‘Mr. Reliability’ on the mend for Nets

Key Brooklyn Reserve Anderson Has Successful Ankle Surgery

May 13, 2015 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Alan Anderson has been a key reserve for Brooklyn over the past two seasons. The swingman had successful ankle surgery Tuesday and Nets general manager Billy King must now decide if Anderson will be back with the team in 2015-16. AP Photo

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Nets general manager Billy King calls Alan Anderson “Mr. Reliability” for a reason.

He’s always there when you need him, and on the rare occasion when he isn’t, Brooklyn usually suffers.

The 32-year-old swingman, who underwent successful arthroscopic surgery to remove bone spurs from his left ankle Tuesday, has remained under the radar during the opening stages of what appears will be a tumultuous offseason for the Brooklyn Nets.

Anderson, who at 6-foot-6 offers coach Lionel Hollins a fill-in at virtually every position except center and/or power forward, averaged 7.4 points and 2.8 rebounds per game this past season over 74 games, including 19 starts.

In fact, when Anderson missed the last seven games of the regular season due to ankle issues, the Nets found themselves slipping out of the playoff race before a fortuitous result or two on the season’s finale day put them in the postseason for the third straight year.

All Anderson did upon returning to the lineup for the Nets’ first-round playoff series against top-seeded Atlanta was average 11.0 point and 3.5 rebounds over six games while shooting a team-best 61 percent from the floor, including a staggering 63 percent from 3-point range, before Brooklyn was eliminated.

Eligible to opt out and explore free agency this summer, Anderson, unlike fellow potential opt-outs Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young, has not been talked about as a key piece the Nets will need to re-sign and bring back into the fold for 2015-16.

But his steady contributions off the bench for Brooklyn the past two years, and especially during the playoffs, when he seems capable of upping his production, can not be overlooked.

He posted career highs in win shares, offensive rating, defensive rating and effective field-goal percentage in 2014-15, according to Basketball-Reference.

Even last year, when the Nets eliminated Atlantic Division-champion Toronto in the opening round of the playoffs before falling to Miami in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Anderson played an important role in Brooklyn’s advancement.

After falling behind the Raptors 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, then-head coach Jason Kidd installed Anderson in the starting lineup for Games 6 and 7, both of which the Nets won.

King did intimate during last week’s end-of-season sit-down with the media at the Nets’ practice facility in East Rutherford, N.J., that both Anderson and fellow “Bench Mob” member Mirza Teletovic are being looked at as possible returnees.

But King must first figure out what he’s going to do with Lopez and Young.

Anderson, who is expected to resume basketball-related activities as soon as July, will have to spend the next few months healing up and getting ready for next season, either here in Brooklyn or somewhere else on the NBA landscape.

The six-year NBA veteran, who went undrafted out of Michigan State in 2005, is no stranger to being overlooked.

He enjoyed a couple of stints with Charlotte from 2005-07 before spending the better part of the next five years playing in Italy, Russia, Croatia, Israel, Spain and China. He finally returned to the NBA with Toronto in 2012.

A Net since 2013, Anderson would doubtlessly like the chance to continue his tenure here in Brooklyn, if, and when, King gets around to securing his services for next season.

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The NBA made what had been a foregone conclusion official on Tuesday, declaring that the Barclays Center would be the league’s home office for the upcoming draft for a third consecutive year.

Beginning at 7 p.m., on June 25, the 2015 Draft is open to the paying public, with tickets going on sale at high noon on May 29 and prices for the annual fete starting at $20.

Unfortunately for Nets fans, they will have to wait deep into the opening round to find out whom their team will select.

The Hawks swapped picks with the Nets this week, as per conditions of the 2012 summer blockbuster deal that sent Joe Johnson to Brooklyn, meaning Atlanta will pick 15th overall while Brooklyn will drop precipitously to 29th.

The Nets, who have hosted the draft five years running dating back to their days in New Jersey, also have the 41st overall pick in the second round.