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Nets bench is rebuilt, but is it truly better than last season?

Youth for experience. Athleticism for efficiency. Those are the tradeoffs Sean Marks made with he took last year's bench and put it in the burn pile and reshuffled the deck to bring in veteran help in the form of Mills, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul Millsap and James Johnson

Yes, many think rookie Cam Thomas will burst onto the scene as evidenced by his NBA Summer league MVP showing as well as being regarded by scouts as this draft's top scorer.

Jevon Carter, acquired in a draft day trade with Phoenix and Nicholas Claxton are also part of the under 25 club coming off the bench, but their pathway to the court will likely be blocked by savvy veterans on a win-now team.

Rookie Day'Ron Sharpe and a non guaranteed contract for DeAndre Bembry round out the end of the team's reserve spots.

A Nets'bench that was predominantly under age 28 outside of backup point guard Mike James, is now littered with 34 and older regular rotation players.

The experience factor is enormous when it comes up NBA playoff basketball, so by trading in unseasoned players for polished pros, Marks is hoping it provides enough of a boost to put Brooklyn over the top.

The Nets depth is better suited for short term success as Steve Nash and Marks have their sights set on delivering a title to Barclays Center.

NBA2K22 Gameplay leak: Nets demolish Bucks in opening night matchup

 

NBA 2K22 is set to launch Friday September 10, 2021. Nets Insider has an exclusive look at the newest release for Xbox Series X.
The battle of the Eastern heavyweights wasn't even a contest. As evidenced by the 86-50 romping by Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, James Harden and the rest of the Brooklyn Nets over the Milwaukee Bucks, it appears the shot meter issues are a thing of the past. Smoother shooting mechanics and more fluid gameplay make this year's version a less clunky version of those in year's past. The Bucks and Nets are set to do battle in Milwaukee on opening night October 19, so if this simulation is any indication of how that game will go, Brooklyn Nets fans will be restarts with the results.

Nets can't make this mistake again if they hope to fulfill title expectations

 In the playoffs head coach Steve Nash forgot what got his team through a regular season that saw the Big Three play only a handful of games together.

With Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving grabbing headlines, endorsement deals and leading in jersey sales, it was the contributions from the Nets' bench and unheralded players that catapulted the team to 48 regular season wins, good enough for the number two seed in the East. 



Many of the projected bench players were thrust into starting roles including Bruce Brown and Jeff Green, while Landry Shamet, Mike James, Tyler Johnson and Nicholas Claxton played meaningful minutes.

Outside of Brown, not a single one of those players is returning to Brooklyn this upcoming season. The group that brought the energy and enthusiasm off the bench was used sparingly in the second round ousting by Milwaukee with Harden hurt and Irving out.

Nash showed a lack of trust in those players to rise to the occasion in the big moments and that was a major reason why Brooklyn came up a shoe size short.

The reality is, Nash and evidently general manager Sean Marks, wanted to shuffle the deck on the bench and moved in the direction of over the hill veterans with just enough in the tank to move the needle.


Enter Paul Millsap and LaMarcus Aldridge at 36 years old will be viable options for Brooklyn's head man if relegated to bench duties.

There are now zero excuses for why the coaching staff will not utilize its depth with decorated veterans waiting at the scorers table.

If Nash and company aim to get to the top of the NBA mountain, the second year coach will need to learn from his mistakes and entrust his bench to get the job done in big moments.


As Nets' fans anxiously wait for crucial extensions for Irving, Harden, is it trouble in paradise for Brooklyn?

 Twenty days.

Twenty days.

That's exactly how long the Brooklyn Nets, specifically general manager Sean Marks has to lock up Kyrie Irving and James Harden on long term extensions.

The Nets are normally tight lipped, but disclosing contract terms as per team policy and are mum on injury updates and roster moves.




So while it's been two months since the Nets playoff elimination at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks, Kevin Durant's extension is in the books, but not his  second and third co stars.

There's been nothing but cohesion between Brooklyn's big three and Marks and Steve Nash have maintained a great rapport with the players, so any kind of front office rift can be immediately ruled out.

Marks had to do some maneuvering this off-season, principally finding a trading partner for the seldom used DeAndre Jordan to free up cap space and lesson the tax ramifications related to his bloated contract.

Harden and Irving have been busy recuperating from an injured filled season while giving back to the community with time and charity events meaningful to them.

