The New Jersey Nets are still looking to add a player to their front court before the season starts next week, but they've already started cutting their roster down. On Tuesday morning the team announced they waived camp invites JamesOn Curry and Jerry Smith.
The two guards had played just three minutes in the Nets first preseason game after being called up from the Springfield Armor of the D-League. Curry scored two points with one turnover while Smith had just a single point. Both players are expected to rejoin the Armor.
Don't take the demotion of Curry and Smith as a sign the team was just using their D-League players as training camp fodder until the roster was completed. That's because forward Dennis Horner was impressive in 18 minutes with four points, four rebounds, three assists and a block against the Knicks over the weekend and remains on New Jersey's roster.
Until GM Billy King makes a move for Kris Humphries or Andrei Kirilenko, Horner will have a chance to not only earn a spot on the final roster but minutes off the bench.
Rumors have swirled the last couple days that the Nets were closing in on deals for both Humphries and AK-47 but so far they have all been bogus. While New Jersey clearly has interest in finding someone to play next to Brook Lopez (or Dwight Howard for that matter) it's clearly a wait and see approach when it comes to a bigger deal.