J.R. Smith says Cleveland is right place for him because 'there's no late nights'

J.R. Smith has always been something of an enigma - a player with plain talent and no shortage of confidence, for better or worse, who gets mired in mystifying slumps and can be notoriously difficult to rein in. 

Sine being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this month, Smith has mostly been Good J.R. Smith, averaging 14.3 points and connecting on 37.4 percent of his copious 8.3 3-point attempts per game. 

Smith has offered a handful of reasons for his struggles with the New York Knicks before the trade, from the difficulty of grasping the triangle offense to a general tension in the locker room. But his most convincing explanation yet might be the assertion that in New York, unlike his new NBA home in Cleveland, there were too many distractions from basketball. 

"I think this is the best situation for me, cause there’s nothing but basketball," Smith told NBA.com's David Aldridge of playing for the Cavs. "There’s nothing you expect but basketball. There’s nothing, there’s no going out, there’s no late nights. There’s video games, basketball and basketball.

"It’s a great thing, because I go back to where I came from. When I grew up … I wasn’t allowed to go out. I missed my prom because I went to an AAU tournament, and all that stuff. For me, it was basketball, basketball, basketball ... so now, I get a chance to get back to my roots."

Good for Smith's basketball career Cleveland may well be, but that type of pitch is unlikely to sway prospective free agents to come play for the Cavs.

- With h/t to Bleacher Report