It's not panic time just yet to iron out extensions, but some unease will quickly turn for the worse if Marks and company don't put the finishing touches on a great off-season.




Like Jarrett Allen before him, Nicolas Claxton's development will be stymied behind Nets' grizzled vets

 Just ask Jarrett Allen what it's like to be on a championship team and stand behind a former All Star waiting for a true opportunity to shine.

That's the exact same conundrum facing Nicolas Claxton, who is entering his third year with the Nets and behind not one, but three former All-Stars.

The young 7-footer has shown serious flashes of being a viable option to hold down the starting center position in the near future, but the presence of Blake Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge and even Paul Millsap have created even more roadblocks in his quest for more minutes and game experience.




Brooklyn is in win-now mode, with championship or bust expectations. The reality is, Claxton will be a casualty of the Nets urgent situation to pursue a title.

It's not to say that Claxton won't garner runtime on the court, but the lion's share of the minutes will belong to the afforementioned trio of vets. In a league where prototypical centers try desperately to stay on the court with three and d schemes stretching the floor, it will be an uphill battle for Claxton.

 The third year pro is not a perimeter shooting threat, but an effective rim runner, inside scorer and rim protector. 

While Aldridge, Griffin, Millsap and even Bruce Brown stand between Claxton and the court, the Nets planned load management for Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving along with aging players across the roster could prove just enough to get Claxton his due time.



After free agent frenzy, Nets' starting center role is this player's to lose

 Adding LaMarcus Aldridge and Paul Millsap to the Nets frontcourt means Steve Nash will have flexibility and blue chip options to hold down the five spot for Brooklyn.

Bruce Brown has also run as the designated big in the Nets' small ball lineup, but based on scheme fit and last year's body of work, Blake Griffin is the clear cut best option to start at center on a nightly basis.




Griffin, 32, shot a career high 38.3 percent from beyond the arc and played with exceptional energy and intensity to bring intangibles into the equation.

Aldridge and Millsap at 36 will have a chance to complete, but at advanced ages and with prototypical bigs seeing their minutes decrease across the league in favor of the three-and-d movent, Griffin becomes the obvious choice.

Against the Milwaukee Bucks of the world and Philadelphia 76ers where the Nets will need all big men on deck to battle against Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embid respectively.

Nash and company are much better suited to compete with the East's top teams as aforementioned, but don't need to reinvent the wheel based on the success the team had last year with Griffin in the starting lineup.

CP3 pays James Harden the highest compliment an NBA player can ask for

 Chris Paul played alongside James Harden for two years in the Houston Rockets' backcourt, so if anyone knows how lethal a scoring the current Nets guard can be it's the point God himself.


Paul left little doubt as to the identity of the league's premier basket filler, a player who can get buckets in a variety of ways from any spot on the court.

That man, Harden, has often been highly criticized for failing to win an NBA finals despite nine All-star selections and three league scoring titles to his name.



The "Bearded One" can fill it up, but the only thing that is preventing him from joining the Mount Rushmore of the league's top players is the requisite hardware in the Larry O'Brien missing from his packed trophy case.

Ironically, neither Paul or Harden have won a ring with the current Suns floor general falling short this past July and Harden missing out on his lone opportunity with the Thunder back in 2013.

When Harden and Paul were together in Houston, the chemistry and results were undeniable as the team came within an eyelash of knocking off the heavily favored Warriors even with Paul hobbled by injuries in 2017.

Both players went their separate ways with reports that they had a falling out of sorts with the Rockets that initialized Paul landing in Oklahoma City and Russell Westbrook joining Harden in Houston for just one season. 

Whatever the status of Paul's relationship with Harden may be, it's nice to see him paying homage to this generation's most gifted scorer.


Healthy Nets are championship or bust, Steve Nash's job depends on it




Injuries were a major part of why the Brooklyn Nets watched the NBA finals from their comfy sofas at home instead of challenging the Phoenix Suns for league supremacy this past July.

The other part of the equation that led to the Nets going home early was the simple fact that Mike Budenholzer maneuvered and made the proper adjustments to pull his club out of a 2-0 series hole and then an eventual 3-2 deficit.

The Bucks head man, who was rewarded with a lucrative extension this off-season, put to bed the narrative that his playoff coaching was subpar.

