The Brooklyn Game

Preseason Homecoming

Devin Kharpertian — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 12:00:27 +0000

Andrei Kirilenko (left) may check Josh Smith in new surroundings tonight. (AP)

The Brooklyn Nets opened their preseason with an overtime victory over the Washington Wizards, led by Tyshawn Taylor, Mirza Plumlee, Jorge Gutierrez, and Mirza Teletovic. You should enjoy that sentence now, because should you ever see it again, you've either accidentally stumbled onto the Springfield Armor website in February or MRSA has crept out of Tampa Bay and infected the Brooklyn Nets rotation players.

Tonight, the Brooklyn Nets play act two of their We Talkin' Bout Preseason Tour, coming home to Brooklyn to play against an NBA opponent for the first time since losing Game 7 in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs against the Chicago Bulls on May 4th. They'll take on the Detroit Pistons, possibly the only team in the Eastern Conference to undergo as much of a transformation as Brooklyn this offseason.

After two seasons with Brandon Knight at the helm, the Pistons cut ties with him this offseason, trading him to the Milwaukee Bucks with Khris Middleton and Viacheslav Kravtsov for erratic Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings. They signed similarly erratic power forward Josh Smith to a four-year deal worth $54 million to play small forward next to Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond.

Unfortunately, these things to watch won't help you much; unless you're at the arena, there isn't a way to watch tonight's game in Brooklyn. YES Network will not be covering the game live. We, as usual, will provide our live Twitter updates, as will the Brooklyn Nets twitter account.

Here's three things I'll be watching out for in tonight's game.

1) Stretching the rotation. Head coach Jason Kidd said before Tuesday's contest that he'd limit the starters to roughly 12 minutes, and he stayed true to his word -- Brooklyn's core four (Deron Williams excluded due to injury) played exactly 12:29 of game time, all in the first half. That didn't keep them from engaging with the game throughout the contest, though. Now that we've got one game in the books, maybe Kidd will give his starters a bit more time. That's fine with me -- the more we see Kevin Garnett on the floor, the better.

2) Shaun Livingston. Livingston was the team's only starter that played more than that 12:29, finishing with nearly 19 minutes played, and he looked sharp with the starters and reserves. Brook Lopez glowed about Livingston before the team's first preseason game, calling him a true point guard and breaking down just how well Livingston does at getting the big the ball in the spots he likes. Livingston racked up five assists in his time, one of them a particularly nice behind-the-back pass to a cutting Lopez for a dunk. If he continues to look this good... This is the team's backup.

3) Andrei "MVP" Kirilenko. We ranked Kirilenko as our team MVP after game one for his all-around effort on both ends of the floor, and I'd expect another great outing out of him. He, after all, is a starter in reserve's clothing, and the opportunity to feast on lesser players is one Kirilenko may get a lot this year. He sees defensive moves and open offensive spots a split second ahead of most players.

One thing to keep an eye on: if he plays against Pistons starters at all, he'll have his hands full with Josh Smith, a power forward playing the 3 next to the behemoth Detroit frontline of Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond. Kirilenko's a player often praised for his ability to guard any position on the floor -- against the Pistons, we may actually get to see him do it.

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A Special Message From Reggie Evans To You About His Beard

Devin Kharpertian — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 18:17:05 +0000

Seriously, what happened? Every time he talks about this it gets more and more confusing.

#FearTheBKBeard

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Deron Williams out for three preseason games

Devin Kharpertian — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 15:34:33 +0000

Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams will miss at least the next three preseason games as he continues to rest his injured right ankle, Williams told ESPN New York at a community event in Brooklyn yesterday.

Williams originally hurt his ankle working out in Utah last month, showing up to his celebrity dodgeball tournament in a walking boot as a protector. He has not worn the boot publicly since.

He'll miss the Detroit Pistons on Saturday, the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday and the Boston Celtics on Tuesday. His next possible return would be October 17th against the Miami Heat, when coach Jason Kidd will have his jersey retired at Barclays Center by the Nets. Kidd said Thursday that Williams has done light shooting drills but he has not returned to full practices yes.

"(We're) taking it slow, but with the goal of being ready for Game 1 [of the regular season]," Williams said.

ESPN New York -- Deron Williams still resting ankle

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Nets tickets get highest uptick on secondary market

Devin Kharpertian — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 15:24:45 +0000

Even as the Nets are slowly rolling out increased ticket prices, brokers have taken full advantage of the Brooklyn Nets rebranding, using it as an opportunity to cash in on the team's cachet, according to research from the blog TickPick.

