Angry Joe

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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