Brooklyn Nets Power Rankings: Rating Every Player Near Season's Halfway Point
The Brooklyn Nets currently rest about where they're supposed to be in the Eastern Conference standings: seventh. The problem is that the bottom four seeds in the East are totally out of whack.
The Nets may be in the playoffs as constituted, but their record still sits at just 16-19, hardly an impressive feat. Still, we're seeing Brooklyn get better, even during this three-game skid it's gotten on after finally getting back to .500.
The Nets were once 10-15. They've won six of 10 since then, including a road victory over the Chicago Bulls. The defense has been more stingy. The offense is a little freer—though still about as inconsistent—than it was at the start of the season.
Brooklyn has had plenty of ups and downs. Now, its guys just need to play a little better.
Honorable Mentions
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14. Markel Brown
Statistics: 1.9 PPG, 0.6 APG, 5.4 MPG
Brown has managed to check into only seven games this season for the Nets and now finds himself playing for the Maine Red Claws of the NBDL. He's a freaky athlete when he gets a chance to show off his hops, but he's yet to receive such an opportunity in the NBA.
13. Cory Jefferson
Statistics: 1.9 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 9.9 MPG
There was a short period of time when the rookie power forward was actually getting a decent amount of minutes. Now, though, he's down in the D-League with Brown.
12. Darius Morris
Statistics: 1.5 PPG, 0.7 APG, 5.1 MPG
The Nets brought Morris into town in mid-December after dealing Andrei Kirilenko to the Philadelphia 76ers. He hasn't played much of a role, but he has remained on the active roster and has had a few stretches when he's produced here and there.
11. Bojan Bogdanovic
Statistics: 6.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 21.9 MPG
Bogdanovic was once a starter. Now, he's almost as out of the rotation as Morris. Some nights, he won't play. Others, he'll barely get enough minutes to do anything of consequence, and, unfortunately, he's missing open shots on top of this. He can start getting minutes again by turning his jumper around since Brooklyn has vastly struggled from three.
10. Jerome Jordan
2 of 11
Statistics: 3.3 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 0.5 BPG, 9.8 MPG
Don't scoff at Jerome Jordan. It was only about a month ago when he was actually playing in Lionel Hollins' rotation over Mason Plumlee.
Oh, how long a month can seem.
After a couple of years out of the league, Jordan has shown that he belongs on an NBA roster. Once one of the best shot-blockers in college basketball back in his days at Tulsa, the Nets' backup center is swatting 1.8 shots per 36 minutes and has shown finishing skills while rolling to the hoop off ball screens.
Jordan hasn't been much of a high-impact guy, but he is proving himself to be an NBA player.
9. Alan Anderson
3 of 11
Statistics: 5.5 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 0.9 APG, 21.7 MPG
The new trend for Alan Anderson is his refusal to shoot.
Anderson was never a particularly high-usage guy, but he would put up attempts if the ball came to him when he was open. Now...nothing.
Anderson averaged 14.8 attempts per 36 minutes during his final year with the Toronto Raptors two seasons ago before he signed with the Nets during the summer of 2013. His shot attempts decreased during his first year in Brooklyn, and this year, they've plummeted.
He's posted a career-low usage rate just over 13 percent, making himself essentially nonexistent on the court for plenty of possessions.
Anderson still defends a bit, and it's not like he's plaguing the Nets by taking bad shots. But a career-low usage rate makes him often ineffective, especially as his minutes have increased to account for various team injuries.
8. Sergey Karasev
4 of 11
Statistics: 5.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 1.6 APG, 20.4 MPG
Sergey Karasev has risen quite nicely since coming over from the Cleveland Cavaliers as a perceived throw-in to the Jarrett Jack deal.
Cleveland needed to shed salary to make the LeBron James signing happen. Jack and Karasev were the two guys with whom the Cavs decided to part ways. No one realized at the time that Brooklyn would be acquiring 40 percent of its current starting lineup.
