MarShon Capable of Defending?

MarShon Brooks gave the Nets something to look at with his defensive performance against the Pistons Monday. He took a charge and blocked 2 shots displaying great help defense on several rotations. P.J. Carlesimo noticed the effort and rewarded him and the rest of the second unit with more minutes.

"I liked what I saw defensively more than what I saw offensively,” Carlesimo said. “He blocked a couple shots, he drew a charge … his attention to schemes and what he was doing was better. His help-side defense has been much better. He’s helping more, he’s blocking shots more … he still can get lost sometimes in picks and other things, but his help side defense was really good."

Brooks was happy with the extend time since those amount of minutes were a rarity.

“It was a good feeling,” Brooks said. “It was better to get a win, especially a good win like that, and the bench played well … for us to extend the lead when the starters sat down, that was huge for us. That’s something I feel like we should do a lot more often, especially when we’re playing against other team’s second units. It’s an opportunity for us to give our starters some breathing room.

"We just did a good job of playing well defensively and we got on a run and got some easy fast-break points … we played well as a second unit.”

Coach knows I can score," Brooks said. "He just wants the little things. I’m gonna try to move my feet on the defensive end, talk, provide energy, I got a couple blocked shots, had an opportunity to block a couple shots and it was a good feeling to get out there and run.”

I wouldn't be surprised if MarShon Brooks took the minutes away from Keith Bogans. His ability to make plays gives him the slight edge offensively but it just depends on his defense. If he can show that type of play for the rest of the season , The Nets will have a number of ways to exploit teams and possibly make a strong run in the post-season.

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