Here on Brooklyn Balling, I’ll try to recap the chaos that was the 2013-14 Nets season with a series of “Season Review” posts on the players, trades, and even coach that shaped how this year turned out. Tornike Shengalia was last, and Jorge Gutierrez is up next.
The Nets signed Jorge Gutierrez–a point guard who went to Cal-Berkeley, just like Nets coach Jason Kidd–off of the D-League’s Canton Charge back in March, first bringing him up on a 10-day deal when they wanted another backcourt option off the bench.
He didn’t get a lot of playing time on that first deal, but when a second 10-day was extended to him, he quickly showed his worth with a big 10-point performance in a win over the Boston Celtics on March 21st. In that game, he made five of his six field goals and demonstrated how adept he was at leading an offense, albeit one he didn’t even know too well.
This led Brooklyn to extend his contract for the rest of the 2013-14 season, and down the stretch, he actually played a relatively significant role for the Nets as a reserve point guard who gave Deron Williams and Shaun Livingston rest spells when needed. He even appeared in two games of the second round playoff series against the Heat, even if the appearances were for two and one minutes respectively.
Gutierrez finished his rookie campaign with a partially-guaranteed multiyear contract with the Nets; pretty good for an undrafted free agent from the D-League, no? Overall, in 15 regular season games (with two starts), he scored 4.1 points in 16.3 minutes per contest while shooting 46% from the field. Not too shabby.
Unless some unforeseen move brings in another point guard, thusly making Gutierrez expendable, Jorge will be back with the Nets next season. Surely, Jason Kidd sees a lot of himself in the fellow Cal alum, and probably is trying to mold him into a player who can play serious minutes in a big role for Brooklyn going forward. Don’t underestimate that Berkeley connection.
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