Official 2015-16 Brooklyn Nets Season Watch Thread (21-59, 3rd slot as of 4/12)

[KeepRondo]

Brooklyn Next 10
Celtics - loss
Celtics - loss
Thunder - loss
Cavs - loss
Pistons - loss
Suns - Maybe win
Knicks - Maybe win
Warriors - loss
Rockets - loss
Philly - Win

5-17 after that span.

I might be being generous with the suns and knicks games but not an unrealistic estimation.

Suns will crush them. I'll bet 3 TPs on it.

Even the Knicks... man, I just don't see it. They'd have to hope for a bad game for the Knicks and play Brook 40 mins.

At what point do we expect Brook to go down? I feel kinda dirty asking that question, but, uh... yeah.

Well they aren't being careful with him as they seem to run him for long stretches.

[PhoSita]

From Mike Mazzeo on ESPN:

This might be hard to believe for Celtics fans who don't see the Nets on a regular basis, but the unit of Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack has the second-best net rating of any five-man lineup in the entire NBA (minimum 100 minutes played).

This has more or less been the basis of the argument, coming into the season, that the Nets would probably be bad, but not in contention for worst record in the league, or even a bottom 5 record.  It's hard to lose 60 games when you have a quality starting lineup.  Unless, of course -- and this has always been the caveat -- one or two of their key guys misses major time.



The Celts have a really important 2-games-in-3-days against the Nets this weekend.  Celts can do their part to keep digging the Nets deeper so that they can't climb out.

[apc]

The Celts have a really important 2-games-in-3-days against the Nets this weekend.  Celts can do their part to keep digging the Nets deeper so that they can't climb out.

I truly wonder if the Celtics players consider this a motivation to get a high draft pick.
I am not so sure.

[MBunge]

From Mike Mazzeo on ESPN:

This might be hard to believe for Celtics fans who don't see the Nets on a regular basis, but the unit of Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack has the second-best net rating of any five-man lineup in the entire NBA (minimum 100 minutes played).

This has more or less been the basis of the argument, coming into the season, that the Nets would probably be bad, but not in contention for worst record in the league, or even a bottom 5 record.  It's hard to lose 60 games when you have a quality starting lineup.  Unless, of course -- and this has always been the caveat -- one or two of their key guys misses major time.

The team as a whole, though, has the third worst +/- in the league.  If that's still the case after 20 games, it's time to admit the Nets just stink.

Mike

[celticsclay]

From Mike Mazzeo on ESPN:

This might be hard to believe for Celtics fans who don't see the Nets on a regular basis, but the unit of Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack has the second-best net rating of any five-man lineup in the entire NBA (minimum 100 minutes played).

This has more or less been the basis of the argument, coming into the season, that the Nets would probably be bad, but not in contention for worst record in the league, or even a bottom 5 record.  It's hard to lose 60 games when you have a quality starting lineup.  Unless, of course -- and this has always been the caveat -- one or two of their key guys misses major time.

The team as a whole, though, has the third worst +/- in the league.  If that's still the case after 20 games, it's time to admit the Nets just stink.

Mike

but but but I'm so entrenched in my position....

[PhoSita]

From Mike Mazzeo on ESPN:

This might be hard to believe for Celtics fans who don't see the Nets on a regular basis, but the unit of Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack has the second-best net rating of any five-man lineup in the entire NBA (minimum 100 minutes played).

This has more or less been the basis of the argument, coming into the season, that the Nets would probably be bad, but not in contention for worst record in the league, or even a bottom 5 record.  It's hard to lose 60 games when you have a quality starting lineup.  Unless, of course -- and this has always been the caveat -- one or two of their key guys misses major time.

The team as a whole, though, has the third worst +/- in the league.  If that's still the case after 20 games, it's time to admit the Nets just stink.

Mike

The Nets do stink!  They're 2-10.  There's no disputing that, at all.  They've been competitive in some games lately, but 2-10 is bad no matter what excuses you make.

I'm not "entrenching" here, as far as that goes.  But I think it's worth pointing out, hey, it wasn't crazy to suggest this team might battle their way to 25-30 wins (i.e. not bottom 5 territory) on the strength of that starting lineup.  They've got little incentive to avoid riding their starters really hard, and their starting lineup is not bad.  We're not out of the woods here.  A bad start doesn't always turn into a 10-20 win season.

