B’klyn primed for prime time with 19 TV appearances
In just the latest example of how times are changing in Brooklyn, the Nets will be on national television more in just the first half of this shortened season than they have been in general manager Sean Marks’ entire tenure.
With the NBA announcing part of its 2020-21 schedule Friday, the Nets are slated to be on national TV a staggering 19 times. They made 12 appearances all of last season, and just one each in 2018-19, 2017-18 and 2016-17, the latter being Marks’ first full season in charge.
The league’s biggest dates are opening night, Christmas and Martin Luther King Day, and the Nets will be high profile in all three. Already slated to have a Kevin Durant rematch with visiting Golden State on opening night and Kyrie Irving returning to Boston on Christmas, Brooklyn will now host the Milwaukee Bucks at 7:30 p.m. in an MLK Day TNT tripleheader on Jan. 18.
Durant makes his return to Golden State on Feb. 13 at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni perfected the frenetic Seven Seconds Or Less attack in
Phoenix that revolutionized NBA offense. Back together in Brooklyn — albeit with Nash now in charge — they’re trying to go even faster.
“Oh, man it’s going to be exciting,” Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot said Friday. “We did have some thoughts about that. It’s going to be a very fast pace: Run the floor, play really fast, I believe shoot 3s, get to the rim, get fouled, play in the first quarter of the 24-second [clock]. So yeah, it’s very, very high pace, very high pace.”
So, Six Seconds Or Less is officially a thing.
In addition to pace, another thing the coaching staff is stressing is improved defense, as Nash tried to mold Luwawu-Cabarrot into a 3-and-D prototype.
“Get better in defense,” Luwawu-Cabarrot said of Nash’s orders. “Stay ready, stay focused every single day, get better in defense, be ready to guard the best guys across the basket — and that’s what I’m going to do. We haven’t talked much about what’s going to happen in the upcoming season, but he did talk about that.”
Irving declined to meet with the media. Instead, the NBPA vice president released a statement via a publicist that read in part: “Instead of speaking to the media today, I am issuing this statement to ensure that my message is conveyed properly.
“I am committed to show up to work everyday, ready to have fun, compete, perform, and win championships alongside my teammates and colleagues in the Nets organization. My goal this season is to let my work on and off the court speak for itself.”
When reached by The Post, Irving’s publicist couldn’t give a timeline for when he’d start fulfilling his media requirements, but added “he will use this type of correspondence as a way to effectively and efficiently share his thoughts directly to you and the media that covers him on a regular basis.”