{"id":67496,"date":"2025-12-11T03:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/67496\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T03:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:58:09","slug":"nets-trying-to-make-most-of-break-right-as-things-could-get-interesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/67496\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets trying to make most of break right as things could get interesting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nets showed some signs of life through the past two weeks, starting with a victory over the Celtics<\/a> in Boston on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve won games they were supposed to win and at least been competitive against better teams. As they head into Friday\u2019s game in Dallas, the Nets have won three of their last four.<\/p>\n

But in a scheduling quirk due to the vagaries of the NBA Cup, they haven\u2019t played since Saturday\u2019s win over New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe break is kind of tough because you get into a rhythm of playing every other day,\u201d Nic Claxton said following Wednesday\u2019s practice in Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NicNic Claxton drives past Bryce McGowens during the second half of the Nets\u2019 blowout win over the Pelicans on Dec. 6, 2025 at Barclays Center. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve tried to make the most of their time off, using it to practice with a young, inexperienced team.<\/p>\n

Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said the key to the break in the schedule was in \u201ctaking care of their bodies and using the days to rest and get better\u2026 [and] work on different concepts.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 6-17, they are a bit more than a quarter of the way through the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re 23 games in and we\u2019re looking at the next 20 games,\u2019\u2019 Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cCan we sustain [it]? Can we get better? Then we look at the next 20. The process is the most important thing for us and the development of the group, not just one player.\u201d<\/p>\n

And things could get more interesting in Brooklyn and around the league. Starting Monday, players who signed with teams prior to the season can begin to be traded.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Nets could well be involved in some of those moves, in part because they have the financial flexibility to take on salary, which they could do in exchange for assets like more young players or draft picks.<\/p>\n

A year ago, they saw Dennis Schr\u00f6der and Dorian Finney-Smith \u2014 among others \u2014 leave Brooklyn before Cam Johnson was traded over the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a reality TV show,\u2019\u2019 Claxton said. \u201cIt\u2019s like that every year around this time. It\u2019s about to start up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JordiJordi Fernandez reacts on the sideline during the Nets\u2019 blowout win over the Pelicans on Dec. 6, 2025 at Barclays Center. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

But Claxton, like Fern\u00e1ndez, wants the attention to stay on the players who are still with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou may hear your name in trade rumors and you see teammates come and go,\u2019\u2019 Claxton said. \u201cBut you\u2019ve got to focus on who\u2019s here and [let] management handle all that stuff and roll with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fern\u00e1ndez added: \u201cIt\u2019s that part of the year and we all have to deal with it. It\u2019s not the most enjoyable part of the year, but we love our guys. We\u2019re gonna keep focusing on working and getting better and competing. We cannot control anything on the outside, even though we know things may happen. \u2026 We\u2019re not the ones thinking or talking [about trades]. We want work, we want accountability [and] we want competitiveness. That\u2019s what we focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

To that end, the Nets have played markedly better defense over the past few weeks after their ugly start to the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll teams go through peaks and valleys and the season is so long,\u2019\u2019 Claxton said. \u201cWe have a lot of fresh faces, a lot of guys who haven\u2019t seen any kind of NBA action [and] also a new core. We all had to figure it out and get on the same page with the coaches. It\u2019s starting to happen, but we\u2019ve got to keep building.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets showed some signs of life through the past two weeks, starting with a victory over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,4570,21,9,24,4601,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-67496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-jordi-fernandez","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nic-claxton","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}