A younger Moses Brown had a poster of Jason Kidd, was round as Barclays Middle was beneath building and had a seat within the stands throughout a number of the enviornment’s early sport days.
Brown, 23, might come full circle Sunday by making his Nets debut towards the visiting Nuggets within the now 10-year-old enviornment.
“I’ve been on a number of groups everywhere in the nation, and it’s simply cool to be residence,” Brown, a New York Metropolis product, mentioned after apply Saturday. “Each time we might drive all through Brooklyn, I’d watch the Barclays Middle’s progress yearly. That was the brand new workforce. I keep in mind, rising up, simply liking the colours, the uniforms, every part.”
The Nets signed the 7-foot-2 Brown — who’s 5 inches taller than fellow heart Day’Ron Sharpe — to a 10-day contract Friday as a substitute of renewing the deal for veteran Nerlens Noel.
Brown starred at Archbishop Molloy earlier than a one-year cease at UCLA.
“He’s trying excessive of Day’Ron,” head coach Jacque Vaughn mentioned in awe. “I’m going to see how the video games current themselves, however we do need to see him get some high quality minutes in some unspecified time in the future. I did that fairly early with Nerlens to provide us some solutions shortly.”
Brown spent a lot of the season with the Clippers, however was waived after he was energetic for 50 video games — the utmost allowed on a two-way contract.
He spent a couple of week with the Knicks’ G-League affiliate earlier than the Nets known as.
“Simply be prepared,” Brown mentioned he was instructed about his alternative. “That’s been the factor with my profession, anyway: having the ability to defend the rim and play with a excessive power. This was just about the principle [offer] and the state of affairs appeared higher than the opposite ones. I’m accustomed to a number of the blokes on the teaching employees and even on the workforce.”
Familiarity ought to reduce the educational curve.
Brown is leaning on second-time teammates Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie for assist with new terminology and finding out tendencies from the five-on-five scrimmage interval late in apply.
He considers himself a defensive “anchor” who must be vocal and name out screens.
“The timing of various guys and if I can maintain a display for them,” Brown mentioned as one instance. “Taking part in with a number of completely different guys on a number of completely different groups, you must modify to completely different gamers and play kinds, so having the ability to go up and down helped me get used to guys I’m enjoying with.
The Nets are Brown’s seventh NBA group since he went undrafted in 2019. He’s averaging 5.6 factors and 5.3 rebounds in 126 profession video games.
“He’s only a large physique on the rim for us,” Vaughn mentioned, “however an agile man who can run the ground.”
The NBA isn’t resistant to March Insanity fever.
When Vaughn — a former Kansas level guard — noticed a Missouri shirt on a apply observer, he pulled out a shot-glass-sized dealt with tea cup from his pocket and began sipping whereas doing a jig.
Kansas, out of the Huge 12, and Missouri, out of the SEC, each performed Saturday on reverse sides of the bracket, however their rivalry in all sports activities is called the “Border Battle.”
Guards Ben Simmons (left knee/again soreness), David Duke Jr. (G-League) and Dru Smith (G-League) have been declared out towards the Nuggets.
