Nets Daily Dosage: Deron Williams Talk and More!
How’s it going Nets fans? I’m here to bring you the latest news and insights on your favorite team, the Brooklyn Nets! Let’s start this off by going over some things with the team’s starting point guard, Deron Williams.
It’s been well documented that Williams has not played nearly as well as he did with the Utah Jazz. His play has certainly slipped and he’s dealt with multiple ankle injuries. He did have surgery on both of his ankles this offseason appears to be near 100 percent health.
Recently, Thomas Duffy of Bleacher Report wrote an article evaluating the Nets point guard position both from last season and looking ahead to this season. While he did a great job assessing the Nets point guard performance from last season, Mr. Duffy made a highly questionable prediction for this season. Here’s what he wrote in one part:
"The Nets are not going to live and die with their point guards. D-Will and Jack will be key players, but it’ll predominantly be Lopez, Johnson, Plumlee and Bogdanovic who will be asked to put points on the board."
Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson will undoubtedly be either the top two scorers or will be two out of the top three scorers for the team. Now to expect Mason Plumlee and Bojan Bogdanovic to be the next two scorers is really asking for a lot. He seems to be forgetting that Williams is a good scorer.
Last season, even with Paul Pierce on the team, Williams was the third leading scorer on the team in terms of points per game with 14.3; second when Lopez went down for the season with a broken leg. He was second on the team in scoring in the postseason with 14.5 points per contest.
Sure, Plumlee has gotten significantly better since the start of his rookie season, but he averaged just 7.4 points per game in the regular season and 2.2 points in the playoffs. To think that Plumlee will be a 13-plus point scorer in his second season is being highly optimistic.
Bogdanovic is a rookie who will likely be coming off the bench for the Nets. He may be able to score at a high rate but his minutes will still be limited to begin the season.
Speaking of Bogdanovic, Duffy also recently wrote an article about the Nets rookie from Croatia. In part of the article, Duffy compares Bogdanovic to that of the recently departed Pierce:
"Three years ago, a YouTube video showing striking similarities between Bogdanovic and Pierce surfaced.The more you watch, the more powerful the resemblance becomes. It’s uncanny. The way Bogdanovic shoots, dribbles, pump-fakes, spins and moves is like a mirror of Pierce."
He’s not expecting Bogdanovic to be as good as Pierce once was. He’s just saying that he has a similar style offensively.
Lopez has remained busy this offseason. After recently co-hosting a nutrition-teaching event with Keke Palmer, Coca-Cola teamed up with Lopez to host kids from a nearby Boys & Girls Club for a basketball clinic. In the video provided on the official team site, it’s clear to see that Lopez had a great time with the kids.
Many Nets fans are probably also excited for the All-Star weekend this year. The Nets will be hosting all of the pre-game events such as the Dunk Contest and Three-Point Shootout. In anticipation of the event, the team announced that it will be wearing special patches on its jerseys in the games leading up to the event.