Pistons @ Nets: 3/13/2021 @ &:00 PM on YES

[HardenGoat]

Just a bad shooting night for everyone not named Shamet. Some passes Harden takes should not be done though. He seems to love the deep ones into coverage at times.

[Papi_swav]

Sloppy game. I think Nets were cruising and didn't take them serious. Either way we got the W, Harden took over in crunch time last night. Shamet and Harris knocking down them jump shots. Claxton was a factor defensively . On to the next

[Papi_swav]

ShamWOW is consistently headed in the right direction.

In December he shot 25%
In January he shot 32.7%
In February he shot 40.5%
Now in March he's shooting 47.8%

Good thing we didn't give up on him too soon. We probably lose this game tonight without him.

yea true I think we lose the last couple games without his 3 pt shooting. He's been giving us some nice points off the bench

[therealbig3]

I'm happy we don't have to see the Cavs, Pistons, or Wizards in the playoffs.

[vincecarter4pres]

Good point. I knew he was a great scorer.

What I didn't know, and expect ... he's one of the greatest facilitators I've ever seen.

Almost as impressive as the positive impact of Harden's presence here, is the negative impact of his absence in Houston. Oladipo is no slouch, and Wood was playing like a fringe All-Star before his injury, but neither can make the rest of those guys better. Harden's supporting cast looked like Tomato Cans all along, but now they can't draft on his greatness and are playing like they look.

Oladipo was always extremely overrated, and he's been trash for years. I've never seen a guy live off of one outlier season for so long.

I wouldn't say trash the whole time, but yeah, agree with your overall take on Dipo.

He's a, should-be star role player, who was and since has been, overextended in his role and responsibility and somehow was dubbed an actual lead star, so between a series of injuries and the league quickly figuring him out after that outlier season, he became wildly inefficient and ineffective. But since he wound up a media/advanced stat darling that year, many kept, and keep,pushing this narrative he was a franchise type talent, simply derailed by injuries. It seems he's got it stuck in his head, that is exactly what he is, instead of, what he actually is, an Al Horford of guards type of player, when healthy of course.

Bottom line, they tried painting him as at least a Paul George, Jimmy Butler, or even Jrue Holiday or McCollum level and type of talent, when really he's a Marcus Smart, Caris LeVert, or JJ Redick level and type of player.

[Openheimer]

Just a bad shooting night for everyone not named Shamet. Some passes Harden takes should not be done though. He seems to love the deep ones into coverage at times.

Hardens passes are usually pin point and accurate. Infact he is the best point guard/scoring guard in the league

[therealbig3]

BTW, I was going through our defensive stats, and we rank 25th in the league defensively, even after last night's game. But if you look at the four factors on defense, here are our ranks:

eFG%: 12th
TOV%: 29th
DRB%: 14th
FT/FGA: 8th

We're actually not nearly as bad on the defensive glass as the narrative suggests. We're average. I think we sucked in the beginning, but we've bought into this gang rebounding philosophy and have cleaned that up. Which is why bringing in someone like Andre Drummond probably wouldn't help us all that much, since defensive rebounding isn't actually that big of a problem for us, and he would make the other things we're actually doing good at worse (he'd make our eFG% go up, and we'd foul more and give up more FTA).

We're actually decent in terms of limiting opponents' shooting percentages and keeping them off the FT line, and like I said, we're average at defensive rebounding. Our big issue defensively appears to be that we suck at forcing TOs.

Interestingly though, the Jazz are the one team that's worse at forcing TOs than us. And they're not that much better than us on the defensive glass or in terms of keeping opponents off the FT line. Where they really separate themselves from us, and I guess is the difference between the #2 defense and the #25 defense is opponent eFG%...they're #1 in the league, and are like 3% better than us in that regard.

IMO, a deeper look at the numbers suggests that we might not be as terrible as everyone says. We're capable of limiting opponents' shooting percentages and keeping them off the FT line. We just can't turn them over. That means that the only thing that's going to keep them in the game is offensive rebounding. We continue to clean that up, and we'll be fine. A lot of the good defensive teams don't force a lot of TOs anyway, because that tends to be the result of gambling and giving up good defensive position.

EDIT: I would also add that we're 19th in terms of our own TOV%, meaning we're a TO-prone team. I know we've said we have to clean that up all year, and I think given that Harden and Durant are both guys that tend to turn the ball over a lot, we may never be "good" at ball security, but I think our eFG% and FT/FGA on defense would be even better if we didn't turn it over so much on offense.

[MrDollarBills]

ShamWOW is consistently headed in the right direction.

In December he shot 25%
In January he shot 32.7%
In February he shot 40.5%
Now in March he's shooting 47.8%

Good thing we didn't give up on him too soon. We probably lose this game tonight without him.

Shamet is becoming a championship roleplayer.

See my post above. Remember The Microwave, Vinnie Johnson?

