Nets v. Wizards | 10.25.2021 @ 7:30 PM on YES/NBATV

[Prokorov]

Starters:
** Brooklyn **
James Harden
Joe Harris
Kevin Durant
Blake Griffin
Nic Claxton

** Hawks **
Trae Young
Bogdan Bogdanovic
Deandre Hunter
John Collins
Clint Capella


Injuries:
Kyrie Irving - OUT (Changed his status to some prince-like symbol IDFK)
Nic Claxton Doubtful (illness)
Onyeka Okongwu - OUT (Shoulder)

Throwback!



Lets gooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Prokorov]

I wouldnt rule out harden and/or durant sitting.,. on the plus side, unclear if beal or rui will play either.

Thankfuly, thomas bryant isnt on the wiz anymore, he owed us.

Back to back, this one seems like a loss. embarrassing that we can never get off to a good start to the season, even with stars and the leagues best player.

if we dont wn this one. we are staring 1-5 in the face

[dlts20]

I wouldnt rule out harden and/or durant sitting.,. on the plus side, unclear if beal or rui will play either.

Thankfuly, thomas bryant isnt on the wiz anymore, he owed us.

Back to back, this one seems like a loss. embarrassing that we can never get off to a good start to the season, even with stars and the leagues best player.

if we dont wn this one. we are staring 1-5 in the face

We still have Bryant. He's still a couple of months away from returning

[MrDollarBills]

I wouldnt rule out harden and/or durant sitting.,. on the plus side, unclear if beal or rui will play either.

Thankfuly, thomas bryant isnt on the wiz anymore, he owed us.

Back to back, this one seems like a loss. embarrassing that we can never get off to a good start to the season, even with stars and the leagues best player.

if we dont wn this one. we are staring 1-5 in the face

We still have Bryant. He's still a couple of months away from returning

How do you like our boy Spencer so far?

[NetsWorld]

I wouldnt rule out harden and/or durant sitting.,. on the plus side, unclear if beal or rui will play either.

Thankfuly, thomas bryant isnt on the wiz anymore, he owed us.

Back to back, this one seems like a loss. embarrassing that we can never get off to a good start to the season, even with stars and the leagues best player.

if we dont wn this one. we are staring 1-5 in the face

We still have Bryant. He's still a couple of months away from returning

How do you like our boy Spencer so far?

We need him back I hope the Nets come out and take this game at least.

[Prokorov]

I wouldnt rule out harden and/or durant sitting.,. on the plus side, unclear if beal or rui will play either.

Thankfuly, thomas bryant isnt on the wiz anymore, he owed us.

Back to back, this one seems like a loss. embarrassing that we can never get off to a good start to the season, even with stars and the leagues best player.

if we dont wn this one. we are staring 1-5 in the face

We still have Bryant. He's still a couple of months away from returning

Hopefully we would have played you a bunch by then. we have 0 shot to win with Bryant in the lineup. he is in the upper pantheon of net killers

[Prokorov]

I'm not going to harp on lineups outside of dont go big with Blake at PF.... but id give this lineup a shot if they want to bring joe off the bench a bit.....

Harden
Carter
KD
Milsap
Claxton

Milsap has surprised me. i worried he was declining a ton based off last year. but he rebounded and defended well and can hit the three. I think that lineup gives us enough shooting and defense to avoid terrible starts. I like Brown, but that floater and jump shot are too inconsistent. id still have brown in the rotation.

[Stone]

Area's of concern.

Continuity.....We could be playing well one minute and then look like easy pickings the next. There has been no stability so far in our first 3 games.

Harden......Not sure if it is a lingering issue with the hamstring or if he is just out of shape. He does not seem like the guy we picked picked up last season so far.

Claxton.....I'm not sure who is to blame for him missing the summer league, but in hindsight it was not a good move letting him train on his own. I get that he is young and wants to have a good time, but to be this irresponsible in a contract year does not bode well for him.

Joe Harris......I'm not going to be too harsh on Joe because I do not believe he is out of shape. But to state the obvious, we need more points out of him. Joe needs to score 14+ points a game consistently.

