The New Jersey Nets might not have won the offseason sweepstakes this summer in falling short of signing LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, and Rudy Gay. But there’s no doubt they wound up with one whale of a consolation prize.
He’s a great basketball mind, a born leader, and a sensational decision maker. Best of all, he didn’t cost the Nets a cent of their precious salary-cap space. Avery Johnson might not be taking game-winning shots in the final seconds, but his impact on the franchise cannot be overemphasized.
Johnson was in an enviable position before coming to the Nets. He had a cushy NBA analyst job with ESPN, he had coached the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals, and, in case you forgot, he had the highest winning percentage of any coach — better than Pat Riley’s, better than Phil Jackson’s, better than Red Auerbach’s — in NBA history.
Truth be told, I didn’t expect the Nets to win last night. They’d lost ten games in a row on the road and the Grizzlies were 8-5 on their home court. They were still missing Anthony Morrow and Damion James, while the Grizzlies were at full strength. I was concerned about how the Nets would defend down low, control the ball, & force turnovers. But all my concerns ended up being irrelevant, as the Nets rode a strong all-around effort to an impressive victory in Memphis.
The Nets did a bunch of unfamiliar things last night. They shot well from the field (52.6%) and held their opponents to under 40% shooting. They looked to score inside with their best scorers late in the second half. They won despite getting six fewer trips to the line (10 before the final 12.2 seconds), grabbing five fewer offensive rebounds, and turning the ball over six more times.
Perhaps most importantly, they never relinquished a fourth-quarter lead.
Brook Lopez had arguably his best offensive game of the season. He looked like the big man we’d all expected him to become this season. Brook was scoring at will in the post, drawing fouls on counter-moves down low, and knocking down his shots – eight of 14 from the field and 10-11 from the line. He absolutely dominated Memphis’ interior defense with hook shots, short jumpers, and the slam above which proves both the power of YouTube and the lack thereof in Hasheem Thabeet. While he “only” had six rebounds, the Nets as a whole out-rebounded the Grizzlies 49-39, and Brook seemed to be boxing out with much more regularity than I’d come to expect from him this season.
For the second straight game, the Nets defense was smothering. The Grizzlies were shooting a measly 30.8% after one quarter and forced the top 3 shooters on Memphis to shoot a combined 14-44 from the field. For the second straight game, the Nets bench was instrumental to victory, providing 31 points and six assists. For the second straight game, the Nets forced the best player on the opposing team (Joe Johnson/Rudy Gay) into a 4-16 shooting night.
For the second straight game, the Nets won. Nice to say that, huh?
The Nets got contributions from everyone on the floor. Every player scored and five of the Nets ended up in double figures. Double-double machine Kris Humphries ended the game with – you guessed it – another double-double, putting up 12 points and grabbing 15 big rebounds. Four of those rebounds were offensive, and he was running all over the court to grab them – they weren’t just falling into his hands. Devin Harris was only so-so (11 points, 5 assists, 5 turnovers), but the Nets proved that they can work hard and grab a victory even when their star point guard is having an off night. Prior to this game the Nets had only won once this season when Devin had scored under 21 points, and tonight was a nice reminder that there are other contributors on this team as well.
All in all, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better win that the Nets had this season. While the Nets were out-rebounded on the offensive glass, didn’t get to the line nearly as much, and turned the ball over far more than they should, they simply shot & defended shots so well that none of that made a difference. Preventing a team from scoring is the name of the game, and it was the Nets’ biggest eFG% differential of the season. When you shoot that well, it’s hard to lose.
One of the storylines that emerged with the Nets in Memphis last night was that they were reunited with Rudy Gay – the team’s “Plan B” that wasn’t during the Summer of LeBron. The Nets were willing to offer Gay serious money, but the Grizzlies beat them to that mistake, and signed him to a max contract. Still, Gay must have heard that the Nets were about to throw money at him, so he offered some kind words:
“I was going to [seriously] think about being a Net,” Gay said. “I guess Memphis stepped up to the plate first. That’s one of the things I probably regret the most, [not] at least going through the process. But I’m happy with the situation.”
