get into our offense, and all of that because he\u2019s quick and has a low center of gravity \u2014 excited to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Jose Alvarado never got far enough ahead of himself to think about playing for his hometown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,11053,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-591141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jose-alvarado","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks","16":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}