Brooklyn Nets' International Corps Will Steer Team's 2014-15 Destiny
The Brooklyn Nets have big names, but winning games this year could mostly depend on their imports.
The international sect of the team makes parts of the Nets machine tick. Andrei Kirilenko, Bojan Bogdanovic, Mirza Teletovic and Sergey Karasev will be integral pieces on a team that desperately needs its role players to perform.
Deron Williams lost star status over the past few years. Joe Johnson dropped from those ranks, as well. And while Brook Lopez is an All-Star-caliber scorer when healthy (and health is no guarantee), he's not quite on the level of a franchise player.
All that means the Nets require role-player production. And Brooklyn's Europeans, save Kirilenko, tend to have one trait in common: spreading the floor.
Kirilenko can and will contribute in his own ways: scrapping for loose balls, defending, passing out of the high post, crashing the boards and doing the essential dirty work his squad requires. But considering Brooklyn's new focus on penetration and ball screens within the offense, shooters who serve as options for kick-outs become mandatory.
Bogdanovic, Teletovic and Karasev are all floor spacers, and the Nets will make sure to take advantage of those traits. Bogdanovic is already in the starting lineup, and he may give the Nets a nice filler for what they lost in Paul Pierce.
Bogdanovic may only be 5-of-21 from three-point range in the preseason, but this is exactly the rookie's game. Such a small amount of attempts doesn't mean much. More important is the 38.7 percent long-ball rate he posted in Turkey last year as a wing shooter for Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul. He sank 37.1 percent of his threes the previous season.
Bogdanovic hits open shots, and if Lionel Hollins' newly implemented motion offense works as planned, he should be getting plenty of unguarded opportunities.
He averaged 1.29 points per unguarded catch-and-shoot jumper last season, according to Synergy Sports (subscription required). To put that in perspective, elite NBA shooters Klay Thompson and Channing Frye averaged 1.29 points per such shot this past season.
Bogdanovic has proven automatic when you leave him open. If Williams and Jarrett Jack can create for him, the Croatian creates a whole new dynamic to the Nets attack.
This is the reason Teletovic has such value to the offense. The Bosnian really came into his own last year, draining 39 percent of his threes. And man, talk about the confidence.
Teletovic is the definition of a cocky shooter. He doesn't look to pass. He doesn't often put the ball on the floor. He just catches and shoots.
You've got to give it to him. He knows his role.
Devin Kharpertian of TheBrooklynGame.com said it best:
Basically, Teletovic has decided when he wants to shoot—and that's all the time. As Kharpertian wrote in a follow-up tweet, "That Teletovic thing isn’t hyperbole. He averaged about 35 seconds of touch time and 7.3 FGA per game."
What was that Bogdanovic number, again? 1.29? Well, that stat is true for Teletovic as well, considering he averaged the exact same points per unguarded catch-and-shoot attempt as Bogdanovic did a season ago.
If these upper-echelon shooters can get open on the perimeter, it's going to do worlds for the Nets offense. Defenses can't leave them on the wings or in the corners and thus, everything about Brooklyn's attack spreads.
Williams and Jack have more room to penetrate and work the middle of the court. Lopez doesn't have to worry as much about double-teams in the post. It all just works smoother when an offense can spread the floor. Now, the Nets are hoping Karasev can fit the same mold.
Still only 20 years old, the Russian who came over from the Cleveland Cavaliers as part of the Jack trade could have a future ahead of him, even after rarely receiving playing time during his rookie season.
Like Bogdanovic and Teletovic, Karasev is a shooter, a spot-up one who can serve a similar role for this offense down the line.
Though he was inaccurate during his final pro season in Russia, hitting just 24.3 percent of his jumpers, per Synergy, Karasev made a name for himself as a shooter at the 2013 Nike Hoop Summit, eventually hearing the Cavs call his name 19th in the draft that summer.
But only a year later, Karasev—who will fit in quite nicely with Mikhail Prokhorov's Russian marketing ploys—was just a throw-in when Cleveland sent Jack to Brooklyn.
Karasev may struggle to see the floor, considering he's half a decade away from being allowed to rent a car in all 50 states, but if the Nets can develop a second-year kid who was a first-round pick only a year ago, they'll be even more pleased with the Jack trade.
Brooklyn has its big names and huge contracts, but teams, especially ones without fortified stars, win and lose with role players. For the Nets, the international contingent could be what makes or breaks the offensive attack.
If Teletovic and Bogdanovic hit their open shots, Kirilenko scraps and stays healthy like he should and Karasev progresses from where he was last season, the Nets can maintain their playoff streak.
If not, they'll still have a chance to finish in the top eight of a woeful Eastern Conference. The road to that point just won't be as smooth.
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 at WashingtonPost.com or on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Oct. 24 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com (subscription required).
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