MarShon Brooks has talked about trying to be the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year this season. But, in order to win the award, he will have to earn the job on his own team.
The Nets’ second-year shooting guard made his preseason debut last night, finishing with seven points in 15 minutes off the bench in a 115-85 loss to the Celtics after missing his team’s first three games with right foot tendinitis.
Before the game, Nets coach Avery Johnson made it clear that Brooks isn’t guaranteed of being the first player to come into the game.
“We’re not sure yet,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to box ourselves in.”
Brooks spent last season as one of the focal points of the Nets’ offense, and finished the season averaging 12.6 points in 56 games, including 47 starts. But he was headed for a bench role from the moment the Nets acquired Joe Johnson back in July, and now is several spots down the offensive pecking order behind Johnson, Deron Williams and a now healthy Brook Lopez.
“Play defense, provide energy and when I get my opportunities, just try to do what I do,” Brooks said of his new role. “I’m still a scorer, I still think like a scorer, but we have a lot of scorers, so it’s not always going to be my night. But when we’re struggling to score and coach calls my name, that’s when I try to do what I do.”
Working against Brooks is the play of backup point guard C.J. Watson so far in training camp. Watson, who was rested last night along with fellow reserve guard Keith Bogans, has been one of the standouts of training camp after signing with the Nets this summer following two years with the Bulls. He has earned praise for his play alongside Williams and Johnson.
There also is the matter of Johnson being the anchor of the second unit, leaving Avery Johnson with a choice of going small with Brooks at shooting guard and Joe Johnson at small forward, or going big with Joe Johnson at shooting guard and potentially Josh Childress at small forward.
“We’ll just see how it goes,” Avery Johnson said. “We like C.J. and Deron playing together. … We think that will be a highly rated backcourt.’’
* As for the game itself, it wasn’t much of one. The Celtics jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first 90 seconds and never looked back. It was clear Boston wasn’t happy with having lost at home Tuesday night to the Nets, who rested all of their starters, and Avery Johnson said they had a point to prove.
“They wanted to just come out and establish themselves, and show that they’ve been very successful in the last five years or so, and they’ve been successful for a reason” Avery Johnson said. “And, if there’s some supposedly new kid on the block? You know how it is in the neighborhood. They want to show you it’s their neighborhood and we’ve got to earn everything this year.”