Karasev has proved to be a reliable defender and smart player even at a young age, but like Anderson, he's hardly shown off any sort of aggressive traits on the offensive end.
He's a capable shooter when he's open, but he isn't necessarily consistent. He's a decent passer, but he almost never handles the ball. He takes shots at the rim and from three for the most part, but he has posted an impressively low usage rate, barely treading over 14 percent.
The 21-year-old can continue to improve and looks like he has a chance to continue being a rotation player down the line, but he still has a bunch to prove on offense considering how raw he is in his current state.
7. Mirza Teletovic
5 of 11
Statistics: 9.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 1.3 APG, 23.6 MPG
The percentages are down for Mirza Teletovic in year three, and the efficiency has clearly fallen with it, but this seems like more of a slump than a sustainable trend for the Nets' best shooting big man.
Teletovic has shot just 26 percent from three over his past 24 games. Eventually, it's reasonable to expect him to return to his career rate of 36 percent.
Even while not making shots, Teletovic has provided value for the Nets. His confidence as a chucker actually makes it difficult for defenses to help off him when he hangs around the perimeter, and because of that, he's still a floor spacer, even as he sinks just under 32 percent of his long-range shots on the season.
He's the only 4-man with three-point range on this roster, except for the rare occasions when Hollins will go small with Johnson or Boggy at power forward.
There are few more exciting moments in basketball than when Teletovic grabs a defensive rebound, puts it on the floor to run it up the court and motions as if he may pull up for three in transition.
He almost never does it—maybe it's happened once or twice this year—but it's so wonderfully cringeworthy, yet beautiful, that only the soulless couldn't find entertainment in such a play.
6. Kevin Garnett
6 of 11
Statistics: 7.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG, 1.8 APG, 22.2 MPG
He may be 38 years old, but Kevin Garnett is still doing Kevin Garnett things.
He's setting hard screens. He's hitting mid-range jumpers. He's playing help defense. There is still a mess of Garnett plays all over the floor in any given game. It's just not quite as messy as it used to be.
Every once in a while, we'll see Garnett do something that surprises us.
He'll throw down a fast-break alley-oop from Karasev. Or he'll hit a three, sinking one Jan. 2 for the first time since March 8, 2013.
Garnett probably shouldn't be the sixth-best player on a roster at this point in his career, though he's certainly still a rotation player. He misses the second halves of back-to-backs (for the most part), and he'll have nights when he doesn't look particularly spry.
If the Nets could rely on him just a little less, it would help a bunch, but a roster that stands at 16-19 doesn't necessarily possess such a luxury.
5. Jarrett Jack
7 of 11
Statistics: 10.8 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 3.9 APG, 27.9 MPG
Jack's had himself an odd first 35 games for a multitude of reasons. He got off to a slow start. Then he entered the starting lineup and turned things around.
He's used to playing in lineups alongside another point guard. Yet the Nets' dual point guard units haven't worked well at all.
He's a career 35 percent three-point shooter. But he's not taking or making threes at anywhere near the rates his career numbers would indicate.
Still, Jack's been strong as a member of Brooklyn's starting unit, averaging 15.3 points and 5.3 assists in an exorbitant 34.8 minutes a night during his 10 games since becoming the full-time starting point guard.
The Nets are 6-4 over that stretch too.
4. Deron Williams
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Statistics: 13.9 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 6.6 APG, 31.2 MPG
Yes, Deron Williams is the Nets' backup point guard, but he's still having the better season of Brooklyn's two main floor generals.
Williams is no longer a top-five or top-10, or maybe even top-15, point guard, but he's still a quality play and shot-maker, though not for the money he makes.
He's been fragile, missing three games already and leaving Wednesday's contest after only four minutes because of a reaggravated side with which he's had issues recently. If Williams goes down, that means Morris has to step up, and the Nets can't really afford to shorten an already small rotation, especially during this stretch in the schedule.
