Brooklyn NY Nets First Practice At Barclays Center

Jay-Z had departed, taking his verses, his stage and his Brooklyn slide show with him. The Harlem Globetrotters had not yet arrived. For two hours, at least, Barclays Center belonged to its primary tenant — along with a few dozen workers wielding power tools.
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The Nets practiced at their new arena for the first time Sunday, testing the rims, sizing up the sight lines and the backdrops, and beginning the gradual process of acclimating to new surroundings.

It was, to be sure, a rough simulation of what life at Barclays might look like.

The stands were empty, aside from the workers scrubbing down the aisles after Jay-Z’s eighth and final show Saturday night. The drumbeat of bouncing balls was accompanied by the rumbling of forklifts.

And the Nets’ distinctive new herringbone court was in storage somewhere, awaiting their first preseason game next Monday. They practiced instead on a generic hardwood floor with “Brooklyn Hoops” stamped in the end zones, a court set up for the Globetrotters’ performance later in the afternoon. It was missing an N.B.A. 3-point line.

It was perhaps not the ideal setting for practice, but Coach Avery Johnson seemed generally pleased.

“To have all of this movement, with chairs and all of the different workers here in the building, I thought our players were really focused, and I told them I was proud of them for that,” Johnson said.

The initial reviews were positive. The stands are close to the court and rise quickly, giving shooters a close backdrop behind the basket stanchions. The lower bowl is mostly free of advertisements and other visual distractions, with a few exceptions. The scorer’s table, at midcourt, flashed a Starbucks logo, while another display, on the baseline, flashed a promotion for the YES Network.

The only mild concern Johnson raised was with the daylight seeping in above the west end zone, from the main concourse. The arena has curtains that can be closed when the Nets play day games.

“That’s one of the things we’re going to have to make sure that we take care of,” Johnson said, “but other than that, I think everything else is pretty good.”

Johnson described Barclays as a “tight arena” and an “intimate environment,” saying: “We’re going to feel, once we get the building filled up, like our fans are on top of the court. That’s the type of feel we want to get.”

The Nets will probably practice at Barclays two or three more times this month, in addition to playing three preseason games here as they prepare for their Nov. 1 opener against the Knicks.

After playing the past two years in the relatively bland and rarely energetic environment of Prudential Center in Newark, players are looking forward to the change.

“It’s built for basketball,” point guard Deron Williams said, drawing a sharp contrast with the Newark arena, which he disdained. “It’s not built for hockey; it’s not built for soccer. It’s built for basketball. Like I said, when they thought about it, they thought about everything. They thought about the crowd reacting, and it’s just got a great feel. It’s almost like there’s no bad seats in the arena.”

The Nets will use stage lighting — just as the Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers do — enhancing the feel of intimacy and putting the focus squarely on the court. Johnson described it as “that Broadway feel.”

The players were also thrilled with their spacious new locker room, which includes an array of electrical outlets in every locker so they can keep their phones and iPads charged.

“It’s first class,” forward Kris Humphries said of the arena, adding, “Everything’s so much bigger and nicer than what we’re used to.”

But after listing the many new perks — including the practice court and the player lounge — Humphries was quick to add a caveat: “That don’t put the ball in the hoop.”

The revamped Nets have five more practice days this week before making their debut Saturday, with a preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers in Atlantic City. Two nights later, they will play their first game at Barclays, against the Washington Wizards.

For the first time in years, the Nets should have a healthy home-court advantage, once they are comfortable with their surroundings and, of course, assuming they win consistently. They expect to be among the top teams in the Eastern Conference. They are talking openly of a 50-win season, a mark the franchise has not reached since 2001-2.

“We’re shooting higher than that,” guard Joe Johnson said. “We’re not going to limit ourselves, man. We have to be a confident group, and right now, everybody’s working hard toward being a playoff team. So we still got a lot of room for improvement.”

A version of this article appeared in print on October 8, 2012, on page D9 of the New York edition with the headline: At Practice, Nets Praise Intimate Feel of Arena.