Jacque Vaughn benches starters after first quarter

[cam24thomas]

trae tier defender.

So what? They have enough defense on the floor between Claxton, DFS, and Bridges. It’s not like Curry and Joe Harris are world beaters on that end of the floor anyway, he should easily be starting over both of them.

He plays selfishly.

No surprise his minutes have decreased drastically.

Cam Thomas last 15 games he's averaging 19.9 points, .457 field, .406 threes, .910 frees, 1.7 turnovers.
And that doesn't include today's game of 21 points, 7-13 field, 3-6 threes, 4-4 frees, 2 turnovers!
I'm literally buying NBA2k24 because of Cam Thomas, he's that great.

[Sharcm1]

I'm guessing it was punishment for sucking balls in the 1Q. It's JVs way of making sure they come out right to start games going forward or else...

And yet they get totally blown out in the first few minutes of most games these days,

[cam24thomas]

NBA players are unlikely to respond well to being bullied by their coach. This isn't high school.... Expect the Nets players to quit on Vaughn, if they haven't already. Losing is the easiest way to get rid of coach.

[Karate Diop]

Based on some of the comments I see, I often walk away feeling that many posters have never played organized basketball before...

I’ve played for over 20 years and coached for over 10 years. I’ve never seen all the starters benched for the rest of the game after 1 quarter.

So please explain why this happened?

Because they're on the first half of a back to back and the second unit was playing extremely well. It was an opportunity for the other young guys to play and a reward for them playing well.

The starters have been starting slow for the last 5+ games now, so hopefully this also serves as a warning shot to them...

There have been numerous times in NBA history when coaches go with their bench players over the starters to close the game because they have the "hot hand" / were responsible for the comeback, etc.

This is no different, well other than that the benching happened earlier than usual... But here's the thing... It almost worked.

So the strings JV pulled were ultimately the right ones.

Edit: And what I was getting at with the experience comment was that, for people who heavily played basketball growing up at some point in their career they've likely been a part of or at least seen one or more improbable runs like this... It's part of sport.

[Lockdown504090]

trae tier defender.

So what? They have enough defense on the floor between Claxton, DFS, and Bridges. It’s not like Curry and Joe Harris are world beaters on that end of the floor anyway, he should easily be starting over both of them.

I think it's personal between JV & CamT. Otherwise, I see no universe where you play a 32yo soon to be free agent and a 31yo overpaid one-trick pony who both happen to be defensive liabilities, over a 21 year old promising shot creator (who also has defiencies on D), unless you're competing for a championship..

Because you dont reward the bad behaviour or else you get trae. When cam asks what he has to do for more pt, the answer is defense. Portland doing the same thing with shaedon sharpe. This is how you avoid Houston rockets-like development. Look at sengun kpj and green. No accountability for guys who aren’t even stars

[Paradise]

They checked out seeing no Giannis, no Dinwiddie, no Claxton, no Cam J. It was a mix of both.

[TimeisIllmatic]

As weird as it was it almost worked. Still don’t understand why Cam Thomas isn’t starting…

Defense is my guess.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

So what? They have enough defense on the floor between Claxton, DFS, and Bridges. It’s not like Curry and Joe Harris are world beaters on that end of the floor anyway, he should easily be starting over both of them.

He plays selfishly.

No surprise his minutes have decreased drastically.

Cam Thomas last 15 games he's averaging 19.9 points, .457 field, .406 threes, .910 frees, 1.7 turnovers.
And that doesn't include today's game of 21 points, 7-13 field, 3-6 threes, 4-4 frees, 2 turnovers!
I'm literally buying NBA2k24 because of Cam Thomas, he's that great.

Those are crazy numbers because he's only playing 2/3rds of starter minutes. His per 36 is practicly up there with Jordan/Embiid/Durant levels of scoring production. Yes I know its PER 36, ok people. I awknoledge it's not the same.

[TheNetsFan]

It's because he stupidly was conceding the first half of a back to back against the best team in the league to rest guys for Minnesota. Bridges refuses to allow his consecutive game streak broken, so Vaughn played him for the first quarter & then rested him. I hate load management, and the Nets Performance Team is very bad about it.

At this point, the Nets' goal is to simply tread water and stay above Miami (up 2.5 with the head to head tie breaker already clinched) to avoid the play-in.

[miamiheat319]

Spencer Dinwiddie was literally listed out for "rest" on the injury report last night too. I thought that wasn't really allowed. I hate to be the old man yelling at clouds, but c'mon man you're getting paid $18 million to play basketball, just do it.

[Calvin Klein]

It's because he stupidly was conceding the first half of a back to back against the best team in the league to rest guys for Minnesota. Bridges refuses to allow his consecutive game streak broken, so Vaughn played him for the first quarter & then rested him. I hate load management, and the Nets Performance Team is very bad about it.

