Josh Childress Out For Saturday's Opener Against Toronto

The Nets picked up Childress over the summer for the veteran's minimum, on a low-risk, medium-reward kind of signing

On Saturday night, when they open up the Barclays Center against the Raptors, the Nets will be without one of their offseason pickups. Josh Childress is expected to miss the game due to soreness he is experiencing in his sprained left ankle. Childress aggravated the ankle in the the Nets' last preseason game, a loss to the Knicks at Nassau Coliseum on October 24th.

Hello Josh Childress, Goodbye Damion James

The Nets traded up to get James in with the 24th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. He showed some promise with the team but just couldn't stay healthy long enough to make an impact. Yet another Nets draft pick to not turn out and another Nets player to head to Atlanta this offseason. On the bright side, he fit all the trends!

It looks like the Nets' roster for training camp might be actually filled out now. After some rumors that there was mutual interest and a potential workout was set up, veteran wingman Josh Childress has indeed signed a one-year, partially-guaranteed contract with the Nets and will be the 2nd player picked up by the Nets this offseason that had been amnestied by their old team. Of course, the other is former Wizard and current headcase, Andray Blatche.

As I said a few days ago, I don't really see the need for a player like Childress on the Nets but he's another low-risk, medium-reward signing by Billy King, who is becoming shockingly shrewd late in the off-season after saying "YOLO" with the first few moves he made after the 2011-12 season.

Another little tidbit of info regarding former Nets is that 2010 1st-rounder Damion James has signed with the Hawks after the Nets did not renew his rookie contract this offseason. As you all probably remember, we got James (24th overall) from, ironically, the Hawks for the 27th overall pick (Jordan Crawford) and the 31st overall pick (Tibor Pleiss).

James, a former standout at the University of Texas, played pretty well for the Nets in just 32 games over his two seasons with the team. However, constant injuries (32 games in two years is pretty bad) and the numbers game with this roster just left him with no place on this year's incarnation of your Brooklyn Nets.

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.