Kevin Garnett Mentoring Mason Plumlee's Resurgence with Brooklyn Nets
A month ago, Mason Plumlee was an afterthought. Now he's one of the first players who comes to mind upon mentioning the Brooklyn Nets.
Plumlee is averaging 14.9 points and 9.2 rebounds per game since sliding into the Nets' starting lineup on Dec. 10, making for what's pretty easily been the best stretch of his short career.
After a particularly slow start to the season, it's hard to say exactly how Plumlee shot so quickly from the end of coach Lionel Hollins' rotation to become the best young piece on the Nets.
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Some attribute it to sheer improvement from a kid who was First-Team All-Rookie a season ago and who played with Team USA over the summer. Others say he's simply looking more comfortable. You could credit the increase in playing time, too; he's averaging almost 32 minutes a night since entering the starting lineup last month.
Jarrett Jack has a different opinion.
"To be honest, ‘Mase’ has a factor that always keeps his ears perked up and makes sure that he’s involved in the game: It’s called Kevin Garnett," joked Jack.
It's not exactly a friendship one might expect to develop. But if you're the 24-year-old Plumlee, what's one of the smartest things you can do to improve your game? Latch onto one of the best big men ever.
"It’s a weird tandem, but they’ve definitely seemed to work together,” Jack continued.
It happened immediately. Garnett took Plumlee under his wing shortly after the Nets drafted him in 2013, the same day the organization would trade for KG and Paul Pierce. The former Boston Celtic hasn't been out of his ear since.
They have distinctly separate personalities, which isn't weird considering their differing upbringings and current life stages. KG is a father. Plumlee is just an ultra-successful recent college grad.
"He's got a family, and I'm kind of young, on my own," explained Plumlee, attempting to show off the 14 years that separate his age from his mentor's. "With that being said, we go out to dinner every now and then or hang out."
Still, Garnett and Plumlee aren't exactly going to the movies or grabbing beers every chance they get. They may be playing in the home borough of Neil Simon, but they're far from Oscar Madison and Felix Unger reincarnate.
For two men whose lives are entrenched in the game of basketball, their relationship revolves around one thing. It stands to reason that sort of trust would carry onto the court. So far, we've seen just that.
Hollins has made a concerted effort to play Plumlee and Garnett together when possible. With that, he's steered away from running Plumlee and Brook Lopez at the same time. That's partly because the Dukie is better at guarding centers than he is power forwards.
"The numbers have shown they haven’t played well together," Hollins said. "Our plus-minus numbers are down, our defensive numbers are down, everything when they’re on the court together is not very good for that combination"
Nevertheless, much of the reasoning comes on the offensive side of the ball.
A Lopez-Plumlee combination can clog up the middle of the floor, as Lopez loves hanging around the block and Plumlee is a pick-and-roll/post-up player without range on his jumper. Garnett, though, can complement Plumlee's screen-and-rolls nicely when he pops to around 20 feet out.
Plumlee's offense has matured since the beginning of the year, when he was looking to score out of the post more. Now, he's become more active in the pick-and-roll. He's posting up but often going middle and passing to teammates in the weak-side corner.
"I think Mason’s starting to understand his strengths versus calling for the ball,” Garnett evaluated. “He’s playing [as] more of a team player, not to say that he wasn’t, but I think he’s leaning that a little more. We’re looking for him a little more. When he’s in there with me, I’m a little more passive trying to make it easy for him, and he’s doing a great job at finishing."
A great job at finishing is certainly right. Plumlee is converting a monstrous 69 percent of his attempts inside the restricted area since he became the full-time starter a month ago. The team numbers back up the Plumlee-Garnett combo, too.
The Nets are averaging seven more points per 100 possessions when they pair their second-year center with KG as opposed to any other big in Hollins' rotation. And though the stats don't necessarily say the duo has played great defense, the Nets can better execute their schemes with Plumlee and Garnett sharing the court.
Brooklyn helps pretty aggressively off the ball, especially off shooters from the perimeter when a dribbler is penetrating in the middle of the floor. For the first month or so of the season, Plumlee struggled with those concepts, finding himself all over the court and often out of position.
He is a good enough athlete to get to spots on time but is somewhat jumpy in a defense that calls for him to move more convincingly.
With Garnett behind him, Plumlee's looked different, more composed and able to hit those secondary rotations in a timely manner.
