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We all know the tired narrative of "Nets can score but their defense sucks". That was kind of put to bed a bit in the playoffs where we held milwaukee, a top 3 offense, to a very poor offensive output. I found some things interesting, regarding our team defensively, and why we can be optomisitc that our playoff defense carries over.

1. James Harden is a plus defender. You read that right. He is a plus defender. but its situation. As a PF on defense, he is really quite good. He is one of the better post defenders in the entire league (overall, not just for a guard). Additionally... He is an outstanding rebounder for a Guard, and when he is on the floor, he helps limit second chances:



2. Teams struggle to hit shots vs the Nets. Alot of focus is on defensive efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions), where the nets ranked near the bottom of the league. But when you look deeper, Alot of that efficiency was skewed on 'easy points'. The nets were dead last in points allowed off turnovers and among the worst turning the ball over. When we got to the playoffs, and ball control was a bigger focus, we cut points allowed of turnovers almost in half...

When it comes to forcing teams into bad shots and forcing misses, the Nets were really good. 6th in FG% allowed and 7th in eFG% allowed and 9th in TS% allowed. So when we defend in the half court, teams often struggle to hit shots on us. our lack of rebounding hurts us there a bit, as we give up alot of second chance points, but going small and being 'switchable' is what allows us to limit teams to 6th in fG%, so its worth the trade off... but that brings me to.

3. our best rebounders didnt play alot. James Harden led the nets in rebounding (8.5). Deandre Jordan came in second at 7.5 and KD 3rd (7.1). Harden and Durant both missed half the nets season and DJ missed 20+ games. Alot of our rebounding woes came with small lineups, slow lineups, and no depth. We had bruce brown starting at center some games. Joe Harris at PF some games. Jeff green at center.

This year we will have Harden playing, KD at PF and alot of depth at center. we also have more depth with bulk at PF with milsap and Johnson, who arent super tall, but are physical players. Bruce brown likely sees more time at SF then PF/C. And going ultra small at Center is no longer a thing, with so many stretch 5s on the team. We should just organically be a better rebounding team, by having our best rebounders in the lineup.

Most importantly, we had a great record (.658 win%) in games we got out rebounded. Our bigger heel was turnovers. We were barley .500 in games we turned it over 12+ times. And as mentioned above, alot of turnovers where live ball leading to points the other way.

4. Claxton is a beast. I'll just leave this here


5. Enforcements are here. Carter, Bembry and Johnson all had positive DBPM/DRPM/DRAPM.

Carter was 2-time DPOTY in college, and he and Bembry were both among league leaders (per minute) in deflections. they also combined for nearly 4 steals per36.

James Johnson isnt what he was 3 years ago, but the dude was checking prime/peak lebron 3 years ago. even if he has slipped, he is a combo of toughness with enough mobility to get minutes on those types and nto back down



5. Continuity. we didnt get to build it last year. injuries will happen but harden came late, blake came late, LMA came and went. Claxton returned late. shortened season, no training camp. these guys have more time together now.

i see us as a much better defensive team this year. top 10 potentially if Claxton plays.

I read this last week, and didn't really have much to add. I think that our defense will be versatile and competent, paired with what I believe will be an absolute steamroller offense.

I had us set at 61-21 before the Aldridge and Millsap signings, not to mention the addition by subtraction of Jordan. Understand me clearly, I do NOT think that Paul and LaMarcus in a vacuum are good enough to add several wins to a team. But with us, I just think we went from having 8 or 9 fluke-y, rest-related losses, to having only 2 or 3. Improving our 8th and 9th men now means that even when we rest 2 of the Big 3, we're still a very tough team to beat. There are just too many ways for us to beat you. Like, let's say a team schemes the perfect way to stop Harden, and Kyrie and Kevin are resting. They do that, off course, by helping off of our role players, so they can catch fire. Not only do we have Joe, Patty and Blake, we have a pair of bench bigs who can provide stout veteran defense and each give you double digits.

