Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from an Indiana thrashing

The rookie surprise was a spark plug once again Saturday night before he exited the game with a sprained left ankle early in the fourth quarter after rolling his foot over Ed Davis’ foot while defending.

Kurucs popped in 12 points in just 15 minutes with a couple of 3 balls and some nice moves off the dribble. He’s got no shake or shimmy to his game, something that defenses may begin to adjust to at some point and he makes some rookie mistakes, but the energy he brings is palpable.

It’s not a coincidence that the game started to get away from the Nets shortly after Kurucs was helped to the locker room. Teammates seem to feed off Kurucs’ activity level and step up their own in response.

The Nets don’t play again until Wednesday, so it’s possible Kurucs won’t miss any real time. Give the squad of injured players Brooklyn already has, the Nets could stand to catch a break on this one.

Kenneth Faried made his Brooklyn Nets debut in the fourth quarter, entering the game after it had reached the blowout phase.

Faried put up eight points in his limited stint, but it’s hard to evaluate when you have a player who was once a full-time starter going up against rookies and end-of-the-bench types in garbage time.

His energy level was good, though, and he attacked the rim in the manner we expected based on his style of play for seven years with the Denver Nuggets.

The problem is that with the changing NBA style of play, Faried is caught in a sort of no man’s land. He’s really too small to be asked to play extended minutes at center, but a 4 who struggles to contain shooters at the 3-point line is also a liability.

He can bang with the best of them and if that’s what the bulk of a power forward’s job consisted of, he’d have never fallen out of favor in Denver. But in an evolving NBA, Faried’s blast-from-the-past style just doesn’t fit well.