In 2012, the average Nets ticket sold on the secondary market for a full 105% higher price than the team's last season in New Jersey in 2011, leading the NBA in uptick and making them the only team in the NBA that more than doubled their previous season's ticket prices. The only team close was the New Orleans then-Hornets now-Pelicans, who had just added #1 overall pick Anthony Davis.

Even a 105% increase seems low. There were a lot of seats available on StubHub for literally one cent before the fees last year. People were basically begging you to watch the New Jersey Nets for them.

More research from TickPick indicated that the Nets had the ninth-highest average face value price for their tickets, at $55.89. The cross-town New York Knicks led the NBA with an average face value price of $132.22, though as you can see from the chart above, their prices on the secondary market actually went down last season from 2011.

TickPick -- NBA Ticket Prices 2013

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Kevin Garnett’s Massachusetts mansion is on sale for $5 million

Devin Kharpertian — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 16:14:20 +0000

Love Kevin Garnett? Want to live in his old pad? Have $5 million lying around? Now's your chance to get in on the opportunity of a lifetime. According to The Big Lead, this 11,000-square foot single-family mansion in Concord, Massachusetts is the former home of Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Garnett, and it's up for sale for the low, low price of $4,850,000. (But don't worry! There are payment options.)

The 5-bedroom house is predictably lavish. From the listing:

Majestic waterfront Contemporary Estate sited on 12+ acres designed by international award winning architects Machado and Silvetti Associates, celebrated creators of the Getty Villa in Malibu. Sun flooded interiors with elegant custom finishes, young fresh design offering a sumptuous master bedroom suite with an amazing oversized dressing room. Fully finished lower level with a wine cellar,media room and a gym fit for a champion. A stunning modern masterpiece overlooking a serene pond on beautifully secluded acreage. Rare property with provenance, and celebrity cache. The glamour and style of California in a gorgeous New England setting.

You can also scroll through the images, which is great, because one of them very clearly has a Knicks-Celtics game on the television in the background.

Things that do not appear to be in the house that I've always assumed Kevin Garnett had:

Gym full of punching bags with Wally Szczerbiak's face printed on them
Blood-spinning centrifuge
Basement bunker where he holds Glen Davis's soul
FOUR fireplaces (only three, Kevin? Really?)
Self-torture chamber with Carmelo Anthony highlights on loop across all four walls
Hipster coffee shop

That said: it looks like a good school system, and the fifth bedroom has a balcony. Still interested? Go check it out.

(h/t The Big Lead)

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Paul Pierce uses extended metaphor to compare Nets to soup

Devin Kharpertian — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 15:50:34 +0000

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We're like a soup, you see. Because you make the soup, and eat the soup, and it's delicious, but sometimes it's not so delicious, because you put crappy things in the soup. But we're not crappy things, we're delicious soup. Like a nice tomato basil. Yeah. I'm a big fan of tomato basil. Especially when you add fine ground black pepper? Oh, man, that hits the spot. None of that store-bought mess, I mean the real black pepper that gets ground right in front of you at a fancy Italian restaurant where the waiters all have their own individual accents from different parts of Italy. You ever been to Italy? It's amazing. The tomatoes there must've been purified in triple-distilled spring waters or something. They're wickedly delectable. Wait, what were we talking about again? Oh, that's right. Yeah. Go Nets.

(Courtesy of YES Network)

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Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez, Andray Blatche, and Reggie Evans Do The Cookie Dance

Devin Kharpertian — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 15:36:59 +0000

I really have no words for this. Sometimes the best thing to do is just shut up and let the dancing speak for itself.

Deron Williams and Joe Johnson Do The Cookie Dance

Brook Lopez and Andray Blatche Do The Cookie Dance

Reggie Evans Learns How To Do The Cookie Dance, Does The Cookie Dance

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Brooklyn Nets injury updates, 10.10.2013

Devin Kharpertian — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 15:24:50 +0000

On a conference call with reporters Thursday morning, Jason Kidd gave updates on player injury statuses heading into Saturday's preseason game against the Detroit Pistons:

Deron Williams (ankle) is still not engaging in contact in practices, but did light shooting work the day before and is not expected to play in Saturday's game.
Jason Terry (knee) has started doing contact practices but his status for Saturday's game is uncertain until he participates in the team's practice Friday.
Gary Forbes (illness) is cleared to practice, but officially listed as day-to-day.
Jorge Gutierrez sprained his ankle during Tuesday night's game and is day-to-day, though not expected to play in Saturday night's game.

