The Nets must reduce their roster by at least two more players by opening night, though they will have to make those decisions with less time for evaluation than they might otherwise have had if not for Sunday’s experiment with a 44-minute game. Still, Brooklyn probably won’t feel the effects of the missing four minutes, and the same will probably be said of every other team, since it appears unlikely the shorter game time will become a permanent fixture in the league, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. There’s more on the time-saving measure amid the latest on the Nets, as we detail.
- Coach Lionel Hollins says he’s rooting for the team to keep Jerome Jordan, who’s on a non-guaranteed contract, for opening night, as Bondy relays in the same piece.
- Bruce Ratner, who holds a minority stake in the Nets, has shifted focus from selling his 20% share of the team to selling his majority share of the Barclays Center, as Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal reports in a subscription-only piece. Ratner’s desire to unload his portion of the franchise was reportedly behind Mikhail Prokhorov’s pledge this spring to curb his record spending on the team. The Barclays Center appeared to be part of talks that reportedly took place between Guggenheim investors and Nets owners, though Kaplan heard from a Guggenheim spokesperson who denied that any such discussion was taking place. At the very least, Nets-Guggenheim negotiations seem to have hit a snag.
- Hollins credits Mavs coach Rick Carlisle with the idea of a 44-minute game, notes Alex Raskin of The Wall Street Journal. NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn admits that better tailoring the game to fit TV time slots is an aim of the experiment, as Thorn tells Raskin.