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At the center of it all for Brooklyn Nets, good news

By Net Income
Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The Nets have six players who can be classified as "bigs", centers and power forwards.  In descending order by height, there's Brook Lopez, Mason Plumlee, Kevin Garnett, Andrei Kirilenko, Mirza Teletovic and Cory Jefferson.

For each one of them, there's good news to report.

--Lopez has been cleared for basketball activities and says his injured foot feels fine.

--Plumlee is getting closer to his goal of joining Team USA. Friday morning, Marc Stein reports that Plumlee and Klay Thompson "have emerged as Krzyzewski favorites."

--Garnett is "hungry" and feeling "great" according to Plumlee who spoke to him, briefly, last week.

--Kirilenko says he hasn't had any back issues since the middle of last season and is working out daily.

--Teletovic is burning up FIBA Europe with nifty post moves and drives to the hoop that complement his three point prowess.

--And Jefferson is getting ready for his rookie season. Also, don't be surprised to see one or more "bigs" invited to training camp. With only 13 guaranteed contracts, there might be an opening.

Andray Blatche, of course, won't be back, but the good health of the others should more than make up for his loss.

Last season, Jason Kidd saved the season by going small. That's unlikely to be the case this season. Lionel Hollins knows how to run two bigs in a bruising offense ... and he has the pieces. He's refused to even hint who might be starting when the team takes the court in Boston on October 29, but he has options ... and more depth than he had behind Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph in Memphis. Hollins also pointedly told Scott Fontana of amNY that he doesn't believe in arbitrary minute restrictions. Nor apparently does he believe in limiting Plumlee's offensive game.

As Thomas Duffy of Bleacher Report writes Friday, Hollins will be faced with a lot of options and keeping everyone happy is going to be a challenge.  Kidd ran a deep rotation.  That's not so much Hollins style, although he has said repeatedly he isn't locked into anything until he sees what he has.  We and he won't know what he will see until October, but right now, the Nets frontcourt has to be seen as a big positive.

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