Here are my three takeaways from Monday night’s 127-97 Nets victory over the 76ers:
1. With Paul Pierce and Andrei Kirilenko sitting out against the Sixers, Nets coach Jason Kidd said before the game he was going to play Mirza Teletovic “a little differently,” and followed that up by playing him almost exclusively at small forward for long stretches of the game, including the entire first half, when he was in with the regular rotation.
It was a chance to see Teletovic in a different setting than he was in during the first two preseason contests last week, when it was pretty clear that he was the fifth big man in what should be a four-man rotation behind the starting tandem of Kevin Garnett and Brook Lopez and the second-string duo of Reggie Evans and Andray Blatche.
It was an interesting experiment: Teletovic on the floor – often guarding Evan Turner – playing next to a pair of bigs to give the Nets a ton of size on the floor. It didn’t necessarily work out all that well defensively, but Teletovic showed he’s plenty capable of scoring, finishing with 21 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists in just under 29 minutes, including hitting five 3-pointers.
“When you play with KG, Brook, Reggie, Dray, because everybody’s tall, we can switch,” Teletovic said. “Then Brook will jump out, and they will give me time to jump over the screen. It’s just a good group. A very good group.”
When the topic of his current place on the depth chart came up before the game, Teletovic took a philosophical view on the situation.
“At small forward and power forward, we have a lot of players,” Teletovic said, who added he had practiced some at small forward. “I think through the whole season, because we have a lot of games and a lot of veteran players, there’s going to be a lot of rotation.
“[But] the thing is, people have to realize about this team is this is a team with a lot of players, and everybody is going to have his role, and everybody has to not think about himself, but think about the team. Because we are a team to win the championship, this team is made to win the championship so you have to forget your own goals and just play team basketball to win.”
He has a point about the rotation. There are going to be at least a handful of games – if not as many as 15-20 – when Garnett will sit out even if he’s healthy. The same could be the case for players such as Pierce and Kirilenko.
And Teletovic has shown he can space the floor and knock down 3-pointers, which is becoming a more important commodity in the NBA. So, chances are, he’ll find his way into playing time one way or another.
2. It’s hard not to root for Shaun Livingston. He’s also got a story that’s impossible not to pull for. Six years out from a truly devastating knee injury, he looks – at least through the lens of three preseason games – as if he has a chance to settle in nicely to the backup point guard spot behind Deron Williams, at least once Williams is healthy enough to play.
Livingston continued his impressive run to open the preseason by scoring 17 points to go along with nine rebounds and eight assists Monday night, effortlessly setting up teammates for one wide-open shot after another. The player who seemed to benefit from those setups the most was Joe Johnson, who knocked down four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points.
But Livingston – who even threw down two more dunks for good measure – was the focus of everyone’s attention on a night when, frankly, there wasn’t much to watch.
It’ll also be interesting to see if the Nets don’t try to play Williams and Livingston together. Kidd saw the benefits of a two-point-guard alignment as a player with the Knicks last season, and Livingston’s passing ability would allow Williams to play off the ball and be a scorer, something he’s more than capable of doing.
3. He’s far off the radar in terms of the Nets roster – because the Nets have 15 guaranteed contracts – but Chris Johnson should be on an NBA team. Like Teletovic, he has a clear NBA skill: He can knock down open 3-pointers. Johnson went 5-for-7 from downtown as the Nets went 14-for-27 overall behind the arc (meaning Williams had to do 42 pushups by the end of the game).
Johnson showed the Nets his ability to knock down shots from behind the arc last season when he knocked a couple down while playing for the Grizzlies, and he showed it again Monday night. There were a lot of scouts in attendance, so it was the kind of game that could get him onto a roster down the road.
It could even get him on the Sixers’ roster, which leaves plenty to be desired. Outside of Thaddeus Young and Evan Turner, Philadelphia has very little that any other team would consider in a trade (not counting rookies Nerlens Noel and Michael Carter-Williams, because they won’t be trade bait).
Everyone knew it would be a long season in Philadelphia. After seeing the Sixers in person Monday night, it’s going to be even longer than I imagined.