Had a great experience in Springfield !! Learned a lot n got better thanks to my coaches n teammates…back to jersey!
Following the news that Nets center Mehmet Okur will miss the next couple of games with back issues, the Nets recalled Jordan Williams from their D-League affiliate Springfield Armor.
Williams averaged 10.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in his six-game stint, though many of his contributions came beyond the box score. He’ll be available tonight to play the Toronto Raptors.
As the season draws nearer, as does our need to improve our blog’s ranks with great writers. The latest? Chris Hooker. Here’s a little about him:
Chris Hooker is currently a junior at Susquehanna University, located near Amish country Pennsylvania, with a major in creative writing. He grew up in Livonia, New York, a small suburb outside of Rochester. He’s been a diehard New Jersey Nets fan since he discovered them on the YES Network during the first year of the Jason Kidd era, and has continued following the team closely since then. More recently, the days of “The Decision,” the Melodrama and the Dwightmare have all taken a difficult toll on Chris’ social and academic life.
Before joining Nets Are Scorching, Chris published both fiction and nonfiction in the Eunoia Review and, wrote sports columns at the sports site BareKnucks. Despite his love of writing fiction and memoir, sportswriting has always been his goal. Nets are Scorching is Chris’s first chance to get his foot in the door with real basketball analysis and opinions that don’t result in brutal arguments with his friends. You can follow him on Twitter @chrishooker9.
Join me in welcoming Chris to the NAS crew. You’ll see his writing here in the days, weeks, months, et al to come.
An interesting nugget from 2009 found its way into my e-mail this morning, uncovered by Noah Galuten and forwarded to me from Henry Abbott:
PHOENIX — Phoenix Suns center Robin Lopez will have surgery to repair a broken bone in his left foot and is expected to miss six to eight weeks.
Lopez broke his fifth metatarsal — the long bone on the outside of his foot that connects to the little toe — in the second half of the team’s intrasquad scrimmage Saturday in San Diego.
Team officials say the procedure to insert a screw in Lopez’s foot will be performed Tuesday at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix.
Associated Press – Phoenix Suns’ Robin Lopez out 6-8 weeks with broken left foot
Lopez underwent surgery on the foot on October 6th, 2009, and was activated from the IL roughly seven weeks later on November 27th.
If that same timeframe applies to Brook’s recovery, that’d put his time back on the court sometime around mid-February. That’s a very good timetable for his recovery — he’d be back on the court less than halfway through the season, and 35-40 intensely compacted games are better than 66. And, of course, in this instance he’d ideally be back at full strength a full month before the trade deadline.
While very injury and recovery is different, as far as player comparisons for expected recovery go, it’s hard to get a closer match than an identical twin.
Well, that didn’t take long.
Shortly after the Nets learned that Brook Lopez’s consecutive games streak will be snapped at 246 due to a fractured fifth metatarsl in his foot, Billy King announced a deal to acquire Mehmet Okur from the Utah Jazz. The Nets send a second-round pick and a trade exception back to Utah.
Okur’s a perfect fit for New Jersey: an expiring contract in 2011-12 (worth $10.8 million), acquirable for next to nothing, experienced playing with Deron Williams (and you’re kidding yourself if you think Deron had no input here), and according to his former coach Tyrone Corbin, currently in good shape.
Prior to an injury-hobbled 2011, Memo had put up a PER above the league average in each season of his career after his rookie season.
Brook Lopez fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot in the first half of yesterday’s preseason game against the New York Knicks, and will undergo surgery to repair it tomorrow. Lopez hasn’t missed a quarter of any game in his three seasons as a pro, but that streak will undoubtedly end come Monday.
To compare, Rodrigue Beaubois of the Dallas Mavericks underwent the same surgery in 2010, and he didn’t play in a professional game until February 2011.
On the court, this is a major blow to the Nets’ playoff hopes, as Brook is their second-best player and interior anchor, and to their hopes of acquiring Dwight Howard.
Kris Humphries and the New Jersey Nets are finalizing a one-year contract that will pay him between $7 million-$8 million, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Humphries is expected to sign the contract Tuesday and be in uniform for Wednesday’s preseason game against the New York Knicks, sources said. He took his physical in New Jersey Tuesday.
via Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports — Kris Humphries to stay with Nets
A one-year deal for Humphries in the $7-8 million range is nearly ideal for the Nets, as it maintains cap flexibility and forces him to prove that last season wasn’t a fluke. With a dearth of talent at the power forward position, Humphries fills that need immediately, if only temporarily.
This deal also officially puts the Nets above the 80% salary floor.
The Nets are hosting an open practice Monday at 6 P.M. at Ramapo College. Tickets are free through the team’s Facebook page.