If teams can't take advantage of us on our off day when they have the perfect strategy to neutralize our stars, how many wins can we rattle off???

ecuhus1981 wrote:I read this last week, and didn't really have much to add. I think that our defense will be versatile and competent, paired with what I believe will be an absolute steamroller offense.

I had us set at 61-21 before the Aldridge and Millsap signings, not to mention the addition by subtraction of Jordan. Understand me clearly, I do NOT think that Paul and LaMarcus in a vacuum are good enough to add several wins to a team. But with us, I just think we went from having 8 or 9 fluke-y, rest-related losses, to having only 2 or 3. Improving our 8th and 9th men now means that even when we rest 2 of the Big 3, we're still a very tough team to beat. There are just too many ways for us to beat you. Like, let's say a team schemes the perfect way to stop Harden, and Kyrie and Kevin are resting. They do that, off course, by helping off of our role players, so they can catch fire. Not only do we have Joe, Patty and Blake, we have a pair of bench bigs who can provide stout veteran defense and each give you double digits.

If teams can't take advantage of us on our off day when they have the perfect strategy to neutralize our stars, how many wins can we rattle off???

If we had a good coach id be more confident of a 60+ win season.

LMA/Milsap just give nash more ammo to overplay offense heavy slow/aging defenders and bury the bembry's, carter's, and claxton of the world to the bench.

I'd also ask you to go back and look at our losses to bad teams last year. most of them were NOT games where multiple stars were out. We lost to detroit with harden/kyrie. we lost to cleveland with all 3 of the stars healthy. we lost to OKC with KD/Kyrie. We lost to washington with both all 3 stars and with 2 stars. we lost to orlando with harden/kd. We also barely scraped by alot of good teams with 2+ of the bigs 3 playing.

Youre not wrong, we have more depth for when 1+ star sits. and that will certainly get some wins. but alot of our losses to bad teams was awful coaching combined with no defense/sitting defense.

Nash needs to go. even with the upgrades and health, it will be hard to win a title with him on the sidelines

Prokorov wrote:

ecuhus1981 wrote:I read this last week, and didn't really have much to add. I think that our defense will be versatile and competent, paired with what I believe will be an absolute steamroller offense.

I had us set at 61-21 before the Aldridge and Millsap signings, not to mention the addition by subtraction of Jordan. Understand me clearly, I do NOT think that Paul and LaMarcus in a vacuum are good enough to add several wins to a team. But with us, I just think we went from having 8 or 9 fluke-y, rest-related losses, to having only 2 or 3. Improving our 8th and 9th men now means that even when we rest 2 of the Big 3, we're still a very tough team to beat. There are just too many ways for us to beat you. Like, let's say a team schemes the perfect way to stop Harden, and Kyrie and Kevin are resting. They do that, off course, by helping off of our role players, so they can catch fire. Not only do we have Joe, Patty and Blake, we have a pair of bench bigs who can provide stout veteran defense and each give you double digits.

If teams can't take advantage of us on our off day when they have the perfect strategy to neutralize our stars, how many wins can we rattle off???

If we had a good coach id be more confident of a 60+ win season.

LMA/Milsap just give nash more ammo to overplay offense heavy slow/aging defenders and bury the bembry's, carter's, and claxton of the world to the bench.

I'd also ask you to go back and look at our losses to bad teams last year. most of them were NOT games where multiple stars were out. We lost to detroit with harden/kyrie. we lost to cleveland with all 3 of the stars healthy. we lost to OKC with KD/Kyrie. We lost to washington with both all 3 stars and with 2 stars. we lost to orlando with harden/kd. We also barely scraped by alot of good teams with 2+ of the bigs 3 playing.

Youre not wrong, we have more depth for when 1+ star sits. and that will certainly get some wins. but alot of our losses to bad teams was awful coaching combined with no defense/sitting defense.

Nash needs to go. even with the upgrades and health, it will be hard to win a title with him on the sidelines

I agree about Nash, this season is all about players vs Nash, can they overcome his poor coaching? All he has to do is not suck, and that may be too much because he is not a real coach. If the Nets have a slow start, he has to go.