Nets Are Scorching

The Nets have little going for them these days. They’ve gone 3-8 in their past 11 games, with two of those wins against the Charlotte Bobcats, perhaps the worst team in the past decade. Deron Williams exhibits increasing frustration at each loss. They’ve been without Brook Lopez for nearly the entire season, have seen their rotation decimated every two weeks, and have put out the most starting lineups of any team in the league. Even the team’s one bright spot, the emergence and success of rookie guard MarShon Brooks, has tempered in the past few weeks as Brooks’s production has turned south.

What was supposed to be a season of possibilities and playoff pushes is instead filled with coulda-woulda-shouldas and regret. But mired in this tailspin has been the steadily, solid play of a name no one expected much from: the other rookie, center Jordan Williams.

Williams doesn’t play much, and his production won’t shock anyone. In 29 games, he’s shot a pedestrian 47% from the field, and puts up a league-average 14.9 PER. His slice of the PIE (a stat I’ll explain later this week) is just 7.3%, below the league average. His weight works against him; his lack of explosion keeps him mostly below the rim, and after battling weight issues in college, he didn’t use the time during the lockout optimally to regain shape. As a result, he sat a few games with dehydration early in the season, and his conditioning doesn’t allow him to play more than around 20 minutes in one game.

But a closer look at the numbers tells a different story. Read more…

The Nets, all things considered, aren’t very good. As of today, they rank 18th in the NBA in offensive efficiency, last in defensive efficiency, and just lost three consecutive games at home to teams with a combined 39-96 record. They’d need to go undefeated for the rest of the season just to hit .500.

To understand just how not good they are, I dove into NBA.com’s fancy new stats tool, currently under wraps save a few media members and some weird Nets blogger who got invited by accident. More than anything, I was curious about how the Nets shot and defended from different locations on the floor, and how teams maximized their potential scoring on shot location alone. What I found wasn’t surprising, but still deflating. Read more…

A funny thing happened in the second quarter of last night’s game. Entering the second quarter trailing by eight, the Nets cut back into that deficit (winning the quarter by five) behind the energy and disruption of Sundiata Gaines, the force and power of Kris Humphries, the marksmanship of Anthony Morrow and of course, the overall leadership of Deron Williams.

Noticeably absent from that 10-minute run of competent basketball? MarShon Brooks, the Nets rookie and darling who observed the action from the sideline for all but 1:26. MarShon checked out of the game at the 6:37 mark of the first quarter, missing about 17 straight game minutes in the first half.

Things didn’t improve for Brooks in the second half. As the Nets fought to keep up with the suddenly capable Wizards, Brooks saw just four minutes in the third quarter. In the fourth, after Deron Williams and Avery Johnson’s ejections, Brooks got another shot and responded with a few plays. For his effort, he was rewarded with the full burn of the quarter, but for those watching, that fourth quarter was a mere formality to a game won for Washington when the whistle sounded Deron’s second technical.

Either way, there has been a noticeable change in MarShon’s game. Gone is the volcanic “swag” that oozed out of Brooks’ body, replaced by hesitancy and indecision. Because I’ve never had a conversation with the man, or read any quotes suggesting as much, I won’t claim that MarShon has lost his confidence, but there’s been a noticeable shift in the rookie’s game. What’s changed? Read more…

With 7 minutes and 11 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Shelden Williams grabbed a loose ball, dove towards the basket, and dunked with two hands. The Nets, after trailing by as much as fifteen in the first quarter, had clawed back into the game, sent the crowd into a frenzy, and now held a six-point lead, 88-82.

What happened afterwards: a classic Nets collapse, on both ends of the floor.

Not every play went down the drain — some were glorious, and some key plays kept the Nets within striking distance until only seconds remained on the clock. But in the NBA, execution down the stretch means every single play, and little mistakes during big possessions can cost you victories. What made this one so frustrating is how simple the mistakes were, and how easily this loss could have been avoided.

If you’re unwilling to subject yourself to bad basketball (likely again), I warn you against clicking the jump. What’s detailed below is only the bad. This is the collapse. And remember, every possession listed below occurred in the final 7:11. Read more…

The trade deadline came and went, and while the Nets did miss out on the biggest prize of them all, they made an immediate move to shore up their most significant hole.

