GT: Nets @ Mavericks - Thursday, 05/06/21 | 7:30pm EST | TNT & YES

[GTR11]

I hate being force to switch starting players for match ups, however at this point we had no set rotations throughout the year. With all thats stuff going on i think we can switch certain players back and forth simply because of health and match ups.

Kyrie
Joe
KD
Jeff
Nic will be my starting five

Harden
Shamet
Brown
Blake
Will be my subs. Nine deep rotation guys is very good. We can also bring in DJ for little spurts here and there.

If and when Harden is healthy i still limit his time to 25+ min and add him into starting line up. Depending on a team I can see Joe and Brown be switched around for match up reasons. Even though Brown don't space the floor, he is good D player and a rebounding guy that can bring high energy. Not complete liability if forced to shoot either.

When Harden can give us 25+ min

Kyrie
Harden
Brown
KD
Nic

Bench guys will have to play with either Kyrie and KD on the floor or Harden.

Shamet or Joe -> sub Harden
Blake -> Nic
Jeff -> Harden

I'd run Harden with bench guys for limited time at all times.

Knowing how brittle both KD and Kyrie is I'd still run them for 35+ min. We lose we going home anyway.

[Openheimer]

Harden will be on minutes restriction for a couple of games till he gets conditioning right. It’s crazy and to be frank stupidity to play him 30 minutes plus straight off the bat

[LOUiS-D]

you are correct. i could not possibly care less about dog trash like yourself. no one cares that you have been beating off to KD since his texas years. there is nothing to analyze about your circle jerk of KD.

go kick rocks

F*** sake, enough of garbage posts like this.

- Rich

Proky my man. I'm a fan of yours. Your sauce needs a little more sugar in it.

[GTR11]

We all fans. Insecurity from few been beyond laughable.

When you admit or take things into consideration its much easier for you and others.

[GTR11]

I work in a team environment. If one person is struggling it's have to be fixed asap. Sorry but when leadership ain't right id point it out, its top workers here.

You can like it or don't. They just not good enough and thats a fact.

[MrDollarBills]

This is a disaster.

[Whiskey Slick]

The reason I'm not panicking is because Harden said he's feeling great and is only working himself back into basketball condition now, but he'll definitely be back for the playoffs or sooner.

This is a different team with Harden because he accepted the role of a true PG and was killing it. He can easily score 40 PPG if he wanted to, but he took the role of PG and ran with it, making EVERYONE around him better, including the role players and guys like Claxton, Green, Harris and Brown, not to mention KD and Kyrie.

Once we get him back and healthy, provided there are no more significant injuries this is a championship team despite this recent four game losing streak. Like I said, this is a different team with James Harden. Go check the record. We were like 20 Games over .500 with Harden, even when KD and/or Kyrie were out, but we are 8-10 since Harden got hurt. If that doesn't tell you what a difference maker Harden is, nothing I can say will.

[gigantes]

I do feel dirty getting mad at Joe Harris though, because the guy has made so many hustle plays and made big plays at the right time all year, but he's definitely in a rut lately, and it just might be who he is when things get tight and teams are focusing on him more come playoff time.

Bingo.

Every good team has 2 good perimeter defenders. Maybe not great, but solid. When Joe doesn't have to see any team's solid wing defenders, he can operate very efficiently. But when he sees actual playoff-calibre attention from the opposition, he shrinks and offers so little else. Literally EVERYTHING else in his game is predicated on his elite catch-shoot ability. He's not an actual playmaker or even ball-handler, but when team's have to respect his shot, it opens up enough breathing room for his talent level to do those things. When they know he's cold, they completely neutralize him in all other aspects...

I feel like this is unduly harsh.

Joe's advanced stats (ESPN RPM, WINS, RAP-BPM) are actually pretty impressive, especially on the defensive side, where he's transformed himself from arguably the 'weakest link' only a couple years ago to an actual plus defender. But more than that, I feel like he's worked his arse off through the years to develop himself in various ways, and it's not really true that he's no good at playmaking or ball-handling. On the contrary, he's a pleasure for me to behold, moving swiftly with and w/o the ball, making fast decisions, making more shots in the paint than you'd expect, and crisply passing the ball instead of waffling around. (the only Nets I want to see waffling with the ball are Beard and KD)

Joe to me is someone who makes the offense hum via his relentless activity. Even when the other team is shutting down his three, he'll still do useful things everywhere else. At least, that's what I see. And the stats do seem to bear that out. But with Harden coming back, it's a lot harder for me to see Joe's shot being shut down in the playoffs as with Philly a couple years ago, when a strong defensive team had that luxury against a team with only mediocre firepower. By comparison, I note last season he was only available for two games against the Raps in the PO's, but torched them for 58% from downtown at six attempts a game.

Joe no doubt doesn't look quite as good as he could with the lack of cohesion this year, and without a true PG or PtF to lead the team, but Beardly Bearderson will have something to say about that soon.

[Stone]

Bottom line......

We need more than 9 points a game from Joe.....

Nash has got to wake up, every one of the four losses we just had were winnable games. This is basically 101 stuff, if something is not working one way, try it another way.

