Breaking Down Brooklyn Nets Small Forward Position for 2014-15 Season
The small forward spot is becoming an increasingly perplexing position in today’s NBA, especially when it pertains to the Brooklyn Nets.
Some small forwards bring the ball up. Others play in the paint. Then there are the three-point launchers who eat and sleep out on the perimeter.
The 3 has really become a wild card in terms of lineup configurations.
Under Jason Kidd, who fled Brooklyn for the Milwaukee Bucks after just one year, the team struggled to have a concrete identity in 2013-14.
Things will be different with new coach Lionel Hollins at the helm, though. Hollins talked to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News about what he expects from his team:
"I wasn’t trying to watch what they did because it’s really not the same team and what I want to do is different from what they did in the past. So, it wasn’t like I was trying to figure out what they did (last season). And I had a vision of what this team could look like with the personnel we have.
We’re trying to develop a foundation of what we’re going to be defensively, and what we’re trying to be offensively. It’s all the same. It’s not like I have some special magic that I’m trying to get them to do. You create a mentality, you create a culture of being aggressive and being tough.
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Bondy noted back in late September that Hollins had already locked in on four starters: Williams, Johnson, Garnett and Lopez.
Johnson, who had played shooting guard for 12 years before last season, could see minutes at both the 2 and the 3 under Hollins.
Outside of Iso Joe, the Nets are looking at a SF rotation that could include rookie Bojan Bogdanovic, Andrei Kirilenko, Alan Anderson, Mirza Teletovic and Sergey Karasev.
Now, all those guys aren’t going to play (we're looking at you, Sergey). And the ones that do aren’t going to exclusively line up at the 3. For example, AK-47 and Teletovic are likely to see a good chunk of minutes at power forward.
Let’s put the Nets’ small forward position under a microscope and really dig in, shall we?
Grading Last Year's SF Performance
Last season, the Nets played small ball after starting center Brook Lopez went out for the year with a broken foot 17 games in.
After that, Kevin Garnett shared center duties with Mason Plumlee, Paul Pierce jumped to power forward, Joe Johnson slid down to small forward and Shaun Livingston joined Deron Williams in the backcourt.
Wait. Basketball-Reference.com listed Johnson as a shooting guard last year. So did ESPN.
Well...he was, wasn’t he?
As mentioned before, Johnson took Pierce’s place at forward, but still handled the ball a fair amount and took the most shots on the team by a large margin. The next closest was D-Will, who was 302 shots behind JJ’s 1,018 attempts.
Johnson, as he’s always been, was a stud in 2013-14. The 33-year-old scored a team-high 15.8 points per game on 45.4 percent shooting while earning his seventh career All-Star nod. He also led the team in three-point shooting with an average of 40.1 from beyond the arc.
Playing a different position didn’t faze Johnson. Here’s what he told ESPN’s Mike Mazzeo on September 30:
"I’ll never complain. I’m a basketball player, so whatever offense you wanna run, I’m capable of running it or adjusting to it. Whether you want me to be more of a catch-and-shoot guy or you want me to be more off-the-dribble, post-up, whatever you want me to do, I can do it."
After Johnson came Anderson. If Johnson is a steak dinner, Anderson's a hot dog stand. While Double-A is far from glamorous, the 32-year-old veteran is a gritty defender who can knock down an occasional jumper if left open.
Anderson started 26 games for Brooklyn and contributed 7.2 points and 2.2 boards in about 23 minutes a game last year.
Johnson and Anderson were the team’s primary small forwards, with Teletovic mixing in some time at the 3 while mostly lining up as a power forward. In his second NBA season, the sharp-shooting Teletovic gave the Nets 8.6 points a night while hitting 41.8 percent of his attempts.
Finally, there was Kirilenko, whose decision to come to Brooklyn resulted in an investigation. Last summer, the Russian signed a two-year, $6.5 million deal with owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s Nets after opting out of a $10.2 million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The NBA cleared the two parties of any wrongdoing, though. Just goes to show you that players will do anything to get out of Minnesota.
