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Brooklyn Nets to sign Shaun Livingston as back-up point guard

By Net Income
USA TODAY Sports

Shaun Livingston will be the Nets back-up point guard, according to various reports.

Marc Stein reported just before 6 p.m. that the Nets were "closing in" on a deal, then not long after, Adrian Wojnarowski, Sam Amico, David Alddrige and Mike Mazzeo confirmed the news.

Here's the sequence...

Woj said the deal is for one year.

With the Nets limited to vets minimum deals, Livingston would earn a little more than $1 million.With the Nets still expected to sign Bojan Bogdanovic, the Nets roster will stand at 14. The team is not expected to sign a 15th man, but could still make a trade.

Livingston has been the Nets first choice for the reserve PG job for a few weeks. Jason Kidd has been particularly high on Livingston. The 27-year-old, who split time between Cleveland and Washington last season, would join Deron Williams and Tyshawn Taylor in what should be an athletic backcourt.

He would replace C.J. Watson, who left the Nets for the Pacers. The Nets, although happy with Watson, came to believe they needed more of a distributor than a shooter at the 1. Livingston, at 6'7", is known as a solid PG who can find the open man, find the open lane to the basket but not shoot from deep. He hasn't hit a three-pointer in two years and has a career average of 20.9 percent, half of Watson's clip for last season.

Livingston was taken #4 in the 2004 Draft, then suffered a devastating injury in February 2007. The injury is described this way in his Wikipedia entry.

In a game against the Charlotte Bobcats on February 26, 2007, Livingston suffered a debilitating knee injury, dislocating his left kneecap after landing awkwardly following a missed layup, resulting in the left leg snapping laterally. Livingston injured almost every part of his knee, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), and the lateral meniscus, badly spraining his medial collateral ligament (MCL), and dislocating his patella and his tibia-femoral joint. The injury was so severe that ESPNEWS warned viewers of the graphic nature of the video clip before airing it. Livingston was told by a medical professional at the hospital that there was a chance that his leg would have to be amputated. He required months of rehabilitation to be able to walk again.

Jonathan Abrams, in Grantland, described Livingston's long road back last February, noting how he hoped he could return to close to his level of play before the injury. In Cleveland, Livingston averaged 7.1 points and 3.6 assists per game in 23 minutes, backing up Kyrie Irving.

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