The most interesting thing to come out of Sunday morning’s shootaround availability was a response from interim coach P.J. Carlesimo to a question about whether he’d gotten a complete look at everyone on the roster in his six weeks since taking over.
“Other than Mirza [Teletovic], yes,” Carlesimo said. “[Kris Humphries] not as much recently, but I have a comfort factor in what Hump’s capable of doing. But I think with Mirza, we’re still trying to find out
“Everyone else has played enough to have an expectation of what they can or can’t do. I think we’re still not there with Mirza.”
The numbers would back up Carlesimo’s claim. Although there has been an obvious effort on his part to get Teletovic into the game more often since taking over for Avery Johnson in late December (Teletovic played in 13 of the first 28 games, and has played in 16 of the last 22), he still has barely gotten a chance to play in any meaningful minutes.
Through 50 games, Teletovic has only played double-digit minutes nine times (six since Carlesimo took over). But of those nine times, there have been only three games – a loss to the Thunder in December, and a win over the Raptors and loss in Houston last month – that he’s played double-digit minutes in a game that wasn’t a blowout one way or the other.
It’s one reason why the possibility of a Humphries trade for Ben Gordon makes some sense, as it would allow for Teletovic to get a larger share of minutes, and to potentially settle into a rhythm. But given Carlesimo’s comments, the latest in a string of them since taking over about wanting to see more of the Bosnian sharp-shooter, I wouldn’t be surprised if his minutes continue to go up in upcoming games.