Roster - Brooklyn Nets

News · Roster · Patch · Statistics · Units · Ratings · Schedule · Transactions · NBA Stats · TbT

Undefeated

Well, at least undefeated for a week. Although going 4-0 doesn't seem all that newsworthy, it is the first time he's done it in his 53 weeks as GM of the Nets. You know it's been a journey, but FIFTY THREE tries, and he just now got it right! It wasn't really even a scheduling fluke - the Nets beat very good Spurs and Nuggets teams, while also overcoming the playoff-hopeful Pelicans and Pacers. While certainly not their most difficult week, it does rank in the top 5. The team is also hoping that this isn't the last "perfect week" of the season, as they've saved almost all of their easiest games for last. As of press time, the Nets have 9 weeks where their opponents have averaged to win half of their games or less - and five of those weeks are in the last six games of the season, including 3 of their easiest 4 games overall.

Even with the newfound chemistry and anticipating a lighter schedule in the coming weeks, the team is less optimistic than you would expect in grabbing hold of home court advantage in a playoff series. Even all the Cavs and Celtics do is play at their season average, they would nearly have to run the table to move into the four seed - and both of those teams have been greatly improved lately. Hoping for even one of these five powerhouse teams to fall seems like a fool's game. So for now it sounds like the Nets are just working on finding their chemistry, getting healthy, and preparing for what is likely a brutal matchup in the first round of the playoffs in another couple of months.

Looking at week 13, it's not difficult to figure out what worked so well - Cousins and Jordan continued to play together in a manner similar to the way they started - DeAndre handling the dirty work and Cousins with the energy to put up as many points as possible. Eric Bledsoe moved to the bench, and while he had a rough week adjusting to that role, it allowed Dragic to play a true point guard role. However, the long-awaited Khris Middleton was probably the biggest change - people said he may fill the gaps the team needed most, and they weren't wrong. He put up nearly 19/5/3 on an insane 60/50/82 split for a guard. Hopefully Middleton was the magic pill for this team, but they'll need to figure out how to shuffle the pieces around in order to get maximum productivity from everyone.

Because of the recent success, it is really sounding like it may be a quiet trade deadline for the Nets. They're never a team that shuts the door entirely, but from talking to other GMs - it sounds like they're really not talking about much at all. They already made their "win now" moves, and don't really feel like they can maximize what they have now without potentially disrupting what they have for the future.

In other news - Glenn Robinson III, one of the Nets' favorite prospects, won the NBA Slam Dunk contest (in boring fashion) on Saturday night. GR3 may not log a ton more minutes because of this success, but it is a good validation of what the team has seen in him for the last couple of years. DeAndre Jordan also participated - but other than jumping over a fat guy behind a table, didn't really do anything noteworthy.

On the injury front - Danilo Gallinari and Terrence Jones both remain out for the next week, and hopefully not more. The rest of the team was able to make it back before all-star break, but these two key forwards will be held out in order to ensure they're in maximum health for the home-stretch. The team has done well without them, but each holds a big role on the team that would be hard to replace in a tough playoff series.

Previous Article	Page 79/121 2017-02-20 01:35:53	Next Article