Brooklyn Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith reflected on his 30 games with the Nets (26 regular-season games and four playoff games) with a positive attitude despite the fact that Brooklyn was hanging on for dear life to finish the regular-season with the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Even though the Nets could not win a game against the third-seeded Philadelphia 76ers in their best-of-seven series despite two good chances to steal wins in Games 3 and 4, Finney-Smith overall enjoyed his time with Brooklyn.
Finney-Smith came to the Nets in the Kyrie Irving deal and during his time in Brooklyn, the former Florida Gator did everything that he was expected to do except shoot the ball. In 40 games with the Dallas Mavericks, Finney-Smith shot 41.6% from the field and 35.5% from three-point land on 5.4 three-point attempts per game. During his time with the Nets, he shot 35.1% from the field and 30.6% from three on similar volume. To his credit, he shot the ball better in the playoffs as he made 39.1% of his field-goal attempts and 41.2% of his three-point attempts.
As has been stated before, every player that remained on Brooklyn’s roster after the trade deadline had to adjust to essentially a brand-new team. After the Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving deals, the Nets had four new starters (including Finney-Smith) to go with center Nic Claxton, who said himself that there was a lot of adjusting to the different personnel. It’s hard enough to make adjustments in the offseason so one can only imagine how hard it is to do in the midst of a season with a playoff berth on the line. Through it all, Finney-Smith said during his exit interview that he enjoyed his time with Brooklyn:
“It was fun. Obviously, that playoff energy. Brooklyn fans, you know, they brung the energy. Sorry, we couldn’t get a win. But, we learned a lot about each other over the past 20, 26 games. It was great being with them guys. Watching Mikal (Bridges) and Cam (Johnson) blossom in front of our eyes was amazing to see. I feel like I gotta get better. I didn’t have a great 26 games. But, you know, I felt like I started playing better towards the end, started making some shots. But, it’s gonna be a great summer, gotta get better.”
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