How the Brooklyn Nets Can Save Their Season
Through 18 games, the Brooklyn Nets offense has yet to find itself.
The 8-10 Nets rank just 23rd in points per possession. They've struggled to move the ball at times, watching their own attack collapse into a my-turn, your-turn approach for long stretches, partly contributing to why they sit 25th in assist rate.
It's not just one guy, either. The ball has stopped in different places.
There's Deron Williams, who is taking on more responsibilities with two recently healed ankles. There's Joe Johnson, the man frequently known as Iso Joe, who has earned his nickname at times. There's Jarrett Jack, who pounds the ball like pizza dough. And then there's Brook Lopez, who has turned into somewhat of a black hole on the block.
Yep, with Lopez on the floor, the Nets offense hasn't really worked, which could partly explain why Brooklyn is two points per 100 possessions better when he sits on the bench.
That's not to say this can't change down the line, but when Lopez gathers a pass, turns his back to the basket and telegraphs a hook shot, the offense often stalls.
To put Lopez's sticky fingers into perspective, check out some numbers on the Milwaukee Bucks' big men, currently coached by former Nets leader Jason Kidd. Per NBA.com's SportVU data, Larry Sanders and Zaza Pachulia are averaging about as many passes per game as Lopez, and they're doing it while playing eight-to-10 fewer minutes a game in reduced offensive roles. But the rigidity of the Nets offense is a fixable problem, one that could even resolve itself in the coming days.
With Sunday's news that Lopez has a lower back strain and will miss the upcoming week's four-game slate before being reevaluated, the Nets have a chance to experiment with different lineups.
It's another injury for Lopez, a man who had missed 134 of 230 possible games heading into this season and sat out most of the preseason along with the first two games of the year because of a foot injury.
Feet and ankles have always presented injury problems for the Nets center. Now, it's the back. But if Brooklyn receives good news on Lopez's injury next week and he returns healthy, four games could give the Nets just enough time to learn something about themselves before their starting center returns.
Lionel Hollins may have found something when he started Mirza Teletovic against the San Antonio Spurs last week. Teletovic had 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting (including 5-of-7 from three) to go along with his 15 boards, and the Nets pulled off a 95-93 upset over San Antonio.
"I have to go back to something that [Gregg] Popovich said about [Manu] Ginobili when Ginobili was young," Hollins said trying to evaluate Teletovic's performance against the Spurs. "He said, 'I don't know what he's going to do, but most of the time, it winds up good.'"
You have to take the good and the bad with Teletovic. He's a chucker. He'll drive when he should shoot. He'll shoot when he should pass. But he also makes shots and creates more gravity than any other 4 on the Brooklyn roster.
Teletovic started that Spurs game because it was the second day of a back-to-back and thus, it was Kevin Garnett's time to sit, especially after playing 29 minutes against the New York Knicks the previous evening. So, Mirza began the game alongside Lopez, combined for 31 boards with his starting frontcourt mate and helped Brooklyn to a surprise victory.
Hollins is yet to announce who will enter the starting lineup while Lopez dons a suit and tie on the bench, but if it is Teletovic, this could be his chance to show he belongs in Brooklyn's first unit.
In the long term, a Teletovic-Lopez frontcourt could score, but would defend about as well as the Jets' secondary. So, to make Mirza a starter, you'd probably move KG to the 5 and Lopez to the bench. Basically, you'd run out the starting lineup the Nets would project to have Monday evening against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It all works out better. Garnett gets to play the 5, where he is more comfortable defensively and can clean up Teletovic's mistakes, and Lopez gets to be the No. 1 option on the reserve unit.
Of course, the Nets run into some problems in this scenario, too, something that tends to happen on rosters that aren't perfect.
Lopez and Mason Plumlee playing next to each other can clog up the paint. Jack acting as Lopez's point guard for long stretches could turn out somewhat problematic considering Jack's biggest strength is hardly walking the ball up the floor and setting up bigs with methodical entry passes into the post. But there are always going to be flaws on this team, and fixing the larger issues can lead to a positive trickle-down effect.
It's not about overall playing time. It's just about how minutes are staggered, which lineups Hollins runs out and when.
So far, the first-year Nets coach has done about as well as could be asked of him. After 18 games, it's not necessarily time to panic. Actually, you could argue adjusting lineups now would be imprudent on Hollins' part.
Lopez hits free agency this summer, though he does have a $16.7 million player option for 2015-16. If he comes back healthy once this back issue is resolved, he's going to be playing for a contract. From a coach's perspective, it takes some stones to sit one of your highest-paid players a quarter of the way into the first year of your new job, though Hollins has shown a habit of sporadically sitting Lopez for much or all of fourth quarters on days when his defense is particularly hurting the squad.
We're going to learn a lot about Lopez merely from him not being around the next week, and that will let us know a little more about this Nets team. Heck, it's possible we don't even see Hollins start Teletovic in the interim, instead running Plumlee out there next to KG in the first unit.
"Saving the Nets' season" has a different definition now than it did at this point last year. Brooklyn may have gotten off to a worse start, beginning the season 10-21, but that was a team thought internally to have championship aspirations. Those goals didn't necessarily adjust within the locker room during the year, and when Brooklyn eventually got hot and earned the No. 6 seed in the East, it was able to pull off a first-round playoff win before falling to the Miami Heat.
This year, the East is a little more competitive at the top.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are sprinting closer to cohesion. The Chicago Bulls are deeper, even without Derrick Rose. The Toronto Raptors, who lost that first-round series to Brooklyn last spring, are much improved, especially on the offensive end. The Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards and Milwaukee Bucks are all showing that they were undervalued coming into the season.
The Nets can (and should) compete for a playoff spot. But a No. 6 seed may not be as attainable as it was last season, regardless of what is or isn't "saved."
These next two games (Cleveland, Chicago) are rough, but after them, December is actually quite kind to Brooklyn.
The Nets still have December home games against Philadelphia, Miami, Detroit, Denver, Indiana and Sacramento. They have road ones in Charlotte and Boston. Those are eight winnable games right there.
The schedule alone should help the team turn around, and if Brooklyn escapes 2014 a couple games over—instead of under—.500, it should be feeling just fine about its playoff prospects in the still weak Eastern Conference.
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.
All quotes obtained firsthand. Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Dec. 8 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.
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