The Brooklyn Nets can live with a few shaky things in October. What they can’t live with, if they want this next step of the rebuild to mean anything, is another season of being stuck at the bottom on both sides of the ball.
Last year, Brooklyn finished 30th in both offensive and defensive rating. That was one thing when the goal was a high pick.
It becomes a different problem if the mission is actually winning games. Based on Summer League and preseason, the offense has at least looked more functional.
Julius Randle, described as a bona fide NBA scorer, has given the group a real shot-creator. Playing alongside Michael Porter Jr., both should be able to get their looks.
Egor Demin and Nolan Traore, two members of the Flatbush 5, have also grown in multiple ways, while rookie Mikel Brown Jr. appears ready to help right away.
Defense is another story.
Against the Miami Heat in the final preseason game, Brooklyn looked, in Brian Lewis’ words, “sieve like.” Porter Jr. didn’t sugarcoat it either.
“Yeah, that’ll be the most important thing. Offensively we’ll be able to score with the best of them,” Porter Jr. said.
“I think offensively is not a problem. [But] if we want to be good, then defensively we’ll have to lock in.”
Head coach Jordi Fernandez, a coach who prides himself on defense, has seen both sides of the coin.
“There’s been two games that we were an aggressive and ball-pressure defensive team where I thought we were pretty good,” the head coach said. “And then two games where we were a poor defensive team with our transition, our rim protection.
“We’ve got to decide who we want to be, and the things that we can control … and do it every game. Don’t rely on shot-making, on things that don’t really matter. Rely on things that are going to make you a winning team.”
The preseason numbers back up the uneasy eye test. Brooklyn finished second worst in the league in opponent field goal percentage at .498 and opponent effective field goal percentage at .588. The defensive rating didn’t end up looking quite as ugly, but that was helped by the Nets being top 10 in opponent turnovers, turnover percentage and points off turnovers.
That’s the catch with this group: when Brooklyn can force mistakes, the defense can survive. The Nets forced 47 turnovers over their first two games and held opponents to an average of 99 points. In Monday’s win at Washington, they rattled the Wizards into another 15 turnovers in the second half and limited them to 50 points after the break.
But when teams protected the ball, the Nets had no real answer.
At Washington, Brooklyn forced only eight first-half turnovers and still gave up 72 points. In Miami, the Heat committed just 15 turnovers and still shot 58.5 percent while hanging 144 points on the Nets.
The biggest issue was inside. The lack of rim protection stood out again in the Miami game, a problem that has been obvious since the Nets traded Nic Claxton in the deal that brought Randle to New York. It got worse when Day’Ron Sharpe ran into early foul trouble against Giannis Antetokounmpo, leaving Brooklyn even thinner in that area.
“[Fernández preaches] just executing our staples on defense, controlling that, controlling what needs to be controlled, and doing everything with a purpose, but doing it also hard,” Sharpe said. “So that’s the main thing he preaches. If we could do that for four quarters, we’d give ourselves a good chance to win.”
There are a few possible in-house ideas, though none looks like a clean fix. Noah Clowney has the kind of shot-blocking burst that once showed up when he blocked 11 shots in two games over a four-day stretch, and he could see some small-ball 5 minutes in certain situations.
Two-way player Grant Nelson also blocked shots at Alabama and brings athleticism at 7 feet. But neither appears likely to change the picture much, and there’s no sign Sean Marks and company are looking hard for outside help.
Brown, at least, believes the answers are in front of them.
“Coach always preaches that we can play hard, but we’ve also got to play smart and attention to detail. That’s something that we’ve been inconsistent at, but we’re going to continue to work at it every single day and fix it,” Brown Jr. said.
“It’s just little mistakes we could correct. Just being clean in our shifts, being early and often.
It’s not that we’re just completely blowing up on coverages; it’s just about having the right mindset, staying consistent throughout the game for all 48 minutes and keep applying that same pressure, that physicality that coach is talking about. It’s just the little things when it comes to that point.
We clean those things up, we’ll be fine.”
That’s the optimistic read. The harder question is what “fine” actually means for a Nets team that was dead last in both major efficiency categories a year ago.
Improvement would be something. Improvement all the way to “fine” might not be enough.
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Jordi Fernandez Sounds The Alarm On A Nets Problem That Wont Go Away
Brooklyns offense has shown flashes this preseason with Julius Randle in the mix, but Jordi Fernandez is making it clear the bigger concern is still on the other end. After the Nets were again overwhelmed defensively in a loss to Miami, the coach pointed to the bigger picture for a team that wants to be competitive and cannot keep giving opponents easy looks and clean rhythm.
Fernandez did not sugarcoat the problem, saying the standard has to be much higher on defense after Miami piled up points with efficient shooting and crisp ball movement. The Nets have been leaking production throughout the preseason, and until that side of the floor tightens up, the encouraging signs from the offense are going to be hard to turn into anything meaningful. [Read more 🡒]