Additionally, assistant coach Lawrence Frank is still not with the team after missing Tuesday night's victory over the Washington Wizards for personal reasons. Kidd declined comment on Frank's situation, but when asked what the team's missing with Frank gone, Kidd cracked "his height." (Frank is about 5'7".)

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YES hires Donny Marshall as color commentator

Devin Kharpertian — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:55:07 +0000

YES Network has hired Donny Marshall as an in-game Brooklyn Nets analyst.

After the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Marshall in the second round of the 1995 NBA Draft, he spent five years in the NBA, the final two with the back-to-back New Jersey Nets NBA Finals teams led by Jason Kidd in 2001-02 and 2002-03. Marshall replaces Greg Anthony as YES's third color analyst behind Mike Fratello and Jim Spanarkel, who left YES to join CBS as a college basketball analyst.

Marshall was most recently a color commentator for Comcast SportsNet, covering the Boston Celtics. He also works for NBC Sports Network.

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Because of course it did

Devin Kharpertian — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 02:05:57 +0000

#WeTalkinBoutPreseason

Preseason games are hilarious. They're a group of grown men operating under the agreement that everything they do is inherently meaningless in front of around 5,000 spectators also who understand that. They play the important players just enough to justify their airfare and let the bench players try to impress people for the rest of the night. The score couldn't matter less and individual stats matter even less than that. It's fun if your team wins, but we're talking about preseason here. Nobody really cares.

But if preseason basketball has any meaning at all, it's in the little moments. For one, it's a return to professional basketball, to the camaraderie, to the flow of the game, the smoothness of the announcers, the back-and-forth on the floor. But it's also an introduction: we get to see the new-look Brooklyn Nets, replete with stardom and coaching changes and luxury tax payments, take the floor against another professional basketball team, a real opponent with their own jerseys and arena and ~~luxury tax payments~~ salary cap concerns.

And like any preseason game, we got our share of silliness. It went to overtime, because of course it did. Paul Pierce recorded three fouls in the first quarter. Reggie Evans took three field goal attempts while being triple-teamed. Alan Anderson played heroball. Mirza Teletovic was the last man off the bench and it took him all of one possession before hoisting his first shot. Andray Blatche, irrational confidence savant, calmly rose for an open three-pointer without hesitation and clanged it so perfectly you'd thought Wizards fans drew it up themselves. He also airballed a stepback and took something like 30 shots against his former team that's still paying him around $8 million to stay away.

But there were also glimpses of what this year's Brooklyn Nets could look like at their best. On the first possession of the game, Kevin Garnett -- who had the ball above the three-point line at the time -- handed it off to former & current teammate Paul Pierce, who curled around Garnett's handoff and buried an 18-foot jumper. On the next possession, a flurry of ball movement around the floor ended in a Brook Lopez dunk. The Nets starters recorded nine assists on 10 field goals in the first half, and Deron Williams replacement Shaun Livingston looked like a starting NBA point guard with his combination of size, quickness, and passing ability. The team has taken Jason Kidd's vision of court vision to heart,

With the bench in, Andrei Kirilenko was a spidery menace all over the floor, knocking passes away, swarming defenders, hitting off-balance shots, seeing passing angles that few players could, and somehow stuffing the stat sheet in a game that had more in common with Whose Line is it Anyway than an NBA playoff game. Tyshawn Taylor hasn't lost a lick of athleticism and already looks like a more willing passer. Teletovic threw down a tomahawk putback slam unlike anything I've ever seen Mirza do buried a bunch of threes, resulting in Deron Williams doing three pushups on the bench each time. Also with the bench in, Kevin Garnett huddled the team together -- while the game was still playing, mind you -- and barked orders and instructions at them, even with the guarantee that he wouldn't play again in the game.

And near the end of regulation, training camp invitee Chris Johnson came up with the biggest defensive stop of the night, blocking a layup that would've given the Wizards a one-point lead with under a minute left. Mason Plumlee was on the free throw line in crunch time, because this is preseason. Jorge Gutierrez played with poise and the Tyshawn Taylor-Mason Plumlee connection came up big twice in overtime, because the ultimate result of this game has nothing to do with who wins or loses.

So while The Points Don't Matter™, the moments do. Win or lose, we got a brief look at what the Brooklyn Nets might look like. And win or lose, I liked what I saw. For a little while, anyway.

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