The Nets have a bevy of big men vying for a limited number of minutes on the court this season, and second-year power forward Josh Boone has an excellent opportunity to grab what virtually everyone in life wants – more time.
Boone missed the preseason and the first month of the regular season last year due to shoulder surgery, but he has embraced his first training camp this season, showing great hustle and explosiveness at Nets camp yesterday in East Rutherford following knee surgery in May.
“I was off for 3½ months, not being able to play because of my knee,” said Boone, who considers his knee close to 100 percent. “Now, I got basically a month’s worth of playing, and that’s about how long it takes to get back in the flow of things.”
The former first-round pick from UConn excelled during a scrimmage against the projected starters, taking control of the paint with his scoring and rebounding.
“I think the last three practices have been good practices for Josh,” said coach Lawrence Frank. “Josh knows who he is and he needs to continue to work his tail off and get reps.
“Josh did a lot of good things for us the last third of the season. He just has to keep on playing with drive and passion, and he’ll continue to improve. He’s a very quick learner [and] he’s got a good basketball IQ.”
Boone, 22, is wise enough to know that entering the season along with his teammates will help immeasurably. He played in only 61 games last season, averaging 11 minutes a game, 4.2 points and 2.9 rebounds.
“It was obviously something that I really needed to do last year and wasn’t able to do, so I had to kind of learn everything on the fly,” Boone said.
“This year – I’m learning the stuff in camp rather than learning during the games, so it’s definitely gonna help. I’m getting that early experience I didn’t have.”
Boone will get a chance to separate himself from his teammates in the Nets first preseason game tonight in Philadelphia.
“There’s either seven or eight of us that are competing for two spots to start and two or three spots to come off the bench,” Boone said.
“You just have to do what you can do with the time you’re given, whether it’s five minutes or whether it’s 20. That’s what I did last year and that’s what I’m gonna do now.”
With question marks surrounding the recovery of Nenad Krstic’s ACL surgery and Jamaal Magloire’s transition to a new team, Boone has the chance to become a front-court exclamation point.
“That’s gonna be one of the keys for me to play is to work on my offensive game,” Boone said. “For me, it’s never really been about me lacking the skills. I’ve always had the skills. I’ve just never really had the confidence to actually use them. This year, hopefully, I’m gonna be able to show more of the skills that I have.”