AK-47 was hurt for much of the year, dealing with some back spasms that just would not let up. He played just 45 games and averaged the worst scoring, rebounding, steals and block numbers of his 10-year career.
Kirilenko is in for a significantly bigger role with the Nets this season, though. If he can stay healthy, he'll bounce back into the spark-plug utility player that he’s been his entire career.
Grade: B+
Will Bogdanovic start?
Hollins is presumably going to commit to a fifth starter in the very near future, given that the season is rapidly approaching.
Bogdanovic, Anderson and Kirilenko have run with the starters in the preseason, though AK-47 suffered a back injury that sidelined him after the second day of training camp.
The rookie from Croatia has started for the Nets the entire preseason, including their most recent game, which was an experimental 44-minute exhibition against the Boston Celtics. Bogdanovic played a team-high 28 minutes on October 19.
All signs point to Bogdanovic earning a starting role.
Johnson is a significantly better ball-handler than the 25-year-old, so Bogdanovic would presumably line up as a small forward.
“I think he’s got great size, he’s also got great speed and quickness,” Hollins said of the overseas star, per Mazzeo. “He can shoot the ball, but also put the ball on the floor. He can post up. I’m looking for players. Players that have multiple skills and are not just one-dimensional."
There’s certainly expected to be a learning curve, though. Here’s an excerpt from my recent piece that focused on the importance of Kirilenko early in the year:
"In addition to the differences in court dimensions and ball texture, the rookie will be thrust into a new world of frequent traveling and a rigorous, physically grueling 82-game season.
In the meantime, Kirilenko’s play will become so much more important. Alan Anderson is the team's only other legitimate option at the 3.
Kirilenko won’t necessarily fade as Bogdanovic, who will likely play some shooting guard and some small forward, progresses. He’ll still be an important piece of the Nets throughout the whole season.
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The strong, 6'8" Bogdanovic has looked capable of holding his own on the defensive end thus far, which would be the only area in which he’d lose points to Anderson.
If Kirilenko can stay healthy throughout the whole year—and steady the ship when the rookie’s ride gets bumpy—the Nets are going to be pretty deep at small forward, especially with Anderson working his way into the rotation.
Looking Ahead to 2014-15
Hollins is going to have a ton of options in how he handles the small forward rotation this season. If Bogdanovic starts with Johnson at SG, the veteran coach can substitute Kirilenko, Anderson or even Teletovic, depending on the situation.
The coach is determined to establish concrete roles for his players this season, something that Kidd struggled to do in his first year on the sidelines.
Here’s Newsday’s Roderick Boone with more:
"In dealing with rookie coach Jason Kidd last season, some players clearly were frustrated by the lack of clarity regarding their role, which became more apparent during these first few days of training camp with Kevin Garnett and Andrei Kirilenko mentioning how they were unsure where they fit in Kidd's scheme.
That doesn't appear to be an issue under Hollins, who continues to lay the groundwork, getting a feel for his team so he can deliver an edict on precisely what he wants from each of them.
"I think that's something coach talked about today," Deron Williams said, "was kind of we haven't talked about roles specifically this year. But they'll be defined at some point during the preseason. I think that's what this time is about, is finding out chemistry and what team we're going to be like, what guys like to do."
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Each player will have a role under Hollins , a niche specifically carved out for their own self. And that will provide the team with stability through any turmoil caused by inevitable outliers like injuries, slumps and transactions.
For Johnson, it’s likely to be scoring isolation. For Bogdanovic, it’ll be knocking down shots from the outside and providing instant offense. Kirilenko will be a spark plug and a safety net, a guy who’s reliable and can defend. Anderson will serve as a hard-nosed, scrappy defender.
All of Brooklyn's options are versatile guys who can play different positions and bring a unique ability to the court.
The Nets are going to be just fine at small forward.
All stats are accurate courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com
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