KD......My concern with him is over usage. Going back to the playoffs when he played 48+ minutes. To now where we are leaning on him for everything on both sides.

Nash......He is steering the ship and right now we are heading for the rocks. Are we ready to hand Jacque Vaughn the keys? He is our defensive coach and we are not exactly excelling in that area.

[Prokorov]

My only area of concern is coaching.

Harden im 100% confident will be MVP level once he is fully back from the hamstring injury (that means mentally as well). He reinjured it several times last year.

Harris to me is the same guy he has always been. his numbers will always trend down when we dont have a G creating offense for him. and right now, harden isnt doing that. Harris is shooting 40% from three. He is diving for loose balls. effort and shooting is there. getting him shots is the issue. he shouldnt be creating his own unless its a hard closeout.

KD minutes are a concern, but to me thats coaching. dont panic to early season record.

Claxton shouldnt play in summer league. he is a 3rd year guy and if anything that could hurt his game since its ymca gabage ball with no bigs. He doesnt seem out of shape to me. Playing next to Blake is not a good fit for him. yestarday at center in a normal lineup he looked alot better defensively. like with harris, he relies on a PG to get him easy looks. when harden is right, those will come.

I anticipate us starting 1-6 or 2-5. And even if/when that happens i have 0 concerns. early season is always a crap show. once you get into the grind, good teams rise to the top. you cant play 100% all out for 82 games and games 15-70 you lean on talent.

Maybe a 1-5 start gets Nash fired/demoted or something. hopefully

[pr0wler]

I forgot it was just a few months ago Harden couldn't even run. Hamstring issues can be a real **tch. I remember one time I had a relatively mild strain that took 9 months before it was 100 percent. Of course Harden is a tank and I'm made of glass, but still I can at least somewhat relate to what he's most likely going through.

Also, the refs need to start calling the game fairly for Harden. Sure, a percentage of his fouls he draws are of the baiting variety and shouldn't be rewarded. But they're definitely way overcompensating and now and it's as if he's looked at through a totally different lens than everyone else in the league. 3 FTA/game is absolutely ridiculous, and even an average NBA player which James' size should be getting 4-5 attempts a game, let alone a very smart, crafty player.

[MrDollarBills]

Harden needs to round into shape, dude had a pretty severe hamstring injury. I'm not concerned at all about him. My concerns are:

1) coaching. The team looks lost defensively and we rely on KD too much.

2) the lack of a ball handler once Harden goes off of the floor


I'm not sure what to expect tonight honestly.

[Prokorov]

Not to derail this thread.... but it absolutely HAS to be mentioned:

Kyrie Irving, unvaccinated, is not allowed to be in the building/play in tonights game.
Bradley Beal, unvaccinated, is allowed to be in the building/play in tonights game.

There is something seriously wrong with the mandate when this scenario plays out. Adding that Irving is self proclaimed not anti-vaxx and Beal is very vocally so anti-vaxx adds to the drama. The NBA/City need to decide if this is politics or if its safety. If it is about safety, then dont allow the anti-vaxx guy who is unvaccinated and likely to shun safety protocols in the building to sweat/breath/cough on the other players.... force him to stay home like Kyrie.

Also, for as much hate as kyrie gets, if it was DC with the mandate and not NY, this would be a non story

[ecuhus1981]

^
To be fair, Beal CAN'T take the vaccine at this time. He has COVID too recently. And I may be splitting hairs and giving Brad the benefit of the doubt. I think the most appropriate way to describe him is smugly vaxx-agnostic.

As for the mandate, yes, if the politicians who created it had stones, they would have made it for visitors as well. BUT, it's not completely senseless. I've heard from sports insiders and journalists, that visiting players (of all vaccines statuses) are largely restricted from cruising the town. If a player happened it happened to test positive days after visiting, it would be much easier to to complete contact tracing because of how few places they are allowed to go.

[Prokorov]

^
To be fair, Beal CAN'T take the vaccine at this time. He has COVID too recently. And I may be splitting hairs and giving Brad the benefit of the doubt. I think the most appropriate way to describe him is smugly vaxx-agnostic.

