The Nets’ most popular player with the media during training camp wasn’t Deron Williams or Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett.
It was the team’s rookie, Mason Plumlee.
The Duke graduate, whom the Nets selected with the 22nd pick, was mobbed by the local media all week long in Durham, N.C., and was happy to get a chance to be back in familiar environs for a week — including visiting with his brother, Marshall, who is a sophomore forward for the Blue Devils.
“Yeah, it was cool,” Plumlee said. “I got to see a lot of people I spent four years with. My coaches, my brother obviously, and even got a chance to catch up with some teachers, so it was cool.”
Plumlee is a very athletic 7-footer, and showed that off during the week-long training camp. But he was devoting extra work to his touch around the basket and his jump shot at nearly every practice — particularly with the Nets’ big man coach, Roy Rogers.
Plumlee needs to improve upon his jump shot, more than anything, in his transition from college to the pros. Playing center as a senior for the Blue Devils last season, Plumlee finished with just two made jump shots. He attributed his lack of outside shooting mostly to Duke’s style of play.
“My freshman year I played more four, so if you look, I even hit a couple 3s my freshman year,” he said. “Then I played the five, and the five at Duke, you’re not really stepping out, so it was just kind of my role.”
Plumlee said he doesn’t have a set number of shots he is trying to get up every day, but he can see the benefits in developing a consistent jump shot, particularly with “stretch” fours — power forwards with outside shooting range — becoming the norm in the NBA.
“You see how valuable these guys are that can step out,” Plumlee said. “Those guys are valuable. You can play four and five. Right now they’re just looking at me to play the five, but if I can knock that down, then I can spare [Garnett], spare Mirza [Teletovic] and those guys.”
*
As he prepared to head back to New York with his team Saturday, coach Jason Kidd wondered how his players would respond when they hit the practice court again Monday following their first off-day of the season.
“Coming back to that next practice is one of the toughest [of the year],” Kidd said. “Come Monday, the hardest practice is when you’ve had five days in a row, get a day off and then you come back at it again.”