Power Ranking Brooklyn Nets Players Heading into Final Month of Season
The Brooklyn Nets aren't giving themselves much of a chance.
The 27-39 Nets sit only 2.5 games back of the No. 8 seed in the East but are trending in the wrong direction. Brooklyn has dropped six of eight and now sits 11th in the East, meaning that even if it does outplay the Boston Celtics, who are eighth right now, it has to beat out two more teams as well just to get into the postseason.
It's not looking good for the Nets even if now is the time to make a run.
This team doesn't seem poised for one, though, coming off a drubbing at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. An old, tiring roster isn't getting any more energetic as the season continues, save for a couple of personnel upgrades in Lionel Hollins' rotation.
Brooklyn doesn't have a choice, though. It has to win with this roster, because it'll be bringing back a similar one next year, considering it won't have a high draft pick or the cap room to make any major moves in free agency.
This is it for the Nets in all likelihood. It's unfortunate but true.
Honorable Mentions
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The Injured Players: Mirza Teletovic, Sergey Karasev
Teletovic has been out since January with blood clots in his lungs. He's on track to return for the start of next season but won't help the Nets again this year. Karasev, meanwhile, has a knee injury and is done for the season, as well.
12. Darius Morris
Morris hasn't played much but has been a serviceable third point guard when given an opportunity. With Deron Williams now healthy, though, he isn't seeing the floor nearly as much as when he was the second-string 1 behind Jarrett Jack.
11. Jerome Jordan
Jordan actually has a little more ability as a post scorer than people realize, and he's a natural shot-blocker down low. He has hard hands and makes mistakes on both sides of the floor, but considering his athleticism and size, he's not exactly the worst 11th man to have.
10. Cory Jefferson
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Jefferson has, at the very least, proved to be an athletic energizer.
He'll get big offensive rebounds. He'll throw down slams or alley-oops. He'll run well for someone who's 6'9", 218 pounds.
He'll shoot a little bit too. He's not just an unskilled big man with no source of scoring other than dunks and putbacks. The second-year power forward is actually sinking 37 percent of his attempts from 16 feet out to the three-point line.
Now, that percentage is below league average, so it's not like we should be celebrating Jefferson's shooting prowess, but his shot has looked better as the season has progressed.
Dwelling on Jefferson's improvement may be an unsuccessful venture, though. He's only in his first professional season, but the Baylor alum, who played four collegiate years, is already 24 years old. Soon, he'll be in his prime. It would certainly be more encouraging if he were just a few years younger, but that's unfortunately not the case.
If he could get a few more minutes to show off his game, maybe he could stick around as a backup down the line. On a team without many young players, Jefferson may be one of the few who is worth something.
9. Alan Anderson
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Alan Anderson is kind of a weirdo in his consistency. It's the same thing every time you see him play.
That's a good and bad thing to have in a player.
The good is apparent: You know what Anderson is going to give you whenever he's on the floor. He'll play hard, defend a little, shoot some threes and won't put up a shot unless he's wide open.
In that sense, he's not as much of a floor-spacer as he is an open-shot maker. Anderson is so consistent with his shot, though, that it's fine. (This would be his third consecutive season shooting between 33 and 34 percent from long range.)
There's also the unfortunate side of Double-A's stability.
Sometimes—especially when you have an offense that tends to struggle for long stretches, as the Nets are prone to do—it's nice to have a guy who can get hot. Anderson will handle the ball a little bit and make a play for someone else every once in a while, but we don't ever really see him go off for more than his usual numbers.
That's mostly because of his hesitance to shoot the ball. The 32-year-old hasn't attempted more than 11 shots in a single game this season and holds a usage rate of just 13.8 percent, easily a career low for someone who hasn't been a volume shooter throughout his six years in the NBA anyway.
8. Markel Brown
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Markel Brown is fun on a stick. He's the kebab of enjoyment. Or is he a popsicle? Well, he's whichever you like more.
