One Net was conspicuously absent from Friday night’s 86-76 win over the Clippers.
Second-year shooting guard MarShon Brooks was left out of the action entirely, as coach Avery Johnson chose instead to hand out his backup minutes at shooting guard and small forward to Keith Bogans and Jerry Stackhouse, respectively.
Though some of Johnson’s decision stemmed from the fact he could use Bogans to try and slow down a red-hot Jamal Crawford, that wasn’t the only reason he left Brooks on the bench — something Johnson potentially could do again this afternoon, when the Nets host the Trail Blazers at Barclays Center.
“That’s half the decision, but part of it is when Bogans and Stackhouse and those guys have been in the rotation, they’ve been really consistent,” Johnson said after yesterday’s practice. “That’s what we’re looking for, consistency. MarShon, he’ll continue to grow and continue to learn, but we need guys that, if anything, will be flat-lined.
“We can’t have the highs and lows. … We need consistency. Right now those guys, over a 10-game period, are the guys that have been real consistent, and they’ll stay in the rotation. MarShon has to stay ready when called upon.”
It’s been an up-and-down start to the season for Brooks, who is adjusting from being a starter and go-to scorer for the Nets last season as a rookie to becoming a piece of a larger puzzle within the team’s overhauled roster.
Though Brooks has had his moments, including a stellar fourth quarter in last Sunday’s win over the Kings in Sacramento, he also has dealt with injury issues that have kept him off the court. After missing the first three preseason games with right foot tendinitis, Brooks missed three more games earlier this season with a sprained left ankle.
In fact, it was that sprained ankle — which Brooks suffered by stepping on Andray Blatche’s foot during a defensive drill walk-through Nov. 9 in Orlando — that opened the door for Stackhouse to enter the rotation in the first place.
“I’m going to keep working, keep my cardio up,” Brooks said after spending some extra time working out yesterday. “We’ve got a lot of good players.”
In addition to wanting to see more consistency, another area Johnson would like improvement from Brooks is on the defensive end. He has Brooks observing Bogans and Gerald Wallace — the Nets’ two best perimeter defenders — to see how they go about their business.
“The main thing is you don’t have to press with our team,” Johnson said. “Just make the simple play, safe pass, simple play, play defense. One of the things we’re trying to help [Brooks] with is when you’re out on the floor, look at Bogans and Gerald — you may not get to that level, but look where they are defensively. They’re in the right spots.
“This is a good year for him to learn from older, veteran players.”