It seems like RHJ may have been the key for them.  I thought Bogdanovic might have been the right guy to put in at the 2, but he and Joe Johnson are too slow a combo (which a few people, if I recall, pointed out).  RHJ's competence as a defender, rebounder, and occasional finisher have solidified that 5 man unit for the Nets.  That unit is keeping them in games -- although I think the fact that opponents now assume they will be an easy victory is also keeping the Nets in games.




To some extent it feels like people have this attitude that there are only two positions to have -- either the Nets will compete for the worst record in the league, or they will compete for the playoffs.  Failing to agree with one means you agree with the other.

I'm pretty sure we're getting a top 10 pick from the Nets, regardless, and I'm already licking my chops watching Ben Simmons highlights.  We could still end up getting pick #8 or 9 or something, though.  Still good, but not Ben Simmons.

[Lucky17]

Weird, didn't see Pho had posted the same thing from Mazzeo.

[mysteryMrE]

The Celts have a really important 2-games-in-3-days against the Nets this weekend.  Celts can do their part to keep digging the Nets deeper so that they can't climb out.

I truly wonder if the Celtics players consider this a motivation to get a high draft pick.
I am not so sure.

For players who have a long-term future with the organization, it may be on their radars, but as a whole I highly doubt it will cross their minds at all.

The front office, however, has to be feeling atleast a bit of urgency to sweep these two games before the race to the bottom really heats up later in the season.

[celticsclay]

From Mike Mazzeo on ESPN:

This might be hard to believe for Celtics fans who don't see the Nets on a regular basis, but the unit of Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack has the second-best net rating of any five-man lineup in the entire NBA (minimum 100 minutes played).

This has more or less been the basis of the argument, coming into the season, that the Nets would probably be bad, but not in contention for worst record in the league, or even a bottom 5 record.  It's hard to lose 60 games when you have a quality starting lineup.  Unless, of course -- and this has always been the caveat -- one or two of their key guys misses major time.

The team as a whole, though, has the third worst +/- in the league.  If that's still the case after 20 games, it's time to admit the Nets just stink.

Mike

The Nets do stink!  They're 2-10.  There's no disputing that, at all.  They've been competitive in some games lately, but 2-10 is bad no matter what excuses you make.

I'm not "entrenching" here, as far as that goes.  But I think it's worth pointing out, hey, it wasn't crazy to suggest this team might battle their way to 25-30 wins (i.e. not bottom 5 territory) on the strength of that starting lineup.  They've got little incentive to avoid riding their starters really hard, and their starting lineup is not bad.  We're not out of the woods here.  A bad start doesn't always turn into a 10-20 win season.

It seems like RHJ may have been the key for them.  I thought Bogdanovic might have been the right guy to put in at the 2, but he and Joe Johnson are too slow a combo (which a few people, if I recall, pointed out).  RHJ's competence as a defender, rebounder, and occasional finisher have solidified that 5 man unit for the Nets.  That unit is keeping them in games -- although I think the fact that opponents now assume they will be an easy victory is also keeping the Nets in games.




To some extent it feels like people have this attitude that there are only two positions to have -- either the Nets will compete for the worst record in the league, or they will compete for the playoffs.  Failing to agree with one means you agree with the other.

I'm pretty sure we're getting a top 10 pick from the Nets, regardless, and I'm already licking my chops watching Ben Simmons highlights.  We could still end up getting pick #8 or 9 or something, though.  Still good, but not Ben Simmons.

They actually do have a lot of incentive to not do this all season. For one, Joe Johnson is 35 and already looks pretty awful and wiped in a lot of their games. As the season progresses, playing him this many minutes is only going to make him worse.

Lopez has a history of foot injuries and already suffered one foot scare. Riding him as hard as they are when they have a ton of money invested in him long term is also really playing with fire.

Finally, they have no prospects and Jack and Johnson are not part of the future of that team. At a certain point giving them minutes over guys that could at least potentially be part of the future, or trading them for second round picks doesn't make any sense (unless you somehow believe they are doing things to hurt themselves just so they can spite the celtics).

You can't rule out anything on a team run by King, but johnson and Jack in particular playing many minutes in the second half of the season seems unfathomable.

[libermaniac]

The Celts have a really important 2-games-in-3-days against the Nets this weekend.  Celts can do their part to keep digging the Nets deeper so that they can't climb out.

I truly wonder if the Celtics players consider this a motivation to get a high draft pick.
I am not so sure.