Brown is still a net negative within a half-court offense. We've seen him struggle with his handle even on fast breaks when he has to slow up to regain his dribble, only to allow defenders to catch up to him. His passing ability isn't developed. His shot has hit far more metal than nylon.
But man, is he a ball of energy or what?
The rookie was a second-round pick back in June, and he really plays like one, as if he's trying to prove he belongs in the NBA with every step he takes.
The effort becomes most apparent on the defensive end, where Brown is already an above-average player because of his athleticism and ferocity on the ball. He forces steals, gets the team to speed up pace and even blocks a shot every once in a while with those long arms and that unrealistically high vertical.
One day, if he ever gets enough publicity, we're going to see Brown in the dunk contest, and it's going to be wonderful. Until then, he'll just be the Nets' best perimeter defender and a steal in the second round of the draft.
7. Mason Plumlee
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It's been a season of peaks and valleys for Plumlee.
The second-year big man started the year barely even seeing the floor. But then, he caught fire.
Plumlee averaged 15.5 points and 9.4 rebounds in 20 games from Dec. 12 to Jan. 16, entering the starting lineup and not relinquishing that position for most of the season. The Duke alum was defending (kind of) next to Kevin Garnett, creating gravity in the pick-and-roll, finishing plays around the rim and developing his passing skills.
Now though, he's back in one of those valleys.
After leaving the starting lineup March 8, Plumlee has gone back to riding the bench for most of the game. With Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young acting as the starting big men, he's not going to play much at all.
Hollins is almost principally against playing Plumlee and Lopez together, and rightfully so. The lineup data when the two of them share the court is just atrocious, and Plumlee struggles at defending 4s and stretching away from the basket on offense. The Nets actually did use the two of them at the same time against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, but it was the first game Hollins would employ such a lineup since Feb. 20 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
It doesn't appear Plumlee is going to reclaim playing time soon. Look for him to stay in the position he's at for the rest of the season.
6. Bojan Bogdanovic
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Wait, it took this long to get to Bojan Bogdanovic? No way.
So, is this an affirmation of how much better the rookie has played over the past few weeks or a condemnation of what the Nets have become? Can it be both? Let's go with both.
I wrote "rookie" in that previous paragraph, and it felt kind of weird. Bogdanovic, a rookie? He doesn't feel like one anymore.
Much like Plumlee, Bogdanovic has gone through ups and downs this year. He began the season as a starter, left the first unit, rode the bench and then made his emphatic return. Now, he's playing like a real contributor.
Bogdanovic is knocking home 40 percent of his threes since the start of February and is playing more fluid basketball. He's cutting off the ball more intuitively. He's moving within the offense better. He's playing improved defense, even if the D is still far from perfect. We're finally starting to see the player we heard about for all those years before he came into the league.
5. Jarrett Jack
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Wait, so there's another guy who started the season on the bench, worked his way up to becoming a starter and then was benched again? Color me shocked.
In case you haven't caught on yet, this is kind of a theme for this season's Nets. Inconsistency isn't just coming in the starting lineups, either. It's the general rotations which have been turned over time and time again.
Hollins just can't seem to find a group he likes, and sometimes, there are ones he actively dislikes yet continues to play.
We keep seeing him use Jack and Williams together at the same time. When those two share the floor, the Nets get outscored by an atrocious 11.3 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com.
We know it doesn't work when Williams hangs around the corner every time he plays with Jack, as the backup point guard takes over most of the ball-handling duties. Hollins knows too. Heck, he's talked about it on multiple occasions. But he continues to play it.
Jack gives you a bunch of what you want in a point guard. He also takes away much of the positives he creates.
He's making tremendous shots and is notably accurate from mid-range, but he turns the ball over too much and chucks up inefficient attempts while having the worst three-point shooting season of his career. With Jack, you just have to learn to take the positive with the negative.
4. Deron Williams
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When you don't have ankles, you don't have progress. Naturally, Williams is learning to play a different way now.
