Mason Plumlee's best moment as an NBA player came Tuesday night when Gerald Wallace, posting up Mirza Teletovic, made his move, thinking he would have a good chance for two. He didn't see the Nets' 7-footer coming. Whack! Plumlee used all of his 36" maximum vertical to swat the ball into the Nets bench.
"[Mason] plays with a lot of energy and definitely keeps me in check," Brook Lopez told SNY Nets' Moke Hamilton on Tuesday night. "He is definitely a good center for this team and he will be ready when his opportunity comes."
Billy King has said that the Duke product, taken #22 on Draft Night, is likely to spend time with the Armor, but that hasn't prevented him from learning and improving in the preseason. Against the Celtics, he played 21 minutes, scoring four points, grabbing five rebounds and blocking two shots. It's not the numbers, says Hamilton, but how he played the game ... "He did not get dominated. He did not look lost. He did not embarrass himself.."
That's more important that it sounds. It's evidence of high BBIQ, something highly touted seven footers didn't have on arrival, players like Robert Swift, Mouhamed Sene or Hasheem Thabeet. Only Thabeet is still in the game, and just barely.
"Each game, I feel a little more comfortable," Plumlee told SNY. "The game seems to slow down a little bit more."
Plumlee also has another advantage, according to Joe Johnson. "He’s got [Kevin Garnett] in his ear all the time so this is a great experience for him."
-
Hamilton: Already, Mason Plumlee looks like a diamond from the draft - Moke Hamilton - SNY Nets