It was a sleepy, cloudy morning outside HSS Training Center on Monday, hours before the Brooklyn Nets were set to take on the Philadelphia 76ers in their third pre-season game. James Harden was never expected to take the court for the affair, and during Brooklyn’s shoot-around, we learned that Joel Embiid would be missing the action as well.
Jacque Vaughn did not speak with the media at Monday’s shoot-around, given that we’ll see him during pre-game at the Barclays Center. Thus, no injury updates on Dennis Smith Jr. (ankle), Cam Johnson (foot), or Nic Claxton (glute). Day’Ron Sharpe did speak, however, and told reporters that he is “back on the court, playing with the coaches, so I feel pretty good…I wouldn’t say [his sprained left ankle] is 100%, but about to be there.”
Sharpe, however, wasn’t as interested in discussing his ankle — which he rolled after just two minutes of playing time in Brooklyn’s first preseason game — as he was in discussing the coaching staff he’s been competing against.
“These guys, they’re out here playing just as hard as us, even demonstrating the drills,” said Sharpe. “I just feel all the coaches got the same energy, the same vibes as the team is trying to have.”
For Sharpe and his fellow 2021 draft alumnus, Cam Thomas, this cohesion throughout the coaching staff represents a stark change from the beginning of their careers. Remember, Sharpe and Thomas joined the Nets during the summer in which Ime Udoka and Mike D’Antoni, Steve Nash’s top assistant, departed