If the Nets had been told a month ago they would have made it through the preseason without any serious injuries, they gladly would have signed up for that.
The team’s overall good health, more than anything else, is the big takeaway from the exhibition season, which ended with a 108-87 victory over the defending champions in Miami on Friday night.
“We’ve had our spurts,” Paul Pierce said of the Nets’ preseason after scoring 16 points against the Heat. “We’ve had our moments, definitely. We see the potential for this team.”
The Nets have had to wait to actually see it at full force, as they have yet to have everyone on the floor at once. Deron Williams and Jason Terry sat out the early part of camp, Andrei Kirilenko missed the past two weeks with back spasms, and other players have been rested periodically in games.
“We’re waiting to get healthy,” Pierce said. “We haven’t had one game where we’ve had all of the pieces together.
“That’s the beautiful thing about it, I think. We’ve played well for the most part, but we still haven’t put all the pieces together,” Pierce said. Kevin Garnett was given Friday off, “but we got Deron back. We are waiting to see our full potential when we have a full, healthy squad.”
Williams made his preseason debut after sitting out the first six games to recover from a sprained right ankle. It also was a month-long test run for coach Jason Kidd, as he prepares for the start of his first season on the bench — which will be delayed by two games because of suspension for pleading guilty to driving while ability impaired.
“It was a great process for us,” Kidd said of the preseason. “We had to start somewhere.
“[The season is] 82 games, but we still have a long way to go.”
The Nets are expected to practice Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at their New Jersey training facility before leaving for Cleveland for Wednesday’s season opener.
Assuming Williams doesn’t have a setback with his right ankle after playing Friday night, the big question will be whether Kirilenko is able to practice. He remained in New York this week — and missed the Nets’ final five preseason games — after suffering an initial bout of back spasms two weeks ago, only to have his back stiffen up on him again after working out for about 30 minutes in last Sunday’s open practice in Brooklyn.
Kidd said this week the hope is for Kirilenko to be able to go once the Nets return home, and after his first bout of back spasms, Kirilenko said the symptoms usually take about a week to subside.
The only other player with an injury question heading into the week is Tornike Shengelia, continuing his rehabilitation from offseason left knee surgery. He didn’t play at all during the preseason.
The Nets waived three players yesterday — Chris Johnson, Jorge Gutierrez and Adonis Thomas — trimming their roster to the 15-man maximum ahead of Monday’s roster deadline .
Thomas, who the Nets signed last week, is ticketed for the Springfield Armor, the Nets’ D-League team. Both Johnson and Gutierrez, however, have their rights controlled by other D-League teams. None had a realistic chance of making the Nets’ roster because the team had 15 guaranteed contracts going into training camp.