He shoots too many pull-ups, can't get to the rim like he once could and has lost his finishing ability, but Williams can still knock in shots.
He's hitting 35 percent of his threes, though his accuracy has slid of late; most of those have come off the dribble. He's looked competent at times since coming back into the starting lineup after the All-Star break. (Whoa, another change in the starting lineup? I can't believe it.)
Williams' defense has deteriorated over the years. He just doesn't have the lateral quickness he did during his days with the Utah Jazz or even the early ones with the Nets.
He's always going to be overpaid as long as this current max contract exists (which will be for another two years after this one), but the goal from here on out is to learn to play with diminished physical abilities. Basically, he has to be a point guard version of Grant Hill, which is easier said than done.
It's possible Williams can get to that point, and he has gotten better at understanding his body as the season has continued, but it's still been a mostly uninspiring season from the Nets' second-highest-paid player.
3. Joe Johnson
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For all the flak Johnson gets because of his bloated contract, he's actually remained one of the better shooting guards in the NBA.
Considering he can play the weakest position in the league, is able to start at the 2, 3, and 4 capably and shoots 36 percent from three, why can't we call Johnson a top-12 shooting guard?
Johnson's efficiency has taken a bit of a dive this year, and some of that has to do with shot selection over shot accuracy. Sure, his three-point percentage has taken a dive (he was up to 40 percent last year), but he's also taking far fewer attempts from beyond the arc than he did last season.
One of the positive trends in Johnson's career was his rising three-point rate over the years. During his prime in Atlanta, only about a quarter of his attempts came from three. By last year, 40 percent of his field goals were coming from beyond the arc. It wasn't a coincidence that stat came in conjunction with the highest true shooting percentage of Johnson's career.
Now, the Nets wing isn't taking as many, though. And his efficiency is paying for it.
Shoot more threes, Joe. Everyone will be better for it.
2. Brook Lopez
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It's almost impossible to tell exactly what Hollins thinks of his starting center. That's partly because Lopez hasn't always been his starting center.
The Stanford man was coming off the bench for a while after returning from an early-season foot injury. After the All-Star break, that all changed.
Lopez re-entered the starting unit and has picked up his game since, becoming one of the league's best offensive rebounders in the process.
Yes, I just said Brook Lopez has become one of the best offensive rebounders in the NBA. Deal with it.
It may not be a permanent trait, but Lopez has been beasting on the glass. Since the All-Star break, he's pulling down 19 percent of available offensive rebounds, a rate which would easily be a career high for him. Actually, that percentage would be the best offensive rebounding rate in the NBA if stretched out over the full season.
Of course, the absence of Garnett frees up some available boards for Lopez, but that isn't everything. Lopez has become far more active. And when he's rebounding well offensively, he becomes so much more valuable, considering he has more around-the-basket moves than your usual offensive-rebounding fiend.
Let's monitor this trend. If it continues, we have to view Lopez as a slightly different player heading into the offseason.
1. Thaddeus Young
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The best Net is the newest one. Young has been bad.
But not bad bad. Good bad. I guess a better way to say it is, he has been baaaaaaad.
Young is averaging 13.7 points and 4.8 rebounds in 25.6 minutes per night with the Nets, shooting better than anyone could have expected and adding a defensive element the team hasn't had all season.
The Nets defense isn't always atrocious, though it's fallen to 24th in points allowed per possession, per NBA.com, but it's never really been one to force live-ball turnovers and take advantage of them. It's hard to do that without many athletes.
The addition of Brown and Young, who gets loads of steals for a power forward, has helped with that.
When the Nets traded K.G. to acquire Young, they were giving away leadership for talent. On a team desperate for physical aptitude, it seemed like a no-brainer deal.
Sometimes, the way things seem is just the way they are; the Nets' trade has looked about as good as any other general manager Billy King has made. On a team where most players are either old and rickety or just plain rickety, Young is neither, and that's a nice talent to add when you're trying to sneak into the bottom part of the Eastern Conference's playoff picture.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated.
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