At this point, the Nets' goal is to simply tread water and stay above Miami (up 2.5 with the head to head tie breaker already clinched) to avoid the play-in.

This is what It looked like to me. Starters got a day off for load management, Bridges probably refused and got played 1 quarter only.

[DarkXaero]

It's because he stupidly was conceding the first half of a back to back against the best team in the league to rest guys for Minnesota. Bridges refuses to allow his consecutive game streak broken, so Vaughn played him for the first quarter & then rested him. I hate load management, and the Nets Performance Team is very bad about it.

At this point, the Nets' goal is to simply tread water and stay above Miami (up 2.5 with the head to head tie breaker already clinched) to avoid the play-in.

This is what It looked like to me. Starters got a day off for load management, Bridges probably refused and got played 1 quarter only.

Yeah, basically what it was. It wasn't some angry reaction to poor performance, as has been speculated in this thread, it was planned.

[ArksNetsSince99]

Cause JV is an idiot!

This 100%

[ArksNetsSince99]

Nets should be heavily fined for this game by NBA

[phanman]

Consider that that 3/5 starters rested, I don't see what the issue is here. Like others stated it was the first night of the b2b on the road against the Bucks who even without Giannis are a more difficult game than the T'Wolves. He rode the starters hard in the first quarter and they got smashed 20-37.

In regards to Cam Thomas not starting, I do understand why JV has decided against it. Spencer is the de-facto lead guard who will have the ball in his hands and Mikal has performed beyond expectations as their first option. They need the ball in their hands to be successful and take advantage of Claxton's ability to roll/finish and Johnson's floor spacing prowess. DFS is prototypical 6'7 3-D wing even if his shot is off at the moment, then again he is the wing that has a long-term contract.

Honestly I would have went with Royce as the 5th starter, but I think JV likes him off bench to lead that squad. Honestly I can't believe that Harris, Curry and Yuta are all still on the team post-deadline. I understand in Harris' case with his bloated contract, but Curry and Yuta had value and are both expiring contracts. They both will be on a different team next season and ultimately they are just taking minutes away from Day'Ron and Cam Thomas.

It's wild that even with Simmons taking his in-season sabbatical once again, Cam Thomas' minutes only jumped ot 24.8mpg in the following 8 games before crashing down to 7min, 6:45min and a DNP for last night's game. At the very least he should be the designated 6th man gunner for a team chalk full of versatile defenders.

[cam24thomas]

He plays selfishly.

No surprise his minutes have decreased drastically.

Cam Thomas last 15 games he's averaging 19.9 points, .457 field, .406 threes, .910 frees, 1.7 turnovers.
And that doesn't include today's game of 21 points, 7-13 field, 3-6 threes, 4-4 frees, 2 turnovers!
I'm literally buying NBA2k24 because of Cam Thomas, he's that great.

Those are crazy numbers because he's only playing 2/3rds of starter minutes. His per 36 is practicly up there with Jordan/Embiid/Durant levels of scoring production. Yes I know its PER 36, ok people. I awknoledge it's not the same.

Would be a dream come true if Cam Thomas is given a head coach whom appreciates him (whether that is in Brooklyn or elsewhere), like the way Doug Collins appreciated Michael Jordan and then we'd get to see a bunch of 50-pointers

[AussieCeltic]

Based on some of the comments I see, I often walk away feeling that many posters have never played organized basketball before...

I’ve played for over 20 years and coached for over 10 years. I’ve never seen all the starters benched for the rest of the game after 1 quarter.

So please explain why this happened?

Because they're on the first half of a back to back and the second unit was playing extremely well. It was an opportunity for the other young guys to play and a reward for them playing well.

The starters have been starting slow for the last 5+ games now, so hopefully this also serves as a warning shot to them...

There have been numerous times in NBA history when coaches go with their bench players over the starters to close the game because they have the "hot hand" / were responsible for the comeback, etc.

This is no different, well other than that the benching happened earlier than usual... But here's the thing... It almost worked.

So the strings JV pulled were ultimately the right ones.

Edit: And what I was getting at with the experience comment was that, for people who heavily played basketball growing up at some point in their career they've likely been a part of or at least seen one or more improbable runs like this... It's part of sport.

Yeh not from the first quarter and then not starting the starters in the second half - especially when the game was within reach. Generally you’d give the starters another go in the second half.

The Clippers did something similar against the Nuggets, but their starters still played the second quarter and they were down 34 at halftime.

As I said, it’s the first time I’ve seen starters benched after the first quarter unless you want to show me another time it’s happened.