NOTHING WAS THE SAME: The Return of Derek Baldwin (2023-2027)

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No updates in almost two weeks.....no bueno

I gotta get this wrapped up so I can start on my next project.

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KNOW YOUR NETS: ADAM DEMPS

Players are moving in a practiced motion on the basketball court in the Barclays Center. One player fakes a cut and then uses the screen to get open on the wing where Paul George passes him the ball for a wide open three pointer.

“Swish. Just like that baby,” George says as he jogs up the court to get back on defense. “You like butter, Kid! Butter!”

The player rubs his stomach as he nods and smiles. His mentor, former coach and now teammate, Derek Baldwin, tries not to smile as the celebration reminds him of something he would have done way back when, but you can see just beneath the surface that he is very excited about the way the play panned out on offense, but he also hates the fact that his defender let him get away with it.

“If you let him, he is going to do that all day long,” head coach Kobe Bryant says to the defender. “He’s ready to eat Dre.”

“You starting to look like food, Palmer,” the player adds. He’s working out with the starters this practice as Keith Perkins came out after twisting his ankle during warm ups. This is a complete change from the player that we saw his rookie season. The player just trying to fit in. He’s starting to get a little looser with his play. He’s starting to talk a little more trash. At times it’s almost like you’re watching Derek Baldwin back in Chicago. It’s scary. Scary good.

“I knew what people already thought about me, so I’ve always tried to let my game speak for me.”

After about twenty minutes, the scrimmage ends and the players head to the showers. Coaches Bryant and Penny Hardaway can be seen going over notes with Baldwin from practice. Fifteen minutes later, the three are engaged in a shoot around when Adam Demps emerges with his duffle bag on his shoulder and a coat in his hands. These New York winters are on par with Chicago’s, so he’s kind of used to it. He calls to his coaches and asks for the ball stopping on the letter ‘R’ in the word Center near the Nets logo at half court. “If I make this, I want fajitas for dinner,” he says to Baldwin, who nods in reply. He squares up and fires. It doesn’t even touch the rim going down. He rubs his stomach and goes back to pick up his bag and coat.

The 22 year old combo guard from Wicker Park is making his mark in the NBA. A lot of critics thought the Nets chose him because the then head coach was practically a surrogate father to him.

“I’m still dealing with some flack from that. It’s amazing the things the guys will say to you on the court to get you off your game. I guess this is what it’s like to be Austin Rivers.”

Demps almost got into a physical altercation with Clarence Freeman of the Boston Celtics early in his rookie season. It got so bad that he had actually distanced himself from Baldwin for a while.

“I contemplated asking for a trade,” said Demps.

“I wasn’t going to fight him about it,” said Baldwin. “If you noticed, Kobe handled him in that game. We didn’t talk about until after we got back to Brooklyn. He had to cool off for a minute. This isn’t high school. Even in college, things were relatively quiet until tournament time. Due to my role here with the Nets, I kind of took myself out of the picture. Most people just knew him as the kid who was my neighbor way back when. This was something different though. The media had kind of latched on to him and were poking fun a little bit. Combined with the pressure of me actually coaching him, which I’ve never done before, it became a lot for him to take on. So we had to take a step back. This was something he needed to work through on his own.”

“I’ve been having guys say stuff to me since I was in high school and he used to come to my games,” said Demps. “I would always get harassed. One time we played Loyola Academy my senior year and they had like these Fat Heads of Derek. I couldn’t believe it. I scored 38 points that night though. Twenty-four of those points came from deep. But this situation was different.”

His mother, Jessica, confirms the story. “He started the night so angry. So I got Derek on FaceTime so he could see the student section. He said to tell Adam to block it out and do work. He told me to keep him on FaceTime the entire game. He was so proud of him that night. He flew him out to Los Angeles around New Year’s so that he could meet Kobe Bryant.”

“So I’ve learned to trash talk from two of the best in my time,” said Demps. “I’ve been around the game a lot growing up, but getting the chance to meet Kobe and talk to him was cool. He and Derek are a lot alike. I’m used to the trash talk, but it’s usually talk about my game. It never got personal. I never told anybody, because I was sworn to secrecy, but I’ve had Kobe’s cell number since that day.”

That following summer he was invited back to Los Angeles to work out with Baldwin and some of his friends that included Bryant, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, Carmelo Anthony, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, and Joe Hood.

“The deal was that I had to stay on the Dean’s List in order to go to Los Angeles for the summer. There was no AAU basketball for me. I had the opportunity to work out with some of the best in the world. No way was I passing that up.”

When reached for comment on Demps, Bryant had this to say. “He definitely wants to be the best. And that’s a great start. He wants to be better than I was, better than Derek was. Those are big shoes to fill, but he has goals. Which means that I can expect to see some great basketball for the next ten to fifteen years, or however long he stays. All of the greats need a muse. I had Jordan, Derek had me,” he says with a laugh, “and Adam has Derek. That’s one hell of a blueprint if it’s followed correctly. He loves the game and as his coaches, we need to make sure that he never loses touch with that feeling. Through wins and losses, just focus on the love of it.”

Adam has played like a man on a mission since that Loyola Academy game. His greatest college game was last season as he brought DePaul back from an 11 point deficit against Illinois. He finished with 31 points and 11 assists, scoring 20 of those points in the second half.

“I’ve been told that having a killer instinct is important,” said Demps.

“He doesn’t want anyone to doubt him,” commented Paul George. “He pushes himself because he knows he has something to prove.”

“We’ve seen Coach D get on him in practice,” said Keith Perkins. “He never got a pass around here. I think he actually got it worse than the rest of us. His motor is always running. We’re on the plane trying to sleep or play cards or something, this guy is trying to watch film from a game that we just played!” He laughs.

“My work ethic is something that I learned from watching Derek and Kobe. There was a court downstairs at his place, in L.A., so I could go in there whenever. It was soundproof so I wasn’t disturbing anybody. I could just get my shots up. I talked to Kobe about his 6-6-6 training and I do my own version of that as well. I get in about 300 shots a day. I don’t expect anything to come easy for me. I’m always trying to add wrinkles to my game. I want to be unstoppable.”

After that incident in Boston last season, he says Baldwin sat him down and told him one of three things could happen. “He told me I could play like he knows I can play and flourish and win in Brooklyn. Or I could stink the place up and find myself at the end of the bench with people wondering if he did get into the league because of him. Or three, I could get traded.”

“I was honest with him. I know how Adam can play. Did I believe that I was the best coach to bring Adam’s game out of him? Absolutely. Between Kobe, Penny and myself, this entire team is going to be doing big things for a long time. I don’t doubt it. We’re not just teaching these guys how to be better players for our system, we’re teaching them how to be better players for themselves.”

Adam already has one ring to prove it.

Demps is among the last to leave today. When he sees Derek grabbing his bags, he reminds him about the fajitas. Baldwin nods saying he’ll text his wife as he pulls out his phone. It’s a bet they made whenever he would visit Baldwin’s family in California. No matter the game, whoever won got to choose what was for dinner. He rarely got to choose in L.A., but he is definitely getting his pick of meals in Brooklyn.

.

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[djp73]

Crazy dominant. Championship or bust

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Crazy dominant. Championship or bust

True shit

[The JZA]

Cutting down nets again this year

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Cutting down nets again this year

Chances are likely

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