While the Knicks have got much of the Atlantic Division press for being the NBA's last undefeated team, their cross-town rivals are off to an impressive start of their own. The Nets will look to extend their early-season winning streak to five games tomorrow in Sacramento, but in the meantime, let's round up a few items out of Brooklyn….
- It's no secret that Brooklyn was Dwight Howard's preferred destination last year, and that the Nets attempted multiple times to acquire him from the Magic. But Howard tells Fred Kerber of the New York Post that he was nearly positive he'd be headed to Brooklyn at some point, and continued to think so "until I got traded to the Lakers." According to Kerber, there were at least two occasions where the Nets thought they had a deal for Howard done.
- When Jerry Stackhouse signed with the Nets this summer, he expected to assume a sort of player-coach role on the bench, but he's seeing more playing time than expected in Brooklyn, as Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News writes. Within Bondy's piece, Stackhouse says he might take it as a sign it's time for retirement when he can no longer dunk.
- Although the Nets defeated the Celtics on Thursday night, Brooklyn views the C's culture as something worth emulating, writes Beckley Mason of the New York Times.
- Earlier today, I looked back at a busy Nets offseason that saw the team take on more than $300MM in salary commitments