Brooklyn played without a quintet of players in Fri🔯day’s 116-112 preseason-ending loss to Toronto, but starters Nic Claxton and D🌺orian Finney-Smith are both expected back for Wednesday’s regular-season opener in Atlanta.
“Nic is close. We’re still aiming for the first game of the season,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “He’s done a g🎃ood job. He’s working hard. So we expect him to play the season🌸 opener.”
Finney-Smith was simply꧒ being rested Friday after taking a hard spill on his back t﷽wo nights earlier in Philadelphia.
“Hard fall. Nothing seriouꦯs. Just precaution,” Fernandez said. “He’s one of the guys that he still would go and run through the wall, and you’ve got to tell him to rest because his body is sore.”
Kill෴ian Hayes, Day’Ron Sharpe and Bojan Bogdanovic have all missed the entire preseason.
Sharpe and Bogdanovic are not close to returning, while Hayes is on an Exhibit 10 deal, e🅠ssentially just a training camp invite.
Tওo keep him for the regular season, the Nets would have to clear out a standard deal to make room for him.
Am🐬ari Bailey and Tyrese Martin are also on Exhibit 10s.
The Nets have an open two-way spot.
The Nets must be roster-compliant before opening night, but to do so they’d need to waive the Exhibit 10s or convert them to💯 standard deals (of which they’re devoid) or a two-way (for which Hayes is ineligible).
Ben Simmons returned after sitting out W♍ednesday in Ph꧒iladelphia.
After Cam Johnson was used as a high-post creator Wednesday in lieu of Simmons and 🦋Claxton — handing out a team-high six assists — he took a scoring role against the Raptors.
The veteran wing poured in a game-high 32 p🍨oints, sho✅oting 11 of 21, including 7 of 14 from behind the arc, in 32 minutes.
Johnson an🍌d Finney-Smith have been on the trade block for some time, link🔴ed with the Lakers recently.
“I expect to do it al♈l season. I think interchangeability is what we’re looking for,” Johnson said of his facilitat♒ing.
Fernandez agreed, s🧸aying that’s something Brooklyn intends to do more of.
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“We’ve changed that position a lot,” said Fernandez.ꦚ “We put him in splits. So it’s something ꧂with the way we are playing, everybody’s interchangeable.
“Obviously if we have bigger guys, those would be the guys by design that would go there, but it’s also been pretty cool. When the guys unfortunately got hurt, that’s going to force us to do different things in different ways, and that’s been the result. We’ve created good shots … and it comes from having those guys interchangeable and being ready to catch and shoot.”
Fernandez praised the conditioning and motor of second-year wing Jalen Wilson,🍬 who started Fr🍸iday and had 11 points and five boards.