If there was a coach whose decisions  left a lot to ponder, that man was sitting on Brooklyn's coaching sidelines, Steve Nash. 

The first year coach looked exactly the part, reticent to trust the bench that spurred the team to 48 regular season wins without the Big Three healthy for the majority of the season.

Shortening rotations in the playoffs in nothing new, but Nash's refusal to dig deep in his bag with the team struggling to find offense outside of Kevin Durant and with Joe Harris misfiring from the outside is still a head scratcher.

Jeff Green was invaluable in Game 5 to help lift the Nets to within one game of the conference finals, but Bruce Brown's minutes shrunk, DeAndre Jordan remained inactive and Nicholas Claxton and Landry Shamet were used sparingly.

Durant was brilliant, but Nash's offense consisted of giving No. 7 the ball and getting the heck out of the way.  Without Kyrie Irving and a hobbled James Harden, the same Nets team that earned the distinction as the most efficient offense in NBA history, didn't resemble anything close to that against Milwaukee.

Sometimes you have to give a tip of the cap to your competition for locking down defensively, but Nash and former assistant Mike D'Antoni didn't do the team any favors by allowing the offense to go full hero ball.

Nash's coaching staff has been rebuilt with Ime Udoka being hired by the Celtics, D'Antoni leaving the organization, and David Vanderpool along with Steve Clifford coming into the fold. 

The reality is, if coaching is a factor for why the Nets come up short this upcoming season, Nash won't be able to survive another playoff exit.



No one roots for Goliath, which is why Nets are NBA's most disliked team by a longshot

 Super teams never seem to settle well with fans. From Miami's big three, to Golden State and now Brooklyn, no one roots for Goliath.

The Brooklyn Nets are fully loaded with a plethora of star talent, but what rubs fans the wrong way about this club?

Is it how James Harden forced his way out of Houston and showed up out of shape and unwilling to play for the franchise?

As for Kevin Durant, was joining a 73-win Warrior team enough to annoy most? How about unceremoniously leaving the Bay Area in the middle of a potential dynasty? Or to add insult to injury, joining forces with Kyrie Irving and Harden in Brooklyn?

Irving all but mailed it in during his time in Boston and showed every inclination to join his childhood team in the Nets and bring a first ever championship to the franchise. 

With a littany of reasons to despise how this Nets team has come together and the polarizing nature of each star's personality, Brooklyn is an easy target for those still drinking the hater-ade.

Whatever the case may be, the collection of basketball prowess Sean Marks somehow collected out of thin air is nothing short of astonishing.

The Nets are the talk of the NBA world and the benchmark by which every other team is measured. 




For the first time in their NBA history, the Nets are the team with the bullseye on their back. 

The club that catches the vitriol and animosity of fans of the other 29 teams, is the odds on favorite for a title. The heavyweights are primed to knockout the competition, much to the chagrin of the viewing public.

Only one other NBA playoff team had a worse defensive rating than Nets last season

The Brooklyn Nets offense was the most efficient in NBA history, but the defensive side left a lot to be desired. Only the Portland Trailblazers with a 115.3 defensive rating ranked worse than the Nets' 113.1. 

 Even though the headline indicates stats don't lie, they can often be skewed and misleading. Both the Nets, 117.3 and Trailblazers 117.1 led the league in offensive rating and played a breakneck speed. 

 The Nets' frenetic, lethal offense often resulted in high scoring contests for a team without a stellar on-ball defender outside of Bruce Brown on the perimeter and Kevin Durant contesting shots at the rim.
Adding Paul Millsap and LaMarcus Aldridge will only bolster the team's mid-range and inside scoring, but both 36 year olds aren't exactly quick on their feet and able to switch on 1 through 5. The reality is that from a numbers standpoint, the Nets defensive rating could actually get worse this season despite the additions of defensive specialist Jevon Carter and the return of Blake Griffin. 

 Come playoff time, Brooklyn's offensive capabilities are so overwhelming that it will mask many of the club's defensive deficiencies. 

 During the second round ousting by Milwaukee, the Nets struggled to get their historic offense off the ground with a hobbled James Harden and sans Kyrie Irving, while Durant shouldered the scoring load.

 At the end of the day, when the dust settles from the upcoming NBA season, the Nets may actually produce worse defensive numbers, but the team is better suited for a deep playoff run with Sean Marks' off-season additions.
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