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Hollins pleased with Nets’ ‘Coach-ability”

Brooklyn Finishes Off 4-2 Preseason With Loss in Boston

October 23, 2014 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
First-year Nets coach Lionel Hollins watches as the Nets complete the preseason in Boston Wednesday night.
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Brook Lopez’ foot hurts and Kevin Garnett still hasn’t fully recovered from whatever type of stomach ailment it was that he picked up in China.

Other than that, however, Lionel Hollins was quite pleased by his team’s effort, performance and “coach-ability” during a 4-2 preseason that concluded with Wednesday night’s non-descript 100-86 loss in Boston, where the Nets will open the 2014-15 campaign next Wednesday night.

“The guys have been very coachable,” Hollins told the team’s website after wrapping up his first exhibition campaign at the helm of our borough’s major pro sports franchise.

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“They worked extremely hard,” he added. “When you come to a veteran team, and a team that has players that have accomplished a lot, you worry about that. But it hasn’t been a problem. That’s been a big surprise.”

Hollins rested Joe Johnson and Deron Williams and didn’t have his two big men – Garnett and Lopez – at his disposal, leaving only newly signed small forward Bojan Bogdanovic available from his projected starting five.

The player most likely to get the first shot at filling the big shoes of Paul Pierce collected nine points, five rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes off the bench as the Nets continued to round into shape for the 82-game grind of a regular season.

Lopez, likely to miss the opener in Boston after what the team is calling a mild mid-foot sprain following his second surgery in that area in three years, remains optimistic that he will retain his 2012-13 All-Star form.

Garnett, playing his 20th and perhaps final NBA campaign, is a virtual lock to maintain his starting spot at power forward, though Mason Plumlee continues to climb the depth chart, especially after posting double-doubles in each of the Nets’ final two preseason contests.

Johnson and Williams will form an All-Star backcourt, though only Johnson has earned that honor as a Net thus far, and Jarrett Jack will fill the role of Shaun Livingston, helping to give the tandem a breather or allowing Johnson to play small forward while he settles into the No. 2 guard position.

For Hollins, who was given his walking papers in Memphis two years ago despite a trip to the Western Conference finals, the Nets remain a work-in-progress under his watch.

“We’ve been moving toward it,” admitted Hollins, who is hoping to bring some stability to a team that has had four head coaches, including Avery Johnson, P.J. Carlesimo and Jason Kidd, in only two full seasons since moving Downtown.

“Every practice, every game we’ve been moving toward who we want to be,” he added. “We still have a ways to go and it’s not going to just happen when we play Boston next week. It’s a process we go through and hopefully by January, February, we’re the team we want to be.”

Hollins and general manager Billy King did pare down the roster a bit following Wednesday’s loss, placing backup center Willie Reed on waivers. That left Brooklyn with 16 active players on the roster, a number that must be cut by one before the Nets hit the floor in Boston for the regular-season opener.

Reed averaged four points and four rebounds in two exhibition games, playing 17 minutes in Wednesday night’s finale. He was originally signed to the training camp roster on Sept. 25.

***

Brooklyn’s soon-to-be hockey franchise officially introduced its soon-to-be majority owners Wednesday.

Sound confusing?

Well, Charles Wang, the New York Islanders’ Brooklyn Tech High School-educated majority owner, had previously reached an agreement to sell the soon-to-be-relocated franchise to ownership partners Jon Ledecky and Scott Malkin.

The tandem, who will not take over majority ownership for another two years, as per terms of the deal, were on hand at the Nassau Coliseum with Wang Wednesday in their current role as minority owners.

“Jon and I are thrilled to be here today,” said Malkin. “It’s a great privilege to participate in this small way in the phenomenal Islanders hockey tradition.”

“As I’ve told Scott, so much has changed in the 15 years since I last was in the NHL,” Ledecky, who previously owned a share of the Washington Capitals, added. “It is a process for us to learn once again. So many things have happened in the league both player-wise, player conditioning, statistical analysis, things that weren’t prevalent in 1999 when I first came into the league. I think we do have a lot to learn. This process of being a minority owner first really gives us a chance to get that transition underway and to hit the ground running when we’re fortunate enough to become the majority owners.”

Following the two-year period, which will end when the Islanders have already completed their 2015-16 inaugural campaign in Brooklyn, Wang will switch roles with Malkin and Ledecky, maintaining a minority share in the team he has owned for 15 years.

“We found new partners here, two partners that will be great for the Islanders,” said Wang, who was instrumental in bringing the Islanders to Brooklyn after flirtations with leaving New York all together the past several seasons.

 “What I’ve realized in the few short weeks that we’ve formally been owners is how much we still need to learn,” Malkin noted. “What I admire about Charles’ approach is he’s focused on what’s best for the team, the future of the team and a smooth transition and partnership lends itself to that. I’m learning every day from Charles and I see already how valuable this kind of transition is.”

The Islanders, 4-2 on the ice thus far this season, have already played a pair of exhibition contests in their new home at Downtown’s Barclays Center. Come next October, they’ll be here full time as Wang secured a 25-year agreement with the arena prior to last season.

 


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