AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — There were precious few bright spots from Saturday’s blowout loss in Detroit. Actually, Donald Sloan might have been the only one.
The Nets have struggled horribly on offense since losing point guard Jarrett Jack to a season-ending torn ACL, and Shane Larkin has been ineffective in a starting role, a team-worst minus-19 on Saturday. But Sloan came off the bench with 15 points and a game-high ten assists, his plus-five the second-best on the team.
“He played well today,’’ said Hollins. Asked if Sloan had made a statement for more playing time, he replied, “He’s been getting more playing time. Ever since Jarrett went down he’s been playing a significant amount of minutes, so I don’t know if there’s more than he could get.’’
After repeatedly dismissing questions about playing 34-year-old Joe Johnson a team-high 34 minutes per game, saying NBA players regularly log 40, Hollins finally admitted he’s trying to curb the aging forward’s minutes.
“I was trying to limit Joe’s minutes a little bit. I was trying not to play Joe 40 minutes if I could help it. That was the one concern I had going in, averaging 34,’’ Hollins said.
“Joe’s played a lot of minutes not only this year but in his whole career. He’s 35 years old, I’d like to not play him 38, 39 minutes if I could help it. But we just need everybody to step up and do their job so when I put him over there he can rest six or seven minutes.’’
The Nets keep losing, and Hollins keeps tinkering. He already moved Willie Reed and Thomas Robinson past Andrea Bargnani in the big-man rotation, and Saturday he started Markel Brown instead of Bojan Bogdanovic at shooting guard, presumably for more ballhandling and energy to stave off their usual slow starts.
It didn’t work. Brown scored just two points on 1-of-4 shooting in 14:08, with the Nets falling behind by 10 after the first quarter. Hollins inserted Wayne Ellington for the second half, and the Ellington scored three points on 1-of-7 from the floor. Oh, and Bogdanovic went scoreless in 23:43, missing all five shots.
Asked about the challenge of having to juggle all these moving pieces nearly halfway through the season, Hollins wasn’t biting.
“[It’s] no challenge,’’ he said. “The guys that are on the bench are now the bench players. The guys that are starting are going to be the starters. It’s not that big of a challenge.’’
For his part, Bogdanovic was philosophical about his lost minutes.
“He’s trying something probably because we lose couple games in a row. Do something maybe to change. I don’t have a problem with that,’’ said Bogdanovic. “[I just have to] try to be aggressive again, get my minutes.”
Hollins already had cut Bargnani’s playing time in favor of Robinson and Reed, who logged 12:24 and 17:52 respectively on Saturday.
“As a professional player we’ve always got to work hard, try to be ready when your name is called, so that’s what I’ve got to do,’’ said Bargnani, who played just 5:47. “You always got to try to do your best and some nights the other guy is going to play. So that’s all you can do … is be ready and try to perform.”