Brooklyn is in the midst of a 16-games-in-28-days riff. Hollins had to shorten to a seven-man rotation Monday night while playing on the second evening of a back-to-back, meaning no KG and no Williams, who had injured his side the previous day vs. the Miami Heat.
Williams is hesitant on the pick-and-roll, he's not as accurate or strong as he used to be while finishing around the rim and doesn't have nearly the amount of athleticism he used to, but he's still capable.
He still understands how to drive-and-kick. He makes his threes. He's an above-average jump-shooter. He works entry passes well when he plays with Brook Lopez in the post.
Williams can play, but like with KG being too far up in the rotation, he probably shouldn't be your fourth-best player if you want a contending team.
3. Brook Lopez
9 of 11
Statistics: 14.8 PPG, 6.1 RPG, 1.6 BPG, 26.3 MPG
Hey, what do you know? It's another Nets player having a strange season. Brook Lopez, it's your turn.
Lopez was hurt, then back, then not very good, then hurt, then back, then benched, then kind of good and then really good.
Lopez has been everything. But now he's starting to settle. Kind of.
He is averaging 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds in just 25.4 bench minutes a night over his previous five games. He's back to hitting those floaters in the lane, nailing his jumpers and sinking hook shots. Even the ability to hit the glass is up.
Lopez's rebounding rate is up to a very respectable 16 percent over that period.
The bench unit has been a blessing for Lopez, and as he continues to play well, it seems like he's almost ironically entrenching himself deeper into the reserves. He may gain minutes, but with the way Plumlee has played in the starting lineup, Lopez's work with the second unit gives the Nets a quality big-man presence at all times.
2. Mason Plumlee
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Statistics: 9.6 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 1.1 BPG, 21.8 MPG
No one has progressed out of nowhere like Plumlee has.
He's the Nets' young talent, their 24-year-old hope of the present and beyond. And maybe that's a bit of a low future, but at least with Plumlee, Brooklyn knows it has a piece it can hold onto for a pseudo-rebuild.
It didn't look like this was going to happen even a month into the season, when Plumlee averaged just 14.2 minutes per game during his first 20 contests. But since entering the starting lineup Dec. 10, it's all changed.
The Dukie is averaging 15.4 points and 9.3 rebounds over his past 15 contests, all as a starter, and is looking like he could turn into a defensive force in future years, though he's still a bit overly aggressive in the early, learning stages of his career.
His scoring is coming back down to Earth a bit as the Nets play teams that are more competent against the pick-and-roll (Brooklyn had a nice slate against squads that were poor pick-and-roll defenders when Plumlee got hot). But he's becoming way more confident with the types of shots he'll take and even the passes he'll attempt.
Just look at the two behind-the-back bouncers he made Wednesday against the Boston Celtics.
1. Joe Johnson
11 of 11
Statistics: 16.6 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 3.8 APG, 35.6 MPG
Need a game-winner? Joe Johnson is still the go-to guy for the Nets in those scenarios.
They may have Williams or Lopez or Jack or KG, but Johnson is the one who gets the shots when they matter—if the rest of the team has anything to say about it.
We saw the most recent example of this Monday night, when the Nets trailed the Dallas Mavericks 80-74 late in the fourth quarter.
Johnson hit a semi-contested three to make it a three-point game. The next possession, all he did was hit a preposterous 28-footer with a hand in his face. He followed that up with perfect isolation defense on Chandler Parsons and a block on the small forward's fadeaway.
The Nets may have lost, but it was hardly the fault of their most expensive employee.
Johnson may have a bulky contract, but he's still the best player on this team. He may go into Iso Joe moments at times, but he's doing it because he's one of the few guys who can create his own shot routinely.
He's hitting 37 percent of his long balls, essential to the Nets, who rank 25th in three-point percentage.
This could all change if Lopez or Plumlee or Williams hits another level, but Johnson is important for the Nets offense and defense, and during his third season in Brooklyn, he's the team's best player.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Jan. 8 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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.
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