NBA: How About Those Nets!
The year is 2015: Barack Obama is the President of the United States, Donald Trump is nowhere near the White House, Floyd Mayweather wins a unanimous decision over Manny Pacquiao, Harambe is still alive and doing gorilla things, the Fat Boys broke up, and the Warriors are on the verge of starting a dynasty. That was the last time the Brooklyn Nets made the playoffs. Granted it’s only been about four years but in sports years that’s considered at least a half century. Fast forward to 2019 and Brooklyn is putting together a run for the playoffs in a very wide open Eastern Conference (kind of). Thanks to steady guard play from a white hot D’Angelo Russell and the extended three-year $34M man Spencer Dinwiddie the Nets are currently sitting in 6th place.
Brooklyn is only 5.0 games behind the Indiana Pacers with a winning record of 28-25. The likelihood of the Nets catching Indiana or the Boston Celtics in the standings is very unlikely but the way they've turned their season around seemed just as unlikely only a few months prior. It’s hard to imagine what a motivated Russell and Dinwiddie would look like if paired with one of the Nets leading men in Caris LeVert, who has been out since mid-November with a dislocated right foot. But as much as things change they also tend to stay the same: Dinwiddie is expected to miss at least 3-6 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair turn ligaments in his right thumb. However, things may be looking up according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, as Brooklyn expects LeVert back sometime in February.
After LeVert went down, Russell stepped up as one would expect a former 2015 second overall draft pick to perform. Over their last 25 games Brooklyn has gone 19-6 largely due to Russell’s emergence as Brooklyn's best player. So far in January, D’Lo is averaging 23.7 points, 7.1 assists, 3.8 rebounds and shooting 48.9 percent from the field including 42.0 percent from deep on 8.6 attempts a night. Maybe, just maybe Magic Johnson was wrong about Russell's leadership skills after all. Russell's stellar play may coincide with the fact the former Ohio State Buckeye is in his contract year and due for negotiations at the end of the season. Nets GM Sean Marks will have his work cut out for him to be able to retain Russell and open up a max player slot to potentially land Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, or Kevin Durant.
D'Lo has a $21.1M cap hold with the Nets if they choose to retain him but that will only leave them with about $19M to sign free agents, which is well below the market value for a majority of the players looking for a max contract. Don't expect Russell to take less money either. Sure he wasn’t quite looking like a max player in either Brooklyn or Los Angeles but as of late he's on his way to a huge contract, whether it's with Brooklyn or another franchise it remains to be seen. A useful measuring stick for determining just how well a team is led is how well a team performs in late game situations. The NBA defines “clutch” as a game decided by five or less points within the final five minutes. For the month of November, Brooklyn ranked 26th overall going 2-7 in the clutch.
The Nets were only better than Charlotte, Phoenix, Cleveland and New Orleans. And any time you're grouped with a post-LeBron Cavs squad you’re doing something very wrong (Sorry Cleveland but the numbers don't lie). Brooklyn boasted a lowly offensive rating of 82.8, while on defensive they held a rating of 120.0 which gave them a net rating of -37.2 within that time frame. Lack of leadership, a go to scorer, veteran presence and even youth are all factors that contribute to poor crunch time performances, which are factors that have plagued Brooklyn the last few seasons. During the 2017-18 season the Nets were in 50 games with a record of 19-31, that were decided by five or less points. But to their credit, Brooklyn has always been competitive, they just couldn't ever get over the hump.
But that has all changed for the “New year, new me” Nets. In the month of January, Brooklyn is a terrific 6-0 in the clutch. With an offensive and defensive rating of 134.1 and 76.9 respectively only bested by the Denver Nuggets in late game situations. The January 16th matchup between the Nets and the Houston Rockets is evidence of their recent success in crucial moments. Spencer Dinwiddie led his team to an improbable 145-142 overtime victory scoring a total of 33 points and dishing out 10 assists off the bench. Down three with 1:08 left in regulation, Dinwiddie took over nailing three straight triples to send the game into overtime. But his heroics didn't end there as Dinwiddie drove to the cup for an and-one with 28 seconds left to play, pulling ahead 143-142.
Brooklyn's recent success can't be assessed without looking at head coach Kenny Atkinson. With Tuesdays 122-117 win over the Chicago Bulls the Nets have already matched their win total from last season. Atkinson is surely a Coach of the Year candidate with his ability to plug in players and yield success, especially with the amount of injures they have faced. Atkinson’s ball club ranks 8th in terms of three-point percentage at 36.0 percent while holding their opponents to only 34.4 percent from deep, which is good for 7th overall. The Nets will be tested with their next slate of games in the coming weeks against the Bucks, Raptors, and Nuggets. If they continue the cliché of taking each things game by game and playing the right way, the playoffs won't be a thing of the past.
Photo Credit: CBS.