Eeesh – that would have been a train wreck for the Nets. Gay is a nice player, but nothing to offer a max contract to. He’s actually having his best season in a few seasons, but prior to that, his numbers were down across the board since his sophomore year. Now that the beat guys have done their obligatory Gay reminiscing story, I hope that’s the last we have to hear about “what could have been” there.
Amid all the continuous swirling of trade rumors, the Nets do in fact still play basketball. Tonight the 8-20 Nets take on the 12-16 Grizzlies in Memphis. Memphis is 8-5 at home and the Nets are 2-12 on the road, so this one is sure to be an uphill climb. Memphis is also one of the rare teams with no injuries to report, but the Nets are still sans Anthony Morrow and Damion James.
Here are a few things to watch out for in tonight’s game:
Make it rain from outside. Memphis is one of the worst teams in the NBA at giving up three-pointers, allowing 223 (3rd-most in the NBA) so far at a .389 clip (5th-worst in the NBA). While the Nets are missing the one guy who could really hurt them – the incomparable Anthony Morrow – they still have Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Travis Outlaw, and maybe even Troy Murphy if Avery decides he’s alive.
Limit the turnovers. Memphis is the best team in the NBA at forcing turnovers thus far, with 16.1% of opponent possessions ending in a turnover. At the opposite side of that spectrum is the New Jersey Nets, who force turnovers on a league-worst 12% of possessions. If Devin & Jordan can control the tempo of the game against ballhawk Mike Conley (who, despite his outrageous contract, is still picking up 2.1 steals per game) and the Nets run their offense crisply, they can take Memphis’ biggest strength right out of their hands.
Control the paint. The Grizzlies start two bruisers at the 4 and 5 spots in Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, and neither should be taken lightly. Randolph is averaging an impressive double-double with 18 points and 12.4 rebounds per game, and Gasol has always been quietly effective. If the Nets can lock these two guys down – which is much easier said than done – and control the defensive glass (where the Nets are 7th in the NBA with a 75.5% defensive rebound rate), they can definitely open up an opportunity to steal one in Memphis.
For more coverage of the Memphis Grizzlies, check out TrueHoop affiliate 3 Shades of Blue.
According to Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the New Jersey Nets and Denver Nuggets are working on a new, even bigger, deal to have Carmelo Anthony in a Nets uniform. It’s a bigger deal in that Melo wouldn’t be the only new Net on the team with current teammates Al Harrington and Chauncey Billups as possibilities to join the team as well.
The deal is also more complex as there are, reportedly, other teams involved. So, who gets shipped off? The ubiquitous Melo trade chip known as Derrick Favors, the underperforming Troy Murphy, multiple draft picks, and unfortunately for me on a personal note, Devin Harris.
However, one good thing about all of this speculation is the words of one executive involved with the talks:
“The way this is structured now, the Nets will significantly upgrade their team.”
Interesting. However, who knows what goes down? Let the comments begin…
There’s no question that Kris Humphries’ individual performance this season has been unexpectedly fantastic. Before the regular season began, I didn’t even see where Hump fit into the rotation with the acquisition of veteran Troy Murphy, the drafting of phenom Derrick Favors, and the ability of other new acquisitions like Travis Outlaw, Johan Petro and Damion James being able to fill in at the four based on match-ups. Now, he’s the de facto starter until Avery Johnson decides to unleash the Favors-era on us all (or drive up his trade value), and Hump has earned the right, putting up a PER (Player Efficiency Rating) of 17.47, a rebound rate of 21.2 and a 54% field goal percentage.
But now that we’re past the quarter-way point of the season, there’s enough data starting to emerge to determine how effective a player actually is for his team – and to my surprise, Humphries’ strong numbers don’t’ necessarily help the Nets win many games – making him entirely expendable if the Nets need to shift his affordable, but expiring contract in a deal before the deadline. In fact, after looking at some of the numbers, I think Johnson needs to get Favors into the starting lineup now, not just because it will help him develop, but the Nets play better as a unit when the rookie is inserted with the other starters.
When Troy Murphy became a fixture on Avery Johnson’s inactive list at the beginning of the season, he kept his frustration to himself. But as the season has progressed and he still hasn’t found a way to consistently be in the rotation, he has become more and more visibly displeased. The Record’s Pete Caldera talked to Troy yesterday and he does not sound terribly happy:
“I’ve not accepted it, not at all. Nor do I expect to continue it,” Murphy said of his scarce playing time. “I know what I’m capable of. I know I can help this team.”