Communication is one of Garnett's top priorities, no matter inside or outside the arena. Whether it's about playing defense or working out together, KG knows a sort of shortstop-second baseman chemistry has to apply to your two bigs, a philosophy he lived by with the Celtics, too, especially with Kendrick Perkins.
"He's aware," Hollins said of Garnett's defensive focus. "He studies the scouting report. He knows what the other team is trying to do, and he's just active and intense. You know, it's always been this way."
Confidence can grow when a guy has an all-time help defender backing him up, knowing that if he heads in the wrong direction, a teammate will likely be there to clean up his mistake. In that vein, Plumlee can just play and not necessarily think. Because of that, the right plays are becoming more and more instinctual.
"He's never out of position," Plumlee said of Garnett's ability to guard. "You never have to worry about defensively where he's going to be. He's so verbal about it. If you do have a doubt, he's right behind you talking to you. So, you don't have to worry about him, and that gives you a lot of confidence in your own position as a helper."
Defense is somewhat Pavlovian: Start moving properly with KG there, let those actions become intuition and see it translate to the rest of your game.
It's like teaching a kid to ride a bike, eventually having that debatably mean moment when you let go of the bicycle even though your child thinks you're still holding on from behind. He may be angry, but he's not falling over.
Now, partly because of Garnett, Plumlee is learning how to ride on his own.
"I'm moving a little smarter," Plumlee described. "'Decisive' is a good word for it, just knowing where to be and when. To me, the worst on defense is when you get caught in no man's land, where you're not really helping and you don't really have your man. I do feel that's improved a lot."
That's Garnett's rep, right? His mere existence makes guys better (the fact that he's one of the most vocal defenders helps with that). It's been that way forever.
Garnett is a defense's backbone. But he's also one for the team in general.
There are two different Kevin Garnetts. There's the KG the public knows, and then there's the one the 15-time All-Star's teammates recognize, and ever since he first stepped onto an NBA court, Garnett has been one of the most beloved teammates in the league.
"He's second to none," said Jack, who has played for seven teams and lauds Garnett for his lack of ego. It's not just about the game, either.
Sure, Garnett will back guys up on the court. He'll rotate when someone needs help. He'll let you know when you make a mistake. He'll step in and make you better, much like he's done with Plumlee. But KG isn't all basketball.
"He's a very giving dude with his knowledge, his time and his possessions," Plumlee explained. "We were out in LA. He told me, look, if you ever need my house, if you ever need a car, whatever. He's just very generous."
If you're going to earn more money in salary than any player in the history of the NBA, you might as well spend it philanthropically, and Plumlee is hardly the first person to point out such a trait about Garnett.
All you have to do is scan though Harvey Araton's tremendous KG profile from a 2013 issue of the New York Times to learn that KG has bought suits for teammates. He bought a car for one. And he's committed acts that were far more selfless than those, as Araton recounts.
Debating the value of team chemistry is an ever-argued conflict in sports.
Does winning breed chemistry? Does chemistry breed winning? Is it specific to the individuals in the locker room? Does any of it matter at all?
There are spin-offs from chemistry, though. One of them is comfort, and after 16 games in the starting lineup, Plumlee is looking more comfortable than ever.
Even in the midst of a three-game losing streak, Plumlee is relaxed, and he says his teammates are too.
"You see guys laughing; that's on purpose," he asserted after Thursday's practice. "KG makes a point to come in here and make sure guys are still enjoying it, because if you aren't enjoying coming in here, you're definitely not going to figure it out. Kevin, he controls the mood of the locker room."
Plumlee is accelerating at a fast and furious rate. He's gone from non-factor to the guy holding up the Deron-Williams-to-Sacramento deal. The organization, the fanbase, the team, everyone has a renewed opinion of him now. Even Grantland's Zach Lowe called him "Tyson Chandler Lite" in a recent column, an extraordinary step up from where he was at the start of the holiday season.
Somehow, an unlikely friendship has helped turn Plumlee's season around. He's found his mentor, and as Jack points out, he's not bound to let go anytime soon.
"The two, they're from two different walks of life," Jack expressed. "But I'm sure you could ask Mase, 'Who's the person that keeps his focus and is always on him about any and everything?' It's KG."
Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.
All quotes obtained firsthand. Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Jan. 9 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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