NYC Set To Deliver Irving The Best Birthday Gift He Could Have Wished For
Ignore Drummond's Raw Rebounding Stats
No matter what the scoreboard in Memphis said, Wednesday was a winning day for the Brooklyn Nets.
Kyrie Irving, who set a franchise record by scoring 43 points on his 30th birthday in Brooklyn’s 132-120 defeat, got the best gift he could have wished for a few hours earlier when Politico reported that New York City Mayor Eric Adams will amend the Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandate to allow Irving—and other NYC-based performers and professional athletes—to participate in the City’s venues.
Adams reportedly will make the announcement on Thursday morning at Citi Field, the home of Major League Baseball’s Mets, and make it effective immediately thereafter. So instead of Irving being limited to just two of Brooklyn’s remaining nine games, he will be eligible for all games going forward into the postseason, with the possible exception of a play-in matchup in Toronto.
According to multiple reports, Adams will use the excuse of a “level playing field” to tweak the rules, since unvaccinated NBA opponents have been granted permission to perform in New York all season. Last week, I had a feeling that when the Mayor’s office leaked that the Yankees and Mets would also be affected by this mandate, not just the polarizing Irving, things could change. (Yankees, Mets Inclusion In NYC’s Vaccine Mandate Might Prove Helpful In Getting Nets Irving Back On Home Court (substack.com)). Tucked near the bottom of the Politico report was a tidbit about how Mets owner Steve Cohen had donated $1.5 million to a political action committee that supported Adams in the 2021 Democratic primary, so take what you want out of that.
Whatever made Adams change his mind after countless press conferences where his explanations to maintain a status quo rife with hypocritical inconsistencies grew ever more twisted (did you hear him on Wednesday just give up on a question as to why Irving was allowed to practice indoors at the Nets facility in Industry City but not play in games, punting to his lawyers?), all I and other Nets fans can say is: Thank you for doing the right thing.
Just in time too. Brooklyn (38-35) is in a battle for seeding with the last five teams who will likely earn a berth in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Currently in eighth place, the Nets dropped to 3.5 games behind Cleveland for the sixth seed, which would allow them to escape the play-in tournament. They’d most like to avoid having to win two games from the 9/10 seeds, if possible.
Having Irving available down the stretch makes it much more possible. After the Nets travel to Miami on Saturday, only two of their last eight opponents will be ahead of them in the standings, and both of those (Milwaukee and Cleveland) will be on Brooklyn’s home court.
Only now we can say with conviction that it will be good to be home.
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Remember when many NBA analysts claimed that the Nets getting center Andre Drummond in the James Harden trade with Philadelphia would go a long way toward solving their defensive rebounding woes? It sure looked good on paper.
That’s because Drummond, being the biggest guy on the floor on many nights, is an expert at cleaning up all the uncontested rebounds. It allows him to post some serious raw numbers—he leads the league in rebounds per 36 minutes with 16.7.
But what makes a good rebounder is how often your team finishes off a defensive possession with a rebound versus the number of second-chance opportunities that are allowed. For instance, the stat sheet from Wednesday showed that Drummond recorded four rebounds, two on each end, in about 9.5 minutes of first quarter action—not a bad haul. However, Grizzlies center Steven Adams figuratively stole Drummond’s lunch money in that stretch with three offensive rebounds, providing Memphis with 7 extra points. Such a mismatch in physicality basically set the tone for the evening as the Nets rebounded just 59% of Memphis’ misses—a terrible rate--when Drummond was on the floor.
Not that the team fared any better when Nicolas Claxton subbed in for Drummond (they did worse), but Drummond has not made the impact on this area the Nets expected. Before the trade, the Nets were ranked 27th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage at 70.6%; since February 14, they’re 28th, at 69%.
And the latter figure includes Monday’s contest against Utah where the Nets did a more solid job on the boards (71% defensive rebounding percentage, 1% below the league average) while Drummond was laid up with side effects from receiving a COVID-19 booster shot.
Drummond has made some positive contributions in certain games with his inside presence and underrated ability to swipe balls away from opponents on defense. He cleaned up his act in the third quarter when the Nets made their big run from 15 points down to take the lead. But this idea that he’s Mr. Fix-it on the glass is way overblown.
Maybe Wednesday’s shootaround wasn’t the best time for Drummond, who signed a one-year veteran minimum deal with Philadelphia last summer, to tout his services for next season, telling reporters that the Nets were wise not to trade Claxton (even though he’s a pending restricted free agent on a team that will be well over the luxury tax) at last month’s deadline because “If we're all being honest, I'm only here til the rest of the season. Who knows what's gonna happen in the offseason?”
Fine with me. In no way should the Nets dip into their taxpayer mid-level exception to re-sign him. Let him blind some other team with his gaudy but misleading rebounding stats.