Player Preview: MarShon Brooks

As Nets fans, we all know what we can expect from MarShon Brooks. He's an extremely talented scorer and he displayed that in his rookie season last year. He started off his career oddly because of the lockout shortened season. Brooks was drafted 25th overall by the Boston Celtics, then later traded to the New Jersey Nets. There was no time for him to build chemistry with his new NBA teammates and he had no chance to have any real NBA workouts. His first opportunity arose when the lockout was lifted on December 8th. That was 11 days before the first of two preseason games against the Knicks. That meant 11 days to try and get into NBA game shape.

The thing about MarShon's game that excites people is his, what seems to be, simple way to put points on the board. He can shoot the three and also work the defense in the post. His handles are impressive and they can help him bring the ball to the hoop with ease. It seems that his strong point on offense is when he is in isolation. He uses his dribbling ability to shake defenders off while in iso and that allows him to clear space for an open shot. His abilities were evident in his rookie season as he averaged 12.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists. He was third among all rookies in scoring last season and finished tenth in Rookie of the Year voting. 

His weaknesses are quite obvious. His defense is very sub-par and he has a hard time defending guys that are the same size as him, never mind a taller man. His length makes his defense a little better than it would be, but it is still the part of his game that needs the most work. More trouble comes from him when he is double teamed. Passing out of them is what makes him turn the ball over. If he can't dribble out of it, he is in trouble. An issue he faced last season was his consistency. He shot only 43% from the field along with a disappointing 31.3% from the three-point line. His passing ability in general could be better. Yes, he's a shooting guard but that doesn't take away the possibility for him to pass. We can expect him to be much improved in these areas after a long offseason of working out and training. 

His sophomore season will be completely different from last year as he has actually had a summer league, training camp and a full preseason. He is more than likely going to serve as the teams sixth man unless Avery saw something better from another bench player that could take that away from MarShon. The only player that looked to be able to compete with him for that sixth man spot is C.J. Watson. MarShon has made his intentions clear about wanting to win the Sixth Man of the Year award in an interview with SLAM's Aggrey Sam back in August.

"Sixth man of the year, sixth man of the year," he repeated with a smile. "I'm not going to sell myself short."

Expectations loom large when you set your goals that high. But his abilities should allow him to compete for the award if he can set his role as the every day sixth man.

The Nets picked up MarShon's player option for next season so fans can sit back and relax knowing that their future star is locked up for the next two seasons. But these fans want to see that Brooks' game has improved after what some would call a disappointing shooting season.

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