Could this really be the same team that downed Miami on Opening Night in Brooklyn? The Nets are now 2-3 after a lackluster effort against the Wizards last night that ended in a 112-108 loss. “This is our issue right now,” Kevin Garnett said, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. “We’re trying to figure it out.“It’s not so simple to hit a button or say, ‘This is it.’ We played a decent team that’s in a decent rhythm, [and] we came up short.” Here’s more from the Atlantic Division..
- Knicks coach Mike Woodson has said that the club won’t add a center because of the scarcity of quality big men, but Marc Berman of the New York Post hears from a source that the Knicks won’t take the plunge because of luxury tax concerns. Because New York is already over the threshold, they’ll be taxed at a 2-to-1 ratio on any new deal.
- For what it’s worth, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (Twitter links) doesn’t buy into the notion that Knicks owner James Dolan is too cheap to add a center.
- In today’s mailbag, a reader asks Doug Smith of the Toronto Star if new General Manager Masai Ujiri will push coach Dwane Casey to give big man Jonas Valanciunas serious minutes even though the smaller lineup appears to be doing better. Smith says that Ujiri has been extremely hands-off in that regard and believes that he won’t interfere with Casey’s decisions.