Common Ground For Nets Stretch Run

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When the Nets walked off the Barclays Center court on Wednesday night with a “What just happened?” look on their collective faces following a 115-110 choke job to a makeshift Indiana squad, a certain gaggle of Nets fans walked back inside from the proverbial ledge.

To them, a victory over a team whose aggregate payroll among its nine available players (including three on two-way contracts) was about $6 million less than what Brooklyn is paying injured center Nic Claxton this season would have been catastrophic to their tanking wishes.

Instead, the Nets (15-38) head into their week-long All-Star break tied for the league’s third-lowest win total, just one more than Washington. Following the hiatus, Brooklyn faces a much more daunting slate than the dreck from their last three games—they might be favored once in their next 17 games until starting a West Coast trip at bottom feeding Sacramento on March 22.

Of course, the fervent pro-tankers won’t be satisfied unless the Nets go 0-29 down the stretch, and they will continue to disseminate misinformation that each subsequent victory will rob the franchise of a winning Draft Lottery ticket. For the record (again), the league’s three worst teams each have the same odds (52.1%) of drawing slots 1-through-4, with just a 14% chance of coming away with the top pick. If you finish fourth in the reverse standings, those percentages drop to 48.1% and 12.5%, respectively. Hardly a material difference.

On the other end of the arena is a healthy contingent of Nets fans who just want to see some good basketball in the remaining games, and if Brooklyn wins a few of them, so be it. They comprehend that each standings placement alters the floor of the 2026 pick, but after you get through the top selections, the Draft becomes more of a crapshoot. Look at any class, the NBA statistical leaders from their rookie season on out in no way mirror the order in which they were selected. Folks who expend their money and time for enjoyment don’t deserve ridicule.

So in this country’s waning spirit of bipartisan cooperation, perhaps there are areas where both sides can come together in their rooting interests. Here are two of them:

1) Rookie improvement

The Nets’ decision to use all five of their first-round picks in the 2025 Draft drew significant derision. Developing five rookies, including providing each one meaningful playing time, is quite difficult. These players entered with glaring flaws that would be exposed on a court of grown men, so the learning curve was always going to be rife with intermittent pain.

However, through the rookies’ first 53 games, I’d say that all but Ben Saraf has shown marginal improvement (I’ll go beyond with Nolan Traore if he can sustain his rising level of play against the upcoming stiffer competition). Egor Demin is a much better shooter than most expected, Drake Powell is contributing at least one “Wow” moment every game, and Danny Wolf has double-double potential if given the minutes.

That’s not a bad track, but everyone, from the pro-tankers to the agnostics, should want to see more. Having good players on rookie deals allows an organization to leverage its salary cap space to acquire the proven ones, including a star or two, that can turbocharge the rebuild. The faster these youngsters develop, the quicker the potential turnaround.

There is plenty of sample size remaining this season to compound theses players’ improvements. In particular, their ball security has generally been well beyond substandard. They often dribble too far away from their bodies, making it easier for them to be pickpocketed by defenders pressing or otherwise. I get that practice time is scarce under the season’s density, but it would behoove everyone for the coaching staff to drill ballhandling reps to the allowable extremes and then review how it translates to game action.

These five players alone have combined to average 13 turnovers per 36 minutes. Can we all settle for a 20% reduction going forward?

2) Mann down

I know, I just threw a hissy fit over Utah’s egregious strategy to throw games by sitting its best players for fourth quarters. However, there is quite a gap between Lauri Markkanen, Utah’s 2023 NBA All-Star, and a guy who is averaging 7.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game on 34% three-point shooting like Brooklyn wing Terance Mann.

I’m not asking Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernandez to sequester all his experienced guys, though the pro-tankers likely wouldn’t howl if Michael Porter Jr. and Claxton were mysteriously shut down. Just Mann.

How’s this for irony: The Nets obtained Atlanta’s No. 22 overall pick for taking Mann’s contract’s remaining three years and $47 million onto their books. They then used the pick to select Powell, who is currently blocked from the starting five by…Mann.

Now, Powell didn’t exactly light up the court during his nine starting opportunities this season, and one thing we know about Fernandez is that he doles out playing time on merit. However, it’s time to light a fire under the often-docile athletic phenom. Not necessarily a “sink-or-swim” tact, but one where Powell’s aggression is encouraged without fear of being pulled on the first or second mistake.

Mann has been one of those serviceable vets who is allegedly valued for his tutelage of the young players surrounding him. Born in Brooklyn, he seems to have embraced his role.

Unfortunately, the circumstances, of which I would gather Mann is keenly aware, have changed. At 29, he does not fit in Brooklyn’s timeline, nor, with that cap number, is he good enough to be of use should the team pivot to a more go-for-it path this offseason. It shouldn’t raise eyebrows anywhere if Fernandez empathetically relayed the unfortunate consequences to Mann.

Powell averaged 19 minutes per game over Brooklyn’s last 11 games. Barring injury (he had ankle issues earlier in the season), that should be bumped up to at least 25 for the season’s remainder. At Mann’s expense.