The Nets season has started and
it’s been a decent start; they’re 4-2. They should be 5-1; that loss against
Minnesota was unacceptable. But let’s recap the first two weeks of the Nets
season.
Deron Williams
Last year I revoked the nickname D-will from Deron because
he didn’t deserve a hyphen, but now he has earned it back. He had ankle surgery
and he looks five years younger. He was been fantastic so far this year. His
numbers are good, nothing special, but he is just passing the eye test and
looks better. The Nets offensive rating with D-will is 112.6, which is an
outstanding number. That number will come down but only because it will be
impossible to maintain. The Nets defensive rating with D-will on the floor is
104.8 which isn’t good but his defense has looked better and is guard other
point guards very well. Something I have noticed is that Deron is doing a great
job of getting “skinny” and going over screens. It’s also very good that Deron
has good ankles because his usage rate is 23% among the highest in the league.
Deron won player of the week this week, but who cares? If he can keep up this
stretch Deron will find himself in the all-star conversation and the Nets will
be in the playoffs.
Brook Lopez
Brook Lopez is the Nets most curious player. He’s one of
their star players and is part of the core that should lead the Nets to
playoffs, but there’s a big problem with everything I said. Brook Lopez might
make the Nets worse. It’s crazy to say that but their Net rating is -2.8 when
he’s on the floor and he hurts the offense. Also when Lopez gets the ball in
the post he’s going to shoot it. He has one assist this year and no hockey
assist. Brook Lopez is basically a black hole on offense. His defense also
hasn’t been good which led to him being benched in the fourth quarter vs
Orlando on Sunday. Lopez’s back up, Mason Plumlee, has been playing exceptional,
his net rating is 16.5! Plumlee doesn’t do much with the ball in his hand but
he sets good screens, runs the floor nicely and is a better rebounder than Brook
Lopez. Plumlee has been out playing Lopez but he shouldn’t start over Lopez.
But Lionel Hollins should be increasing Plumlee’s minutes and decreasing
Lopez’s minutes.
Why is Joe Johnson so
mad?
Joe Johnson was back at it with
the media today. On Sunday Johnson was upset that the Nets squeaked past the
Magic and following practice on Tuesday he called out his team for being
selfish and not moving the ball. Now this is curious because Joe has taken the
most shots on the Nets this year but the Nets are second to last in assist
ratio. Which does indicate that the ball is not moving for the Nets. This could
be a shot at Lopez who we know doesn't pass, but it’s odd that he’s calling out
his team considering they have the second highest offensive rating in the
league. Now this could just be Joe just trying to keep his team focused and
motivating them; he has said he needs to be more of a leader with Pierce gone.
Either way this will be something to watch for the next coming weeks.
Lineups
The Nets starting lineup has
played 4 games so far this year and have a net rating of -5. Now if you replace
Lopez with Plumlee that lineup has a net rating of two which isn’t great but it
shows that Lopez has to change his game a little bit if the Nets are going to
succeed. An interesting lineup for the Nets is playing Mirza at the four over
KG. That lineup has a net rating of 22, now that is very good. And that lineup
should get more burn.
The Four
Is the right guy starting at
power forward for the Nets? Mirza Teletovic, by the numbers has out played
Kevin Garnett by a lot and it isn’t even close. Mirza has a net rating of 18.0
while KG has a 4.5 rating. Also the Nets are much better defensively with Mirza
on the court. Starting Mirza would also help Brook Lopez a lot. It would give
him more room to operate in the post, and we already discussed that lineups
success. Starting Mirza would be very beneficial for Brooklyn.
The Nets
are 4-2, they should be 5-1. They started off playing teams that aren’t very
good and now their schedule gets tough. They go out west this week and play the
Suns, Warriors and Trailblazers. If Brooklyn comes out of this three game span
with a 1-2 record it would be a good road trip anything more than that would be
great. Also I think the Warriors are the best team in the NBA right now.
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