I bet the SFs and Cs actually have an incentive to lose, so they won't lose their starting spots.   Watch for Jae Crowder to have a bad weekend. ;-)  Just kidding!!!

[Quetzalcoatl]

The other thing to keep in mind is that the NBA as a whole is much better than it was last year.  The 3-5 Bucks are the 3rd worst team in the East right now, after the Nets and 6ers.  The Lakers and Pelicans are most likely going to stay bad too, but do you see the Kings or Blazers having worse records than the Nets?  It's unlikely.  I think a very realistic finish for the Nets is 4th or 5th worst, which will worst case scenario give us the 7th or 8th pick.

The 4th worst team has a 11.9% chance at 1st pick, 12.6% for 2nd, 13.3% for 3rd, 9.9% for 4th and 35.1% chance for 5th - totaling 82.8% for a top 5 pick.

The top 5 picks are Skal Labissiere, Simmons, Ingram, Brown and Dragan Bender.  I would be really happy with any of these guys and someone else could emerge out of the college ranks this year.  This draft was being pooped on a couple years ago, but it's actually rounding out nicely.

[PhoSita]

You can't rule out anything on a team run by King, but johnson and Jack in particular playing many minutes in the second half of the season seems unfathomable.

That's the thing, though, I think the Nets are still in win-now mode no matter what.  I can't imagine them just giving up packing it in and resting Lopez's foot.  Johnson won't be with the team next year, so I doubt they care about the tread on his tires.

The only way I see it happening is if this opening hole they're in gets so bad there's effectively 0% chance they make a run at the playoffs.  That's why I think these games against them early in the season have greater significance than usual.

[Quetzalcoatl]

You can't rule out anything on a team run by King, but johnson and Jack in particular playing many minutes in the second half of the season seems unfathomable.

That's the thing, though, I think the Nets are still in win-now mode no matter what.  I can't imagine them just giving up packing it in and resting Lopez's foot.  Johnson won't be with the team next year, so I doubt they care about the tread on his tires.

The only way I see it happening is if this opening hole they're in gets so bad there's effectively 0% chance they make a run at the playoffs.  That's why I think these games against them early in the season have greater significance than usual.

That's the good news: there is no way they make the playoffs.  The Wizards (6th), us (7th), Pistons (8th), Raptors (surprisingly 9th), Knicks (10th) and Hornets (11th) are all .500 or better and are going to try all season to make the playoffs.  I could see the Magic or Bucks packing it in and I think they will try until at least 3/4ths of the season is done. 

[PhoSita]

You can't rule out anything on a team run by King, but johnson and Jack in particular playing many minutes in the second half of the season seems unfathomable.

That's the thing, though, I think the Nets are still in win-now mode no matter what.  I can't imagine them just giving up packing it in and resting Lopez's foot.  Johnson won't be with the team next year, so I doubt they care about the tread on his tires.

The only way I see it happening is if this opening hole they're in gets so bad there's effectively 0% chance they make a run at the playoffs.  That's why I think these games against them early in the season have greater significance than usual.

That's the good news: there is no way they make the playoffs.  The Wizards (6th), us (7th), Pistons (8th), Raptors (surprisingly 9th), Knicks (10th) and Hornets (11th) are all .500 or better and are going to try all season to make the playoffs.  I could see the Magic or Bucks packing it in and I think they will try until at least 3/4ths of the season is done.

I agree, there's no way it's happening, but when will we reach the point where the Nets are likely to believe that?


On Twitter yesterday, a Pelicans blogger was talking about his fear that Dell Demps will trade the Pelicans' first round pick to add a win-now talent to get them back into the playoff mix.

Would the Nets trade Brook Lopez for the Pelicans' first rounder?  Would the Pelicans be that dumb?  I sure hope so!

[mef730]

From Mike Mazzeo on ESPN:

This might be hard to believe for Celtics fans who don't see the Nets on a regular basis, but the unit of Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack has the second-best net rating of any five-man lineup in the entire NBA (minimum 100 minutes played).

This has more or less been the basis of the argument, coming into the season, that the Nets would probably be bad, but not in contention for worst record in the league, or even a bottom 5 record.  It's hard to lose 60 games when you have a quality starting lineup.  Unless, of course -- and this has always been the caveat -- one or two of their key guys misses major time.

The Celts have a really important 2-games-in-3-days against the Nets this weekend.  Celts can do their part to keep digging the Nets deeper so that they can't climb out.

Their top-5 are pretty good. The problem is when you get to #6 or #7.

Mike