LOS ANGELES — The NBA's silly season is getting underway. That means players will see their names in trade rumors and reports.
Several nets are currently living through that situation.
Dorian Finney-Smith is one of them. But the veteran forward is determined to keep his head down and get on with what's important.
“It's always weird this time of year in the NBA,” Finney-Smith said before scoring just three points in 28 minutes in the Nets' 130-112 win over the Lakers. “I can't concentrate on the noise outside. That's part of it. There's nothing you can do about it.
“We all have social media, so you're going to hear it. It's not real. Until something officially happens, it's just chatter. I want to. That's all that matters.”
It's not real — until it is.
The Nets declined an offer for two first-round picks for Finney-Smith just before last season's trade deadline, the newspaper reported.
Finney-Smith rumors resurface as this season's trade deadline approaches on Feb. 8 and the Nets are in free fall, having lost 14 of 17 games before Friday night's win over the Lakers. are doing.
Finney-Smith, 30, likely won't fit into the Nets' timeline. But with all that experience in the league, he also learned how to focus through rumors.
“Sure. I never paid any attention to that,” Finney-Smith shrugged and laughed. “If it happens, it happens.”
Royce O'Neal reportedly drew a first-round pick offer, and other teams have expressed interest in Spencer Dinwiddie.
SNY reported that the Hawks checked in on the latter. All 30 players, and they are the three oldest players on the roster.
On Friday, Cam Thomas scored 33 points, the most ever scored off the bench, against the Lakers.
At just 22 years and 99 days old, he became the youngest Nets to hit 30 against Los Angeles on January 28, 1998, when Keith Van Horn was two days younger.
He even made Austin Reeves tumble down the court with a spin move.
“I knew he was going to be crazy. Anytime (it's) a big show, you can expect two to four guys to show up,” Trendon Watford said of Thomas. “He scored 10 points in about six minutes, so we already knew what this night was going to be for him.”
Brooklyn had 31 assists, one shy of his season high set on Dec. 23 against Detroit.
Mikal Bridges was upgraded from likely to available with a right shin contusion. He extended his NBA streak to 433 games with Friday's win, finishing with 17 points and five rebounds.
“We'll see how he does,” coach Jacques Vaughn said. “There's no granular restrictions given to me. But overall, we're definitely going to see how he progresses there.”
Back Ben Simmons was still out for the Lakers game.
The Nets didn't consider bringing first-round pick Noah Clowney in from the G League, even though he's been good lately and Long Island just played in California.
With Dayron Sharp out, the Nets will get more minutes from Nic Claxton (22 points, 14 rebounds Friday), use Finney Smith as a small-ball five, and give Harry Giles III more minutes. gave. There were also general reasons.
“We play small because of Dayron and our defense has changed because of that. So we don't have as many fall responses,” Vaughn said. “Noah has probably played in drop coverage 90 percent of the time in the G League because that's what we've been doing. So it's going to be an adjustment for him to come in and play switching defense.
“But we've been organically talking about bringing him in at some point and seeing him again. … But it's pretty cool to be hooping and doing well. A little bit of confidence goes a long way. Masu.”
