No Matter How Bad The Nets Look To The Public, Only One Set Of Eyes Matter
Watching the replay on a loop stings like I squeezed lemon juice in my eyes.
Portland guard Anfernee Simons, a thorn in the Nets’ side twice in the last 11 days, received the inbounds pass near the Blazers logo with five seconds remaining in Wednesday night’s tied contest at 103-103. He squared up against Brooklyn wing Mikal Bridges, started to his right, and then crossed over to his left.
Bridges seemed to be expecting help in the middle of the floor in the form of a double team, which was later confirmed by Bridges, Nets Head Coach Jacque Vaughn, and guard Spencer Dinwiddie, the guilty party. Since Dinwiddie’s double wasn’t on time, Simons got the advantage he needed to get into the middle of the lane to lift a floater over Nets center Nic Claxton’s outstretched arm for the game winner in another deplorable Brooklyn loss to a team that is 9-29 in its other games.
It was a bad look for Dinwiddie, who seems to be playing like he knows the writing is on the wall with regard to his second stint in Brooklyn. He’s playing like he’s already detached, taking just one shot in 13 minutes of first half “action” in Portland. A pending free agent, Dinwiddie isn’t exactly helping his brand this season. Among the 150 NBA players who have averaged at least 25 minutes per game over a minimum of 25 games played, he ranks 145th in effective field goal percentage.
It was a bad look with Bridges, whose reputation on both sides of the ball as the centerpiece return in the blockbuster trade that sent superstar Kevin Durant to Phoenix last February has been taking hits as the Nets (16-24) continue their plummet down the Eastern Conference standings. Ordinarily, the Simons assignment should be a suitable one for a 2022 NBA All-Defensive First Team honoree like Bridges. Double teams come with high risks that another capable player, like Portland guard Malcolm Brogdon, whom Dinwiddie left, would be wide open. Simons may be super skilled, but he’s not big or overly physical. Bridges really couldn’t handle him one-on-one for five seconds? To paraphrase Paul Pierce, isn’t that why Bridges was brought here?
That made it a bad look for Vaughn. Remember, this defensive plan came AFTER a timeout. Vaughn could have matched up anyway he liked. Where was Dennis Smith Jr., perhaps the team’s best perimeter defender? So not only was the play call inherently flawed, his players didn’t even deign to execute it. And let’s not pretend like this was the only time it has appeared like the team has tuned him out.
Which makes it a bad look for General Manager Sean Marks, a Vaughn cheerleader going back to their days together in San Antonio. We can’t just automatically place all the blame for the Nets’ 3-14 slump on the coaching. Marks has always said he believes in collaboration, so there’s a good chance that he and Vaughn are on the same page when it comes to general themes like the starting five, going back to all switching on defense, etc. I have to believe that Vaughn would have jumped at the opportunity to put Lonnie Walker IV, who scored 13 points in 19 minutes in his fifth game since returning from a hamstring injury, back into the game for certain possessions down the stretch. Ah, but the minutes-limit orders from above struck that notion down. As long as Marks has the trust of Nets owner Joeseph Tsai, this will be his show.
So, no matter how bad this all looks to everyone from stakeholders, to fans, and to media analysts, etc., the only gaze that matters is Tsai’s. And no one can know what is going through his head these days.
Unless you’re a media hog like Mark Cuban or Jerry Jones, pro sports owners typically work in the background. Some speak to fans via their media conduits sparingly; others, not at all.
We mostly learn of Tsai’s mindset after the fact, through his actions as opposed to his words. We know he backed (or pushed) Marks throughout all of Kyrie Irving’s ordeals and was reportedly directly communicating with Suns owner Mat Ishbia to get the KD deal done. Through Brooklyn’s salary cap sheet (and the offseason trades that attached second round picks so the Nets could offload the contracts of Joe Harris and Patty Mills), we know how important it is for the organization to get back under the luxury tax threshold this season and next.
Tsai has to know the scoop. And he has to have extraordinary competitive juices to be a co-founder of a successful business in the China marketplace. When the Nets were all-in with Durant, Irving, and, for a short while, James Harden, Tsai doled out over $172 million in luxury tax payments over the last three seasons, according to HoopsHype.com.
This current degradation isn’t about frugality or purposeful tanking. As we all know, the Nets don’t even have their own first-round pick until 2028. Tsai may have been willing to pare back the budget in acknowledgement of the franchise’s transition away from the superstar model, but my gut tells me he didn’t think it would be this bad.
Bad as in only Detroit and Charlotte have worse records than Brooklyn over their last 19 games. That’s nearly a quarter of a season. Official attendance may be solid to date (98% capacity, though it counts tickets issued, not necessarily sold, including folks who paid but didn’t attend), but Barclays Center could easily become less packed if the team falls out of the playoff race. YES Network broadcast numbers are already down nearly 35% from last season, according to The New York Post’s Brian Lewis.
I continue to hold the view that we will likely see some asset selling in advance of the February 8 trade deadline, but the odds of a demolition are as low as the those on Brooklyn adding to the payroll and breaking through the tax barrier by utilizing the Durant $18.1 million trade exception.
As for Marks and Vaughn, I guess that all depends on whether this picture is embarrassing enough in Tsai’s eyes to force change. Then we’ll know.
Photo above by: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports