CHICAGO — For the first four seasons of his career, Jordan Farmar was with the Lakers doing something entirely different than he does now with the Nets. And it’s not just winning, although there was that as he earned title rings in 2009 and 2010.
“I think he’d been in the triangle system for a long time and it’s taken him a year to really get comfortable,” proposed coach Avery Johnson who led his Nets against the Bulls and the NBA’s best record here last night in the finale of a grueling back-to-back-to-back set.
No arguments from Farmar who admits it took a while to latch on to a totally different system than the triangle offense run so effectively for so long by Phil Jackson.
“Yeah, it was an adjustment process,” Farmar conceded. “It was me figuring it out. I played my whole NBA career in one system and came to a completely new one. I never played like that before. Never had to split a pick and roll — I mean here and there but not consistently or to make reads off of screen and roll, run the whole team. Everything was predicated on what the defense does. It’s automatic system stuff there.”
Whatever the reason, Farmer, who was out of the rotation earlier this season – Games 4 and 5 he didn’t even play after logging just 25 minutes in the first there games – has been playing what Johnson acknowledges is his best basketball since he departed the left coast for New Jersey before last season.
Farmer has been an energizer off the bench. In Sunday’s victory over Charlotte, a must have game for the Nets as it was perched in between the Thunder and Bulls, Farmar had two huge third quarter baskets. The Bobcats had sliced an 18-point lead to seven. So Farmer stepped up and drilled a 3-pointer for additional space. He later thwarted another rally with a pretty drive and reverse lay-up.
“That was huge for us. We needed that,” Anthony Morrow said of the 3-pointer. “He made some big shots for us when he came in. He did his job and that’s what we needed.”
And it has not been a one-time thing. Farmar has been key in the Nets’ recent mini-surge, which includes a 3-4 record in the last seven games, including last night’s 110-95 loss here where he scored 22. Hey, 3-4 might not sound so great – until you consider the Nets are 5-13.
“I told him this after the game [Saturday] even though we lost the game – he’s been playing his best basketball since he’s been a Net,” Johnson allowed, noting the whole comfort issue for Farmar. “I’ll make some calls and he’ll call me off because he sees something else. He didn’t do that last year. So he’s getting much more comfortable, his shot looks good. He’s taking care of the basketball but he’s really doing a good job of quarterbacking the team, especially when he subs for Deron [Williams].”
In his last eight games – starting with the first game of the Western trip – Farmar averaged 13.5 points, 3.8 assists shot .500 (36-of-72) including .531 (17-of-32) on 3-pointers. All numbers are significantly higher than what Farmar was doing before: 5.6 ppg, 2.6 assts, .432 FG and .286 on 3-pointers.
“It feels good. I don’t think much about that. I think I played good basketball in the past. I feel like I’m playing well now. It’s not about being on a stretch or not I just try to keep it up and continue to play well for our team,” Farmar said.