Improved Nets Health Hasn’t Translated To Better Basketball
An Outside-The-Box Point Guard Suggestion
The Nets played better when they were less healthy.
Kevin Ollie’s first two games as Brooklyn’s Head Coach following Jacque Vaughn’s dismissal have been ugly—and he can’t point to injuries as an excuse. Both pregame injury reports he received showed a nearly clean bill of health, with only rookie Dariq Whitehead, who has seen all but 24 of his minutes this season in the G League before being shut down with shin splints, and others on Long Island Nets assignments listed as “out.”
Yet with a fully-loaded rotation, the Nets put up 93 and 89 points in losses at Toronto and Minnesota, respectively, following the All-Star break. Their 27 second quarter points against the Raptors on Thursday was the only frame where they exceeded 23 points. That’s darn near impossible in this league.
The Timberwolves may be the Western Conference leaders and the NBA’s most efficient defensive team, but Saturday’s contest was the second half of their back-to-back and they were missing defensive anchor Rudy Gobert. Brooklyn’s whopping 104 field goal attempts was 20 more than Minnesota put up and yet they still lost, 101-86.
I wish Ollie all the best with this bunch, but it’s going to be tough unless he quickly realizes that he doesn’t have a whole lot of runway before the season—and his opportunity to make an impression as a Head Coach—runs out. That means he shouldn’t continue to allocate playing time like he was a Soccer Mom stepping in for a disgraced youth coach.
Some of Ollie’s lineup decisions have been head-scratching. For instance, how in the world could he conceive a Dennis Schroder/Dennis Smith Jr. combination—and then compound it by adding in a third undersized guard like Cam Thomas or Lonnie Walker IV plus a second non-shooter in center Day’Ron Sharpe? Obviously that configuration was a disaster versus the long T-Wolves, getting outscored, 17-7, over six minutes during which Brooklyn shot 2-for-17 from the floor, per NBA.com.
Everyone doesn’t have to play. Following Schroder’s acquisition at the trade deadline, there’s even less need for Smith Jr. on the court. Want to know why Minnesota was able to win their second challenge on Saturday? Mike Conley was able to cheat all the way down into the middle of the paint to help out on a driving Thomas because he could leave Smith wide open on the perimeter without fear of getting burned by a kickout to him for an open three-pointer. Smith is 4-for-his-last-18 from deep over the last month.
The Nets did miss some high-quality, uncontested shots on Saturday, but they still made running a halfcourt offense look so darn hard. Their two go-to scorers, Mikal Bridges and Thomas, combined to go 14-for-40 from the field, including 1-for-16 from three-point ranges (and the one was a garbage time bucket from Bridges with 1:33 remaining). You can’t convince me that the majority of those attempts were among the better looks.
Brooklyn was honestly more efficient when they were forced into utilizing Trendon Watford out of position at point guard earlier in the season when injuries depleted their bench. Of course, being at full-strength is always going to be a short-lived proposition on any team that counts Ben Simmons on the roster. The oft-injured, highest paid player on the team exited after about four minutes of action in the third quarter with left leg soreness. Given that he wasn’t ever going to play both ends of this week’s back-to-back at Memphis and Orlando anyway, I’d guess that his status for Monday’s affair will be highly doubtful.
Maybe having one less player available will help Ollie trim his rotation to only those who can help the team win some games down the stretch.
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Boy, was I fooled by Schroder’s Brooklyn debut.
In the Nets’ 123-103 victory over San Antonio on February 10, Schroder had some pep in his steps, scoring 15 points and dishing out 12 assists. Mea culpa—I thought his spark as a leader was just the juice this team needed when really it might have been only an outlier against a tanking opponent.
The Nets haven’t won since, and Schroder’s underperformance is one of the reasons why. He has converted on just 10-of-39 field goal attempts over the last four games and Brooklyn has gotten crushed with him on the floor to the tune of a minus-34 average net rating.
With Spencer Dinwiddie gone, Simmons always hurt, Smith unplayable, and now Schroder moving around at times like he’s mailing it in, it made me wonder if Ollie should try something outside the box.
How about Cam Thomas, point guard?
Before you choke on your breakfast, understand that I don’t see this as the way Brooklyn can get back in the race for the Eastern Conference’s final play-in seed. This is purely about development. As in, give him the rock over the final 26 games and let’s see if it ignites something in him where he gains a better understanding of how to run an NBA offense instead of primarily relying on pick-and-rolls and iso’s to create looks for himself. This could also help the Nets organization in their evaluation as to whether to extend Thomas this offseason.
Since Simmons returned and successfully lobbied to be placed in the starting five, Thomas has seen the number of his early touches decrease. I think it would be beneficial to get him involved off the tip, even though he often needs to get a few ill-advised plays out of his system.
It would be easier if he played the point. Why not? From my perspective, Thomas, while nowhere near Simmons’ elite level (but probably more accurate than Dinwiddie was), is a good enough passer that, given his minutes and usage this season, he should have already been averaging 5 assists per game by default. Maybe he’s dishing about half that number because he’s been pigeon-holed as a volume shooter who has been coached that his first priority is to fill up the bucket.
Whatever the reason, Thomas has the seventh-lowest assist ratio, which measures the number of assists a player averages per 100 possessions used (shots, turnovers, free throw trips), among the league’s 114 guards who have played at least 30 games while averaging at least 20 minutes per game this season, per NBA.com.
Because he’s still only 22, I believe he can do better than be permanently branded as a no-conscience gunner. And I hope the Nets do as well.
I’d be curious to see what would happen if the Nets started Thomas, Bridges, Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Nic Claxton. There’d be enough defensive versatility to keep opponents from hunting Thomas and the floor would be adequately spaced to create better driving lanes on offense. Add in Schroder, Walker, Sharpe, and Simmons (if healthy; Jalen Wilson if not) off the bench and you might have something that resembles a competitive basketball team.
I mean, could it really be any worse than this garbage?