Meanwhile, Avery continues to be incredibly coy about Murphy:
“Right now, we understand the reasons why,” the coach said, adding that his desire to see Derrick Favors at backup center Sunday opened some minutes for Murphy.
From my perspective, this behavior is one of the things that makes me wary of Johnson as a long-term fixture in this organization. Granted, when Murphy has played, he hasn’t looked very good, which makes it difficult to justify giving him minutes. But Johnson appears to have a very short leash with specific players and appears reluctant to let some of these guys play through it or get a chance to prove themselves on the court. It’s a little reminiscent of the John Calipari era when there was “his” people and then the guys who were dismissed/benched because they didn’t buy into his hype. While a lot of NBA coaches are like this, like Calipari, the problem with Johnson is he doesn’t have enough of a track record of success in this league to be so stubborn. Winning a bunch of games in Dallas is not the equivalent of what Pat Riley or Larry Brown have accomplished in their NBA careers.
Murphy comes across as a good guy, so I hope the Nets find a way to ship him out of here into a situation where he can get regular minutes with a playoff-bound team. As for Johnson, I hope as time goes on, some of his motivations become a little more open. He’s not going to win over the locker room being cryptic with his players. From what I hear, and listening to Murphy talks, it sounds like he’s just been totally iced out of this team. Not good.
All things considered it was a pretty good week for the Nets. They broke their eight-game losing streak and finished 2-2 after a win over the Hawks yesterday afternoon. They could have easily won the Philly or Toronto game but I guess beggars can’t be choosers. This past week has got me thinking a lot about the Nets front court and how Avery Johnson has used the power forward and center rotation. There have been some bright spots in the post for the team and some things they can improve upon.
Clearly the most surprising member of the Nets front court has been Kris Humphries. Hump has played in all 28 games this season, averaging 7.9 points and 9.1 rebounds in 25 minutes per contest. His rebounding has been tremendous and he has forced his way into the starting lineup. As I wrote about after the game in Toronto on Friday night, he also picks his spots very well on the offensive end. He can hit the rare 15-17 foot jumper and his strong offensive rebounding allows him to be in the right spot for easy put-backs. Avery has played Humphries a lot, but he should be considering the production from the power forward.
The other two power forwards on the roster (Joe Smith now gone) have been somewhat inconsistent off the bench. Let’s first start with Troy Murphy, who I admittedly felt was going to be a big part of this team before the season started. The back injury early on really hurt him in the rotation and he has played in just 13 games this season. The reason Murph is not playing more is Derrick Favors. The rook is getting nearly 20 minutes per game and has shown some great flashes in his short time in the NBA. His defense is still wildly inconsistent and he needs to learn how to play without fouling, but I think Avery has used him well.
Sometimes I find myself wondering why Murphy doesn’t play more, considering he is still a very serviceable NBA player. Well the simple answer is that there really aren’t any minutes for him. Humphries has forced his way into the starting lineup and has played very well this season. And I like the way that Johnson has used Favors and developed him off the bench. So while at times I wish Murph would get a little more burn, it’s hard to argue with how Avery has used the power forward position.
The performance of Brook Lopez so far this season has been frustrating at times. His scoring numbers aren’t awful but his field goal percentage and rebounding numbers are way down from his career averages. He also has the tendency to drift in and out of games a lot. He will have a great 10-minute stretch and then you won’t hear from him again until much later in the game. He is still a young player so consistency is always an issue but he just needs to be better. I don’t buy the argument that Kris Humphries “takes rebounds away” from Brook. If you are a 7-foot player in today’s NBA, averaging just 6.3 rebounds in 28 games is absurd.
I don’t need to spend any time on Johan Petro because he basically is what we thought he’d be. I wasn’t excited when they signed him to an overblown contract in the offseason, so 2.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.9 minutes per contest is what I expected. Overall the front court has been solid and there are plenty of other areas on the team where the Nets could improve. Light slate of games this week because of the holidays, so a split at New Orleans and at Memphis would be pretty solid. Enjoy the games…
