Brooklyn began its summer league against the Detroit Pistons. The Nets only featured three players currently on their roster, second year players Tyshawn Taylor and Tornike Shengelia, as well as this year’s first round pick Mason Plumlee. With the team acquiring Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce on draft night, Brooklyn’s starting five will be one of the strongest in the league. With rotation players CJ Watson and Andre Blatche both free agents, who comes off the bench for Brooklyn is far from set, giving the Nets summer league players an opportunity to make the roster. The Nets would ultimately struggle in their first summer league game, losing to the Pistons 76-67.
The Positives:
- Mason Plumlee. Until his senior year at Duke Plumlee wasn’t asked to do much more than set screens and grab rebounds. His final year he showed more of an offensive game, and he displayed more of that Sunday. While he only finished with ten points, he produced possibly his best move ever to the basket, spinning to the hoop before finishing with a two-handed dunk. You can view it below, in all its low quality glory.
- Most impressive from Plumlee was his rebounding. He totaled 14 for the game, but grabbed many through a relentless motor under the basket. I’m not sold on Mason as a legitimate NBA player, but if he does succeed it will be due to his strong work rate and willingness to fill what ever role Brooklyn needs from him.
- Damion James of Texas had a good game offensively, scoring 14 points on 7-11 shooting, and grabbing eight rebounds. He wasn’t afraid to shoot, and at times was the only player keeping Brooklyn in the game.
- Tyshawn Taylor led the team in scoring with 17, managing to attack the basket and draw fouls. He converted 5-7 from the line, which will bode well for him as slashing point guard.
The Negatives
- Tornike Shengelia was in a word, dreadful. Acquired from the 76ers in last year’s draft, Shengelia spent most of last season in the D-League. He finished with two points on 1-7 shooting, including 0-3 from three. Along with taking bad shots he was shaky with the ball, often dribbling into double teams and disrupting the team’s offensive flow. His strengths are size and energy, particularly off the ball, but too often Tornike (or “Toko”) tried to be the focal point of the offense, trying to create shots for himself that weren’t necessarily the best. Players trying to make a roster want to showcase themselves, but do so by attempting to score. If Toko focuses on doing more of this, he could warrant himself as the 14th or 15th man on the roster.
- Turnovers doomed Brooklyn. They committed 22, eleven of them coming from just Taylor and Plumlee. Granted the Pistons roster featured more NBA caliber talent, but that doesn’t excuse arguably the team’s two best players from committing half the team’s turnovers alone.
- The team shot only 34% and a horrid 7.7% from three (1-13). Aside from Matt Janning (who went 0-2), the team doesn’t include any dangerous outside shooters, yet too often the team settled for jump shots.
The Kidd, Frank Relationship
- This was Jason Kidd’s first game as head coach. Kidd sat on the sidelines, but often conceded play-calling to assistant coach Lawrence Frank. I get the sense that Kidd will be giving Frank a lot of control over play-calling and squad rotation this year, a smart move considering Kidd has never coached at any level. More often than not a head coach is only as good as the staff around him, and Frank, whom Kidd has a history with from his time playing with the Nets, is a great hire. Kidd will likely act more as a leader and player manager this year, feeding off of Frank’s play-calling.
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