Nets Hit With Cold Realities On Road Trip
Going into their five-game road trip out West, the Nets had ample reason to feel like they were getting closer to finding a groove. Shaking off various injuries to rotation players while winning six of their previous seven games, a hard-working identity was forming.
Instead, Brooklyn’s 1-4 trip brought a cold splash of reality to its collective visage. Oh, the 116-112 victory against the traitorous Kevin Durant in Phoenix was sweet, but only one of the defeats, the 124-120 loss at Golden State on Saturday, went down to the wire.
How bad was it? The club’s second-most used five-man lineup over the five games was the garbage-time grouping that featured guys like Harry Giles, Jalen Wilson, and Armoni Brooks. Outside of Cam Thomas, the Nets’ offensive efficiency was inconsistent, while the defense was consistently dreadful. It was like they had forgotten what brought them success leading up to the trip.
Obviously, the Nets were always going to be facing an uphill battle playing on the road against a higher level of competition than when they were beating teams like the Wizards, Bulls, and Raptors. These were tough places to play, and that back-to-back in Denver following the emotional Suns game was downright unfair. However, I felt Brooklyn left one on the table in the Utah finale on Monday night, when it looked like their tank hit empty during the second half of a 125-108 loss. Most fans would have settled for a 2-3 trip.
Still, it’s a long season, and there were some instructive data points that can be taken forward if Nets Head Coach Jacque Vaughn so chooses, starting with Wednesday’s home affair versus the rival Knicks. Here’s some of them:
1) The starting lineup is not yet set in stone (or shouldn’t be)
There’s something to be said for continuity, but that’s hard to achieve in a league rife with injuries that forces teams to constantly plug in players to fill in missing pieces. In the Nets’ case, they are not the kind of team where they should say, “Here’s our best five; let’s go” anyway. Matchups matter. For instance, Vaughn had to have known that his team would get pounded on the boards in Utah, where the Jazz sent a wave of bigs to the glass against Brooklyn’s smallish units and grabbed nearly 40% of available offensive rebounds.
If Vaughn didn’t know, that’s an even more disturbing problem. Because one of the team’s few edges is its versatility. He could have played bigger (unless Dorain Finney-Smith’s knee ailment had him on a minutes restriction) instead of using the leaner Cam Johnson at the 4. Sure, it might have meant that Thomas, who totaled 73 points over the last two games, would have been the sixth man (or see No. 3 below), but like the vast majority of nights where the rising third-year bucket-getter has gone off, the Nets lost anyway. Brooklyn is 1-7 in games when he has put up 25-plus points this season.
The Nets’ starting five of Thomas, Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Nic Claxton got mashed on the trip, posting a minus-16 net rating in 64 minutes, according to NBA.com. I would ordinarily add my “small sample size” disclaimer to that, but I can envision more nights where that grouping just isn’t the right fit in certain settings.
2) As Claxton grows game, his calling card regresses a bit
Perhaps the highlight of the trip was Claxton’s corner three-pointer in Phoenix that left Durant flabbergasted. Fans always figured since the 24-year old center was drafted that he would add that to his bag at some point, but as he entered Year 5, it was becoming more of a prayer. To further whet appetites, Claxton also calmly knocked down a mid-range shot late in the shot clock in Utah and went 9-for-11 (81.8%) from the free throw line during the trip.
In the same vein, Claxton is also showcasing improved ballhandling skills, pushing the pace himself after grabbing defensive rebounds, and driving to the basket more while also scoring off them at a higher rate, per NBA.com.
Still, Claxton’s money-maker is his defense, and it’s in this area where it looks like he’s taking a step back this season from the potential Defensive Player of the Year candidate he was touted to be coming in. Even he has acknowledged the difficulties he has encountered adjusting to the multiple defensive schemes Vaughn has been using instead of the simple switching foundation of previous seasons.
It really shouldn’t be the case. Claxton certainly has the tools to thrive in “drop coverage” since he’s typically stationed closer to the basket where he can protect the rim and rebound instead of chasing smaller players around the perimeter. Yet only Thomas registered a worse defensive rating over the last five games.
To be clear, I’m not blaming Claxton for Brooklyn’s defensive woes—their point-of-attack D has been atrocious for most of the year, with Thomas a figurative pylon. The culpability list even extends to Bridges, who hasn’t made nearly the defensive impact he is capable of.
Getting back to Claxton, I’m a little concerned about why he has reached the 30-minute mark in just four of the 17 games he has played this season. Is his basketball conditioning so inadequate that Vaughn often feels the need to sub him out after the first five minutes? There have been several games where I thought his replacement Day’Ron Sharpe would have been Vaughn’s better option down stretch based on the flow, something I never imagined was possible.
Claxton is a pending free agent, so this is an important season for him. Just something to keep an eye on.
3) Dinwiddie: When Less = More
Based on raw numbers, Brooklyn’s point guard had a decent trip. He scored either 16 or 17 points in each of the five games and averaged a hefty 9.3 assists per game while keeping the turnovers down to 2 per game.
With his lineup configuration, Vaughn often left Dinwiddie on an island guarding much taller players like KD and Utah’s Lauri Markkanen. Dinwiddie held his own—per NBA.com’s tracking, those two All-Stars shot a combined 3-for-7 from the floor with Dinwiddie as the nearest defender to go along with 0 assists and 3 turnovers, though Durant did draw two shooting fouls.
But Dinwiddie’s main job is to get Brooklyn into a functioning offense, and though there were many possessions where he did, the team scored 111.5 points per 100 possessions with him as the lead guard over the five games, which is a rate that would rank the Nets 25th in the league in efficiency.
To put this as kindly as I can, Dinwiddie is a player whose increased usage too often comes with diminishing returns. He can be lethal as a driver in isolations and get on heaters from the outside. But there’s a reason why his most efficient days were during his short interlude in Dallas—he had Luka Doncic (and Jalen Brunson for part of his first season) to allow him to play more off the ball.
Both of his Brooklyn stints have been marked by overdribbling and poor shot selection. I’m not going to hammer him for what Thomas called “grenades” on J.J. Redick’s “Old Man and the Three” podcast, when Dinwiddie would have to hoist one after getting the ball as the shot clock was expiring, but those don’t account for why he is sporting a substandard 40.9/32.5/78.1 shooting split this season.
Dinwiddie took 33 three-pointers during the trip, more than any Net other than Thomas’ 36. He made 9, or 27.3%. Other than the 2-for-9 on 3s he might have had to have taken in the last four seconds of the shot clock, why so many? At this point, any possession that ends with a Dinwiddie three-point attempt has to be deemed a win for the defense.
There was a lot to like about Dinwiddie’s game on the trip—in addition to the defense, his passing was better (even on lobs!) and he made a couple of clutch plays in the Phoenix win.
But Dinwiddie has to start winning the fights with his temptation to do more. Less is usually more.