Put a basketball in Brandon Armstrong's hands as far back as junior high and he's known only one thing to do with it: shoot.

"I'm a scorer," the Nets first-year guard said. "I shoot the ball and I score."

"He's like a gunfighter," coach Byron Scott said. "He comes in and he's looking to score. That's a good sign. That's something we need off the bench."

Except here's the catch: The 6-foot-5 Armstrong is a rookie, a raw, still-unsure-of-himself rookie. His 8-for-16 shooting in the Nets' first two preseason games, including Thursday's 90-85 loss to the Knicks, told what he could do well. A frustrated Scott, however, had to pull him aside on more than one occasion to tell him what he doesn't do well: X's and O's.