Yes, just hours before the trade deadline, once it was clear that Dwight Howard would remain the Magic’s franchise player for at least one more season, Billy King turned around and completed a deal I assume he’d had on the table all alone, dealing the injured Mehmet Okur, the injured Shawne Williams, and the Nets’ 2012 first-round draft pick (top-3 protected) to the Portland Trail Blazers for Gerald Wallace.

Uncomfortable with the prospect of reducing him to just one question, I decided to delve into the big six. So who is Gerald Wallace? And just as importantly, what, where, when, why, and how is Gerald Wallace?

Read more…

Last nights Nets/Clippers game ended in dramatic fashion, with a buzzer-beating three pointer from Jordan Farmar.

While Farmar will get rightful credit for draining the wide-open three, it was Deron Williams who made the play happen. Down two with no timeouts, and no play call from Avery Johnson, the Nets were in straight wing it mode. Let’s take a look at what went down:

Jordan Farmar has the ball to inbound.  Immediately, Deron Williams frees himself from Randy Foye by running up past the half court marker, and Kris Humphries heads down to the post, taking Blake Griffin with him.  Chris Paul, with his back turned to Farmar, will join Foye in double-teaming D-Will.

Foye and Paul cover Deron, leaving Farmar unattended to get himself in position for an easy three.  It’s almost as if Paul completely forgot about Farmar, with the Clippers under the assumption that Deron would be taking the final shot.

Deron Williams sees the double-team and makes a feeble attempt to crossover Foye to put himself in position for the winning shot.  Foye stops this and Chris Paul blocks the path to his right.  At 3.9 seconds left, there simply isn’t enough time for D-Will to create a high-percentage shot for himself.  It’s also worth noting that Mo Williams, Kenyon Martin and Blake Griffin are all covering underneath the basket, making it a guaranteed contested two if D-Will managed to drive his way down there.

Instead, Deron Williams senses the double-team and the low-post defense from the other three Clippers, and passes it to wide open Jordan Farmar, who is in great position for the game winner.  Can we also just point out that Chris Paul fell to his knees in attempt to stop the perfectly thrown bounce pass from D-Will?

Check please.

The great football coach Bill Parcells has a famous quote, “You are what your record says you are.”

Using that quote and applying it to the Nets, you’d have to surmise that the Nets, at 12-26, are not a good basketball team. And, regardless of what your opinion may be of Avery Johnson, if your the coach of a bad basketball team, you’re going to take some of the responsibility for that, fairly or not.

But, to give credit where credit is due, Avery Johnson made a fantastic play call decision late in the Bobcats game to help the Nets get victory number 12. Let’s take a closer look:

To set the stage: The Nets were leading late into the fourth quarter, but after some sloppy Nets play, the Bobcats had trimmed that lead to just two, trailing the Nets 96-94 with 1:21 left to go in the game.

The Nets called timeout to discuss strategy for the upcoming play. At this point in the game Deron Williams had 53 points and was as close as any human as ever come to turning into a living, breathing fireball. So, I’d imagine the objective in the huddle for Avery and the staff was simple – get DWill the ball.

The Bobcats up to this point had been using their shooting guard, Gerald Henderson who lists at 6-4, to guard Williams instead of their point guard, D.J. Augustin who lists at 6-0.

Williams had already torched Augustin earlier in the game and although Henderson didn’t slow Williams much, he at least has the size and strength to physically contend with Williams.

Out of the timeout, the Nets inbound to Williams who brings the ball all the way out to the top of the key. In this situation, it’s not uncommon for NBA teams to use a high ball screen to begin action. Normally, those ball screens are set by bigs, but the brilliance of this play is that Avery elects to use Jordan Farmar as the screener instead.

Here you’ll see Williams with ball being guarded by Henderson, moving off of a screen set by Farmar who was being guarded by Augustin. Because Farmar sets a great screen and because the screening action is being done by two “like” players the Bobcats simply switch, meaning Augustin is now to cover Williams. (As I do not know the defensive strategy being employed by the Bobcats on this possession, this last part is an assumption, but it is not a stretch to assume that on guard to guard or forward to forward screens, the defending players would simply switch.)

With Augustin now on Williams, this is the exact matchup the Nets were looking for and one that Williams can easily exploit. As you’ll see in the below video, Williams hardly even uses a move to get by Augustin but instead just gives a hard dribble and pulls up. His height and extension advantages makes this a relatively easy shot for Deron.

Take a look:

Note: These grades are the aggregate of the grades earned in our rapid reactions thus far this season.