TBG Stock Watch 7: Theo’s Time To Shine

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Woo-hoo! Once more, the Brooklyn Nets had another three-game week — and, again, the team finished 3-0. The Nets’ winning streak is up to six games, with the team currently holders of a 27-24 record — one of just six teams in the Eastern Conference with a winning record. This week holds more challenges and surprises, undoubtedly, but they’ll kick things off in Boston tonight against a Kyrie Irving-less Celtics squad. 

With that out of the way, let’s dig into the risers and fallers in Stock Watch No. 7.

Last week’s scores:
1/21: Nets 123, Kings 94
1/23: Nets 114, Magic 110
1/25: Nets 109, Knicks 99

Stock Risers:

1. Theo Pinson

The Nets got off to a really slow start against the New York Knicks on Friday night. The 10-win Knicks, who are actively not playing one of their best healthy players in Enes Kanter, got off to a 37-30 lead in the first quarter as Brooklyn came out flat at home.

So with a shortage of available guards due to injuries and foul trouble, head coach Kenny Atkinson turned to Theo Pinson. Pinson responded by putting up the best game of his career.

The two-way rookie from North Carolina finished with 19 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals. He caught fire in the first half from behind the arc, while maintaining his aggressiveness and energy throughout the game. In a small way, he helped the Nets stay afloat until the rest of the squad woke up from their sleepwalk.

Pinson will have more opportunities to see the court with Spencer Dinwiddie out.

2. Ed Davis

Ed Davis knows what he can do. He runs the floor, stays constantly active on defense and grabs every rebound in sight.

He doesn’t try to do much outside of his established role and skill-set, either. He doesn’t need to, though, seeing as how effective he is in his niche part.

In just 23.9 minutes this week, Davis gobbled up 12.3 rebounds, an absurd number. He also put up 7.7 points per game, mostly by hanging near the rim for put-backs and easy dunks — or he’d get fouled and go to the line. He actually played the same amount of minutes as Jarrett Allen did this week and had better numbers across the board. It’s a luxury for Brooklyn to have a strong backup big like Davis.

3. Mitchell Creek And The Nets’ Bench

Mitchell Creek was signed to a 10-day contract on Friday. He got into the game to shoot free throws for Rondae Hollis-Jefferson after the latter had to leave the game with an injury.

He knocked one down, scoring his first NBA point. And his new teammates couldn’t have been happier for him. There’s no way to know if Creek’s big moment against the rival Knicks will be his only bright NBA moment — but here’s to hoping there are more awesome things to come.

Stock Fallers:

1. Health

Hard to have anybody’s stock go down in another 3-0 week — is this getting old yet? Sadly, there’s one culprit, an enemy that this franchise is pretty used to at this point. Like clockwork, Brooklyn is banged up right now. Caris LeVert has been out since November, obviously, and now, Spencer Dinwiddie will be miss a reported 4-to-6 weeks after surgery to repair torn ligaments in his right thumb. That’s two of the Nets three best players injured.

Jared Dudley and Allen Crabbe are still out with their respective injuries, as is Dzanan Musa who was just assigned back to the G-League and Long Island.

Trevon Graham and Joe Harris have lower back and hip soreness, respectively, and are both listed as questionable for tonight’s game against the Celtics.

The Nets are going to need to get a lot of big minutes from the underbelly of the roster to keep its standing in the conference. Fingers crossed, as usual.

This week’s games:

1/28 @ Boston Celtics
1/29 vs. Chicago Bulls
1/31 @ San Antonio Spurs
2/2 @ Orlando Magic

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