Netlinked 9/11/12: Dominic McGuire Signs With Toronto and The Barclays Center's Court is Unveiled

This would be the nicest court in the NBA by far. Photo credit: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1349568/Barclays_Center_Interior_with_Court2.jpg

 We've got another jampacked Netlinked today on Brooklyn Balling with some good news and some bad news. We'll start off with the bad news first:

Dominic McGuire, whom the Nets were reportedly going to work out, has signed a partially-guaranteed training camp deal with the Raptors, our division rivals to the north. As I wrote a few days ago, McGuire would have been a nice fit with this Nets' team, a team without many rebounders or defensive specialists, two niches that McGuire fills.

Moving on,  a much-awaited milestone in the construction of the Barclays Center was completed today as the Nets' home court for the 2012-13 season and beyond was finalized and unveiled today (link has pictures!). As everything with the Brooklyn Nets has been so far, the court is certainly unconventional andis what is known as herringbone-patterned, a term I looked up on Wikipedia and found to mean "an arrangement of rectangles used for floor tilings and road pavement".

It's definitely unique and as CEO Brett Yormark said in the link above, it has the chance to be iconic as a floor design, similarly to the parquet floor that is so recognizable at the TD Garden in Boston.

Netlinked 9/8/12: Nets Reportedly To Workout Josh Childress and Dominic McGuire

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Nets, in their constant and seemingly never-ending quest to fill out their roster, will hold a workout with veterans Dominic McGuire and Josh Childress.

McGuire, a 6-9 forward who was most recently with the Warriors, looks like a better fit to the Nets' roster as is because he's defense-oriented, a trait that is certainly in high demand with this team. Looking at his career, per 36-minutes stats, they are actually pretty good. 6.4 points, 7.9 boards, and 1.3 blocks per 36 minutes are solid stats for a cheap, role-player who has been with bad teams and strictly garbage-time minutes throughout most of his career. On a potential contender like the Nets,  McGuire could shine in a limited role, and most importantly, won't demand a big contract.

Childress is a veteran shooting guard who was amnestied by the Suns in July, with $20 million left on the originally 5-year deal he signed with Phoenix prior to the 2011-12 season. As most of you know, Childress, the 6th pick overall in the 2004 Draft by the Hawks, isn't much of a defender at this point in his career and probably would just be a shooter off the bench for Avery Johnson if he makes the Nets out of training camp.

I don't really understand the Nets' interest in Childress who we really don't have a need for, but, on the other hand, I love the McGuire possibility. He's a hard-nosed, very good defender and rebounder who would give the Nets full effort in the 5-10 minutes a game he would play. If he's the 15th man on our roster for the upcoming season, I think this Nets team will be pretty set to navigate the tough Atlantic Division in their debut Brooklyn season.