Nets rookie MarShon Brooks will be out for an undetermined amount of time with a fracture in his right pinky toe.
Brooks arrived at yesterday’s practice with “some pretty significant swelling,” according to coach Avery Johnson before an X-ray revealed the injury. Brooks visited a foot specialist later in the day.
Brooks, the team’s second-leading scorer, returned to play 22 minutes in Sunday night’s loss to the Raptors after missing three games with a sore left Achilles tendon, but Johnson said the injury was unrelated to Brooks’ previous affliction.
May 2012 Brooklyn Nets Wiretap
Deron Williams is averaging 22.1 points per game over the Nets’ last nine games, a stretch that has seen the team go 5-4 and inch within a game-and-a-half of the final playoff spot in the East.
“My teammates are really encouraging me that I need to be aggressive and pretty much told me I need to score for us to be successful,” said Williams. “I averaged 20 points last year so it’s not that I don’t score. It’s just the way I was going about it. I like to get people involved and that’s how I get my confidence. But it wasn’t really happening early so I kind of [reversed] that role [to] score first.”
Williams is enjoying the run after suffering through a 2-9 start to the season.
“We’re playing better as a team,” Williams said. “Now we’re kind of consistent. We were making a lot of mistakes and it seems like nothing was really going right for us and I just kind of let that get me down. My spirits are a lot better now. We’re playing with a lot of energy. That’s helping everybody, not just myself but everybody. ... We’re a totally different team than we were a month ago.”
The New Jersey Nets have recalled rookie forward Jordan Williams from the Springfield Armor.
Williams appeared in six games with the Armor, all starts, and averaged 10.5 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 32 minutes. He shot .451 (23-51) from the field and .531 (17-32) from the line. He tallied three double-doubles.
Forbes magazine estimated this week that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov lost between $5 and $6 billion last year, placing his net worth between $13 billion and $12 billion, down from $18 billion last March.
Most of that loss has come from the poor performance of his public holdings, which have gotten battered along with the Russian stock market.
Prokhorov still has an estimated cash pile of $4 billion, proceeds remaining from his 2008 sale of Norilsk Nickel to fellow billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
Brook Lopez would have preferred to be involved in any discussions that led to the Nets’ decision not to extend his contract.
“It does include me,” Lopez said with a shrug after the Nets made official on Wednesday what they had indicated for some time — they did not extend the fourth-season center while also not picking up the third year option on Damion James, moves intended to keep as much cap space as possible for a free agent run at Dwight Howard.
“I understand it I suppose from a business standpoint,” Lopez said. “But yeah, I think it’s disappointing because I’d like to be here.”
Damion James underwent successful surgery on Tuesday to repair aggravation to a previous fracture in his fifth metatarsal, on which he had surgery on December 13, 2010, Billy King announced.
The surgery, performed by Dr. David Porter at Indiana University Health Hospital in Indianapolis, involved the replacement of a screw in James’ fifth metatarsal.
James is out for the remainder season.
Deron Williams isn’t at all that happy about playing in the Nets’ homecourt at the Prudential Center
“I don’t like this arena one bit,” Williams said after the Nets lost to the Thunder, 84-74, Saturday night at Prudential Center. “But, it’s a good thing it’s not our arena next year.
“Even last year, it just doesn’t feel like our home arena. I don’t know why. It just doesn’t feel like it.”
Williams cited the sight lines inside Prudential Center, not built strictly for basketball, as part of the issue.
“It just doesn’t have good vision,” Williams said. “The depth perception’s not there.”
Mikhail Prokhorov is planning to run against Vladimir Putin in the Russian presidential election.
Prokhorov told reporters this week that he would “sell my shares (of the Nets) to a blind trust” should he become prime minister or, as phrased by the reporter, “if (his) political career is hugely successful.”
Giving his shares to a blind trust doesn’t mean Prokhorov would relinquish his investment, just that trustees would be given full discretion over the Nets’ assets.
Deron Williams' would prefer to remain with the Nets, but that appears to be predicated on the team's ability to acquire Dwight Howard, say sources.
Williams will sign a new deal with the Nets if Howard ends up joining him in Brooklyn.
The Mavericks, the Knicks and the Lakers would be his preferred options if he leaves the Nets, according to sources close to the situation.
If Howard is traded to another team that he plans on re-signing with, the Nets will begin to explore a trade of Williams, according to a source.
Brook Lopez was asked about general manager Billy King's announcement that he likely won't offer him a contract extension by the Jan. 25 deadline, meaning Lopez will probably become a restricted free agent this summer.
"I didn’t even know there was a deadline for contracts, honestly," Lopez said. "I knew there was a trade deadline."
That, of course, is March 15, and with the Nets still hoping to acquire Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard, Lopez is well aware he could be traded away from the Nets by the deadline.
"I don’t know. I’d like to be (with the Nets), but you know — a lot of uncertainties," he said. "I don’t know."