Thats somewhat fair. although, it also is a bit less relevant. the fact is, he is unvaccined and can play, but our players who are unvaccinated can not... if its about safety, that scenario doesnt exsist.

[MGrand15]

Not to derail this thread.... but it absolutely HAS to be mentioned:

Kyrie Irving, unvaccinated, is not allowed to be in the building/play in tonights game.
Bradley Beal, unvaccinated, is allowed to be in the building/play in tonights game.

There is something seriously wrong with the mandate when this scenario plays out. Adding that Irving is self proclaimed not anti-vaxx and Beal is very vocally so anti-vaxx adds to the drama. The NBA/City need to decide if this is politics or if its safety. If it is about safety, then dont allow the anti-vaxx guy who is unvaccinated and likely to shun safety protocols in the building to sweat/breath/cough on the other players.... force him to stay home like Kyrie.

Also, for as much hate as kyrie gets, if it was DC with the mandate and not NY, this would be a non story

Ideally only vaccinated people would be allowed in the building. Practically, it makes sense that you're stricter with local employees who go to work everyday versus a visitor who might visit once a year.

[MGrand15]

I don't think I'm at the point where I'm concerned about Harden but definitely disappointed. He's notorious for slow starts before he gets fully into gear. At the same time, I thought he'd be ready to come in with a vengeance this year. Last year he came in out of shape and suffered for it in the playoffs. I thought we'd see a thinner, more fit Harden. I also would feel better if his 3PT shot was way off or something. He's actually shooting 40% on basically all stepback 3s and still struggling with efficiency.

IDK if Claxton's illness late in preseason is to blame but the guy looks SO tired after a few minutes of game time. It pisses me off because it's not like he gained a bunch of weight or muscle in the offseason and he's adjusting to his body. The dude has gained 5 pounds since we drafted him. His FT shooting looks worse than it did last year. Which was already inexcusably bad. The only thing I can tell he focused on going into the year is celebrating and posing after dunks.

I don't want to sound like I'm just ripping Claxton but this guy has the talent to force Nash to play him 30 MPG. He can be a terror defensively. He's the only lob threat on the team. He's exactly what we need. He should've came into training camp ready to make LMA/Blake to take a backseat to the better young player. Now? I wouldn't blame Nash if Claxton was 3rd string behind Blake/LMA. Obviously it's early - but the type of mistakes he's making are ones that get you benched on rebuilding teams.

[ducler]

Read on Twitter

[dlts20]

I wouldnt rule out harden and/or durant sitting.,. on the plus side, unclear if beal or rui will play either.

Thankfuly, thomas bryant isnt on the wiz anymore, he owed us.

Back to back, this one seems like a loss. embarrassing that we can never get off to a good start to the season, even with stars and the leagues best player.

if we dont wn this one. we are staring 1-5 in the face

We still have Bryant. He's still a couple of months away from returning

How do you like our boy Spencer so far?

Love him so far. The 1st thing I noticed was how much taller and longer than I thought. It's different for us because we can't remember the last time we had a PG that wasn't faster than lightning but I am loving the savyness in his game. Beal is playing tonight. Are KD and James definitely playing. I'm going to drop some cash if not... Lol

[MrDollarBills]

Not to derail this thread.... but it absolutely HAS to be mentioned:

Kyrie Irving, unvaccinated, is not allowed to be in the building/play in tonights game.
Bradley Beal, unvaccinated, is allowed to be in the building/play in tonights game.

There is something seriously wrong with the mandate when this scenario plays out. Adding that Irving is self proclaimed not anti-vaxx and Beal is very vocally so anti-vaxx adds to the drama. The NBA/City need to decide if this is politics or if its safety. If it is about safety, then dont allow the anti-vaxx guy who is unvaccinated and likely to shun safety protocols in the building to sweat/breath/cough on the other players.... force him to stay home like Kyrie.

Also, for as much hate as kyrie gets, if it was DC with the mandate and not NY, this would be a non story

It's utterly stupid, I agree. Beal shouldn't be allowed in the arena.

[MrDollarBills]

Harden/Brown/Harris/Durant/Blake started tonight