The word out of practice yesterday was that Troy Murphy was “50-50″ for his season debut tonight against Charlotte. Al Iannazzone talks to Avery Johnson about what Murphy’s return means to the Nets:
“He brings a lot of stability there,” Johnson said. “He’s a proven NBA starter. Now the thing for him is we want to get him a situation where he can be a proven valuable asset on a playoff team, somewhere down the line.”
Obviously, it’s most important that he’s healthy enough to go, but I’m excited to see what this team can do with Murphy in the fold. We really haven’t seen it yet, and I think there will be fewer offensive slumps with another shooter out there who will make teams pause about stacking the middle against Brook Lopez and Devin Harris.
With the obvious caveat that comes with nearly any analytical post after the first three games of the season – it’s still early – when looking at some of Avery Johnson’s rotations, one combination that appears to be yielding early positive returns is when Jordan Farmar and Devin Harris are on the court simultaneously, with Farmar handling the PG duties, and Harris focusing on his offense.
In the Nets two wins, a rotation that featured both Farmar and Harris was used during fourth quarter crunch time, and in both cases the Nets made a late surge to win, with both players hitting critical shots and free throws down the stretch. The tandem was used more frequently on Friday night against the Sacramento Kings – when Farmar and Harris played together in 9 different rotations, putting up a +/- of +15 when they were paired (and they only yield one negative stretch together, a 15-second clip in the fourth quarter when they put up a +/- of -1). The pairing was used a little less on opening night, five times, and only yielded a significant positive result once – but boy, was it a positive result, a +11 in a three-minute stretch of last week’s comeback win against the Pistons. For the sake of argument, I’m throwing out Sunday’s game against Miami, since no floor combination yielded many positive results.
When Farmar first signed with the Nets during the summer, I think many Nets fans were expecting to see him on the floor with Devin Harris, who unfairly or not, has been labeled a “shoot first” point guard (though nobody seems to mind when he’s hitting his shots, ergo, all of the Harris hand-wringing last season). Farmar even spoke publicly about the two PGs being used at the same time, and it certainly sounded like a good idea to get a true point on the floor with Harris, especially in crunch time situations where Harris is infinitely more valuable as a scorer as compared to a distributor.
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Needing just 21 more three-point field goals to qualify for the NBA all-time record in long-ball marksmanship, Anthony Morrow is the subject of a profile in the Wall Street Journal. In it, Steve Kerr, the current holder of the shooting record, heaps praise on Morrow:
“He’s just got such a beautiful, natural rhythm,” said Mr. Kerr, who is now an analyst for TNT. “He’s one of those guys that could probably shoot when he was six years old. Mr. Kerr said the key for Mr. Morrow is balance. “Without good balance it’s impossible to be consistent,” he said. “He’s got a good base underneath him and he squares his body well.”
Of all the players the Nets picked up in the off-season, Morrow may have the most noticeable impact. Outside of his big shot on opening night – and it was a huge shot mind, you – we haven’t really seen Morrow get into the flow of the offense yet and go off. I think he will soon, especially once Brook Lopez and Devin Harris grasp the idea that they have shooters who can hit shots on the perimeter now and it’s better to pass to one of them than force a shot in a double team.
Though Devin will quickly remind us that Derrick Favors is still very, very young, the rookie phenom is off to a strong start in his first three games in the NBA. With his 13 points and 13 rebounds off the bench against Miami yesterday, Favors is officially averaging a double-double (10.3 points and 10 rebounds) in his first three games. And like a good rookie, Favors tells the Star-Ledger’s Colin Stephenson, that he’s not caught up in his scoring and instead is focused on rebounding:
“That’s the only way I can get myself going offensively, because I know, coming into the game, Brook’s (Lopez) our man, Devin (Harris), (Anthony) Morrow — all them guys,” Favors said. “They can score, so mainly, the offense is going to run through them, but I try to make an impact by rebounding, keeping shots alive, and try to get myself going offensively, too.”
I was very excited that the Nets were sticking with Favors, at least in the early part of this season, but I certainly didn’t expect him to show so much consistency in the first week of the season. I don’t think he’ll end up with a double-double his rookie year, but it’s nice to see him come in right away and clean up the glass and get his share of garbage points.