If Shamet can be as half as good as Vinnie Johnson that will be incredible for us

[MrDollarBills]

BTW, I was going through our defensive stats, and we rank 25th in the league defensively, even after last night's game. But if you look at the four factors on defense, here are our ranks:

eFG%: 12th
TOV%: 29th
DRB%: 14th
FT/FGA: 8th

We're actually not nearly as bad on the defensive glass as the narrative suggests. We're average. I think we sucked in the beginning, but we've bought into this gang rebounding philosophy and have cleaned that up. Which is why bringing in someone like Andre Drummond probably wouldn't help us all that much, since defensive rebounding isn't actually that big of a problem for us, and he would make the other things we're actually doing good at worse (he'd make our eFG% go up, and we'd foul more and give up more FTA).

We're actually decent in terms of limiting opponents' shooting percentages and keeping them off the FT line, and like I said, we're average at defensive rebounding. Our big issue defensively appears to be that we suck at forcing TOs.

Interestingly though, the Jazz are the one team that's worse at forcing TOs than us. And they're not that much better than us on the defensive glass or in terms of keeping opponents off the FT line. Where they really separate themselves from us, and I guess is the difference between the #2 defense and the #25 defense is opponent eFG%...they're #1 in the league, and are like 3% better than us in that regard.

IMO, a deeper look at the numbers suggests that we might not be as terrible as everyone says. We're capable of limiting opponents' shooting percentages and keeping them off the FT line. We just can't turn them over. That means that the only thing that's going to keep them in the game is offensive rebounding. We continue to clean that up, and we'll be fine. A lot of the good defensive teams don't force a lot of TOs anyway, because that tends to be the result of gambling and giving up good defensive position.

EDIT: I would also add that we're 19th in terms of our own TOV%, meaning we're a TO-prone team. I know we've said we have to clean that up all year, and I think given that Harden and Durant are both guys that tend to turn the ball over a lot, we may never be "good" at ball security, but I think our eFG% and FT/FGA on defense would be even better if we didn't turn it over so much on offense.

Great post and it matches the eyeball test. This team has been average/middle of the pack defensively for awhile now and that's bad news for the rest of the league

The only thing that will keep teams in games against us are cold shooting nights. And even then, we have 3 elite level scorers in the half court.

[GTR11]

Read on Twitter

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Teams do adjust. Shamet thriving at the right time. Having two knock down shooters is something rest of the league can't sniff.

[MGrand15]

Love how we're just finding ways to win on off-nights. We missed a ton of easy shots and had a lot of dumb TOs but our defense was enough to keep us comfortable in this game. Another good performance in crunch time today where we slam the door shut on a close game.

Props to Shamet again. He's looking like the guy we expected coming in. Big time games from him recently. Even outside of the shooting, his energy and bounce look great. He wasn't taking those full speed running off screen 3s earlier in the season. Coaching staff + team deserves credit for believing in him the whole time. Even when he was slumping, you could see guys like Kyrie constantly telling him to keep shooting + the bench going crazy when he made 3s.

Should be interesting to see how the rotation keeps shaking up. 2 games with Green + Claxton in the lineup. 2 games where Brown is under 20 minutes. Both were rough games for him but we need him to keep playing well. Jeff Green has barely played center since his return - with Claxton taking that spot. Blake should be coming soon and my guess is he just takes Claxton's minutes. TLC is supposed to be back soon too. Wonder where he's at with Tyler playing so much more solid.

[MrDollarBills]

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Teams do adjust. Shamet thriving at the right time. Having two knock down shooters is something rest of the league can't sniff.

The Nets have 6 players shooting at or over 40% from 3 point land and Shamet is at 39% while TLC is at 36%. This is elite stuff.

[MrDollarBills]

Love how we're just finding ways to win on off-nights. We missed a ton of easy shots and had a lot of dumb TOs but our defense was enough to keep us comfortable in this game. Another good performance in crunch time today where we slam the door shut on a close game.

Props to Shamet again. He's looking like the guy we expected coming in. Big time games from him recently. Even outside of the shooting, his energy and bounce look great. He wasn't taking those full speed running off screen 3s earlier in the season. Coaching staff + team deserves credit for believing in him the whole time. Even when he was slumping, you could see guys like Kyrie constantly telling him to keep shooting + the bench going crazy when he made 3s.

Should be interesting to see how the rotation keeps shaking up. 2 games with Green + Claxton in the lineup. 2 games where Brown is under 20 minutes. Both were rough games for him but we need him to keep playing well. Jeff Green has barely played center since his return - with Claxton taking that spot. Blake should be coming soon and my guess is he just takes Claxton's minutes. TLC is supposed to be back soon too. Wonder where he's at with Tyler playing so much more solid.

Nash needs to find a way to keep Claxton on the floor. Look at his advanced numbers.

[Prokorov]

Harden and Kyrie have been trash this game.

I’m sure it’s Nash’s fault though.

It's Nash's fault when we lose, and he has nothing to do with us winning

The idea that anything else is true is absurd.

OF COURSE he has nothing to do with us winning. We roll out MVPs and elite shooters all over the floor. Harden drops triple double left and right while Kyrie drops 40 in his sleep. With shamet back to his normal self we have elite shooting everywhere.

