With the Nets season officially in the books, it’s time to look back at the year that was. We’ll look back at a different player each weekday, before wrapping up with the coaching staff and front office. Next up: Shaun Livingston
Regular season stats: Averaged 8.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.4 blocks per game. Shot 48.3 percent from the field, 16.7 percent from 3-point range, 82.7 percent from the foul line in 26.0 minutes per game over 76 games (54 starts).
Playoff stats: Averaged 9.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 0.4 steals, 0.4 blocks per game. Shot 51.2 percent from the field, 100 percent from 3-point range (one attempt) and 73.0 percent from foul line in 27.1 minutes per game over 12 games (10 starts).
Contractual status: Unrestricted free agent
Season recap
When Shaun Livingston signed a one-year deal with the Nets last summer, he was seen as a nice feel-good story, a guy who had bounced around to six teams in a five-year span after suffering a devastating knee injury as a prodigy with the Clippers back in 2007. By season’s end, Livingston had authored one of the best comebacks in the league, putting together by far his best season since the injury and becoming an integral part of the team’s midseason turnaround.
Outside of a brief swoon in December, when Livingston briefly lost confidence in his shooting stroke, he was a perfect complementary piece for the Nets. On a team full of star players who like having the ball in their hands, Livingston – always a gifted passer – excelled at finding ways to get them the ball where they wanted it. On defense, his length and athleticism caused all kinds of problems for opponents.
Everything changed for Livingston, when he was inserted into Nets starting lineup next to Deron Williams beginning with the victory in Oklahoma City on Jan. 2. Livingston became a mainstay in the starting five, giving the Nets a second ball-handler – freeing up Williams be more of a scorer at times – and taking on the nightly assignment of guarding the opposing team’s best perimeter player, everyone from LeBron James to Kevin Durant. The Nets took off and Livingston got plenty of deserved credit.
Livingston was briefly removed from the starting lineup for Games 6 and 7 of the Nets’ first-round series win over the Raptors, when coach Jason Kidd realized Toronto was taking advantage of the major hole in Livingston’s game – a lack of long-range shooting – and put Alan Anderson in the lineup.
After that move helped get the Nets to the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Heat, Kidd went right back to Livingston, who had a very good series, averaging more than 11 points per game on 50 percent shooting and harassing both Dwyane Wade and James at various points defensively.
Outlook for next season
Livingston is set to be one of the more fascinating cases in free agency this summer. The Nets have made no secret about their desire to keep him – general manager Billy King called re-signing him the team’s “number one priority” back in March, and reiterated it earlier this month – but the Nets will be limited to offering Livingston the taxpayer’s mid-level extension because of their salary cap situation, meaning they can’t sign him for more than three years for a total of roughly $10 million.
Will that will be enough for the Nets to re-sign him? Teams may be wary of giving Livingston a multi-year contract given his injury history, though he looked as healthy and explosive as ever this season and said many times he feels his athleticism is back to where it was pre-injury. Livingston has taken a combined 49 3-pointers in 466 career NBA games, potentially making him an odd fit for teams that prioritize shots at the rim and from behind the 3-point arc.
But Livingston brings some intriguing assets to the table. At 6-foot-7 with incredibly long arms, he has terrific size and vision at point guard and is an excellent perimeter defender. Factor in the low-post and mid-range game he showed off throughout this season – Livingston was the fourth-best low-post scorer in the NBA on a points per possession basis this season, according to mysynergypsorts.com, and shot a combined 48.6 percent from 5-14 feet – and it is easier to see why teams would be interested in acquiring him.
One of the best stories in the NBA this season seems destined to wind up with a happy ending. The question is whether that ending will be in Brooklyn or elsewhere.
Tomorrow: Brook Lopez