Andray Blatche rumors: Toronto Raptors, Blatche to meet Wednesday
After a slow start (they began the season 10-21), the Brooklyn Nets really picked things up and wound up with a record of 44-38, winning 34 of their last 51 games. They were the sixth-seed in the Eastern Conference and took down the Toronto Raptors in a hard-fought seven-game series in the first round. They advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals where they were taken down by the Miami Heat, who went on to win the Eastern Conference, in five games.
More from Brooklyn Nets
- NBA Rumors: 5 best trade destinations for Pascal Siakam
- The new NBA flopping rules explained
- NBA rumors: 4 teams not named Heat or Nets engaged on Damian Lillard trade
- Could James Harden take a page out of Kevin Durant’s trade request playbook?
- Damian Lillard trade request: The best offers Nets and Heat can make to land star
The Nets had plenty of problems. Not only were the under a first-year coach in Jason Kidd (who has since left the Nets to take over as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks), but they were destroyed by injuries. They lost center Brook Lopez to another foot injury for nearly all of the season, point guard Deron Williams had problems staying healthy and saw a sharp decline in his game and veteran big man Kevin Garnett’s age finally caught up with him. He had to sit out several games and can’t be very effective for more than 20 or so minutes per game.
The Nets had a couple of players step up – point guard Shaun Livingston and and power forward Andray Blatche. With the Nets having such a huge payroll, it’s hard for them to keep their own free agents. Livingston already left the Nets for the Golden State Warriors. It looks like Blatche could be next.
According to Chris Broussard, Blatche is expected to meet with the Raptors Thursday in Las Vegas.
Blatche averaged 11.2 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game while shooting 47.6% from the field, 27.8% from beyond the arc and 74.2% from the charity stripe for the Nets last season.