Everthing we do is in spit eof Nash's awful coaching.... and at times, its so bad we cant overcome it. it is beyond homerism and the biggest travesty in this boards history that anyone let Nash off the hook for what would be an embarassing job if he was coaching kindergardener's, let alone pros. His in game coaching is the worst ive seen in my lifetime, and by an enormous margin. 0 adjustments, 0 recoginition for whats going on in the game. inability to use timeouts to control the flow of the game. complete lack of adjustments when a lineup is getting abused on the floor. completely clueless with challenges, and as bad as it gets managing the final 2 minutes of a game.

why would he get any credit when we win? he is basically helping the oppoising team try and beat us. luckily we have the best roster in team history and can overcome that. (most of the time).

I'm done with this nonsense. unless someone is legally blind there is no excuse to defend nash as an in-game coach

[Prokorov]

ShamWOW is consistently headed in the right direction.

In December he shot 25%
In January he shot 32.7%
In February he shot 40.5%
Now in March he's shooting 47.8%

Good thing we didn't give up on him too soon. We probably lose this game tonight without him.

Shamet is becoming a championship roleplayer.

He always was. and he will only get better as he is still young. What I was excited about when we got him... from that thread:

There are alot of guys in this league who can shoot 40% from three on open corner shots. or even contested stand still threes. But the amount of guys who can shoot that percentage from three off screens, off balance, straight away, contested, or off the dribble you can count on one hand

We saw this tonight. dude was coming off screens knocking down 1 legged threes off balance. that makes the defense have to work so much harder. and when you can pair him and Joe on the floor together. ouch

[Prokorov]

Funny how every Nets players efficiency has spiked after the late January arrival of the bearded One

Good point. I knew he was a great scorer.

What I didn't know, and expect ... he's one of the greatest facilitators I've ever seen.

Harden makes everyone better. but Landry was missing wide open shots. eventually those were going to fall

[Prokorov]

Sloppy game. I think Nets were cruising and didn't take them serious. Either way we got the W, Harden took over in crunch time last night. Shamet and Harris knocking down them jump shots. Claxton was a factor defensively . On to the next

Not taking them seriously is completely inexcusable after they beat us last time.

[Prokorov]

King: Shamet
Knight: Harden
Jestr: Nash

This was the most worrisome game of the year for me. not the last pistons loss, not the cavs losses, not the wizards loss. but this really makes me concerned out our chances to win a title. I just dont see how we can win a title with Nash as coach. when it gets to the ECF or NBA finals its not going to be a sweep its going to be a long series and Nash is going to get massively outcoached by whomever we face. just so many unforgivable mistakes a kindergarden coach who never make.

He really needs to step down for the teams sake and let Vaughn take over.

[therealbig3]

Harden and Kyrie have been trash this game.

I’m sure it’s Nash’s fault though.

It's Nash's fault when we lose, and he has nothing to do with us winning

The idea that anything else is true is absurd.

OF COURSE he has nothing to do with us winning. We roll out MVPs and elite shooters all over the floor. Harden drops triple double left and right while Kyrie drops 40 in his sleep. With shamet back to his normal self we have elite shooting everywhere.

Everthing we do is in spit eof Nash's awful coaching.... and at times, its so bad we cant overcome it. it is beyond homerism and the biggest travesty in this boards history that anyone let Nash off the hook for what would be an embarassing job if he was coaching kindergardener's, let alone pros. His in game coaching is the worst ive seen in my lifetime, and by an enormous margin. 0 adjustments, 0 recoginition for whats going on in the game. inability to use timeouts to control the flow of the game. complete lack of adjustments when a lineup is getting abused on the floor. completely clueless with challenges, and as bad as it gets managing the final 2 minutes of a game.

why would he get any credit when we win? he is basically helping the oppoising team try and beat us. luckily we have the best roster in team history and can overcome that. (most of the time).

I'm done with this nonsense. unless someone is legally blind there is no excuse to defend nash as an in-game coach

Nah, Nash is doing a pretty good job.

[DarkXaero]

Harden and Kyrie have been trash this game.

I’m sure it’s Nash’s fault though.

It's Nash's fault when we lose, and he has nothing to do with us winning

The idea that anything else is true is absurd.

OF COURSE he has nothing to do with us winning. We roll out MVPs and elite shooters all over the floor. Harden drops triple double left and right while Kyrie drops 40 in his sleep. With shamet back to his normal self we have elite shooting everywhere.

Everthing we do is in spit eof Nash's awful coaching.... and at times, its so bad we cant overcome it. it is beyond homerism and the biggest travesty in this boards history that anyone let Nash off the hook for what would be an embarassing job if he was coaching kindergardener's, let alone pros. His in game coaching is the worst ive seen in my lifetime, and by an enormous margin. 0 adjustments, 0 recoginition for whats going on in the game. inability to use timeouts to control the flow of the game. complete lack of adjustments when a lineup is getting abused on the floor. completely clueless with challenges, and as bad as it gets managing the final 2 minutes of a game.

why would he get any credit when we win? he is basically helping the oppoising team try and beat us. luckily we have the best roster in team history and can overcome that. (most of the time).

I'm done with this nonsense. unless someone is legally blind there is no excuse to defend nash as an in-game coach

Don't you get tired of talking in extremes all the time? Are you like this in real life too? Oh god.