In the post game interviews it was pointed out that adversity can be a good thing and I agree. It is going to come down to two unknowns 1) Health of our stars 2) Production of the role players and bench.

Once more, this team is going to be difficult for any other team to beat in a seven game series.

[Sharcm1]

This is what I noticed in the last four games. Nash seems to be trying to figure out a play off rotation and is limiting the players he plays. TJ hasn’t played the last two games. Alize hasn’t played and neither has TLC. These guys have played and played well and have helped the nets win games without the big three. I understand and Nash is thinking like other coaches as you have to trim the minutes to just a certain amount of players. But I think it’s a mistake for this team. Their depth is what makes this team not the big three.

I think brown should start instead of shamet. Shamet has sucked in the last four games. He can’t hit the ocean right now and has made stupid plays on both ends of the court. He needs to go back to the bench. With Irving and Durant on the floor you need the hustle guy.

TJ should be in the second unit. And play a real second unit. Put mike James in with Tj and shamet and nic and who ever. I also like the play between nic and griffin. I think they make a good tandem.

[Whiskey Slick]

Bottom line......

We need more than 9 points a game from Joe.....

I don't know how to research this particular stat,
but I'd be surprised if Joe wasn't averaging significantly more than 9 PPG when Harden was the facilitator (PG).

Same for Uncle Jeff and Bruce Brown.

It seemed like Harden was committed to making everyone better, including the role players.

He was a master at getting them the ball for drives to the basket, layups or dunks, or open shots and 3's.

[CalamityX12]

Just realizing that we didn't play Alize??? Wtf....

Nash n coaches need to boggle down n play guys who make differences if other guys aren't coming through.

Play your most reliable n trust the next man up

[CalamityX12]

nash as expected 0 apologies, he did nothing wrong, executaiton late nothing wrong

we just missed shots

https://www.yesnetwork.com/video/nash-on-execution-in-4th-quarter?t=nets

F this dude, he needs to go. Tsai needs to step in and fire marks and nash if marks wont do it on his own

Lol at Nash saying we just missed shots....

Every teams problems since the beginning of time!

[MrDollarBills]

When Harden returns I would consider moving Harris to the 2nd unit and we start games off with Harden, Irving, Brown, KD, and Claxton.

We need to get off to better starts. That requires guys who are going to defend and rebound. Nash going all offense is killing us.

[sashaturiaf]

When Harden returns I would consider moving Harris to the 2nd unit and we start games off with Harden, Irving, Brown, KD, and Claxton.

We need to get off to better starts. That requires guys who are going to defend and rebound. Nash going all offense is killing us.

Agreed, the current starting lineup is just a little too finesse and teams are doing whatever they want against us. Soft + guys not used to playing each other equals disaster on defense. We are living and dieing by our shot and that's not the recipe for a championship.

I feel we are really missing Harden's physicality on both ends, Harden ball wasn't always pretty but we were able to grind out wins that we aren't doing now. When we get back to full health I would close with this lineup

Claxton
Green
KD
Harden
Kyrie

Now that lineup is both big and switchable, still doesn't solve our physicality issues inside but I think there's enough combined length to bother teams. Now the main obstacle is time, need to nail down our rotations and get the reps in before the games that matter start to creep up on us.

[sashaturiaf]

nash as expected 0 apologies, he did nothing wrong, executaiton late nothing wrong

we just missed shots

https://www.yesnetwork.com/video/nash-on-execution-in-4th-quarter?t=nets

F this dude, he needs to go. Tsai needs to step in and fire marks and nash if marks wont do it on his own

Lol at Nash saying we just missed shots....

Every teams problems since the beginning of time!

Nash is actually 100% right, when you play no defense and don't rebound your only hope of winning is to outscore/shoot the other team. That was the 7 seconds or less Suns identity.

I don't think it should or will be our identity, this is a rough stretch but good to get it out of the system before the playoffs start. Scary hours are about to be upon us.

[sashaturiaf]

Bottom line......

We need more than 9 points a game from Joe.....

I don't know how to research this particular stat,
but I'd be surprised if Joe wasn't averaging significantly more than 9 PPG when Harden was the facilitator (PG).

Same for Uncle Jeff and Bruce Brown.

It seemed like Harden was committed to making everyone better, including the role players.

He was a master at getting them the ball for drives to the basket, layups or dunks, or open shots and 3's.

I think Joe is fine, he's had 3 bad/mediocre games in a row but it's not like he's been stinking it up for weeks. Joe is Joe, get him open and he'll knock down shots more often than not. Joe's own performance is a function of how the team offense flows, the offense hasn't flowed very well in the last 3 and so goes Joe's performances.

[Sharcm1]

I think joe is tired. He’s the only one to play every game this season. All the back to backs. His shot is short. He has also not gotten a lot of open threes recently. He is being guarded tighter and is having to spend more energy to get open. He looks tired.

[hisairness]

It's hilarious how this board turns on KD when he finally has a stretch where he's not playing the most efficient perimeter game literally ever.

Not a player in the league hasn't had a couple of off games. Be glad Durant can even be on the court to have an off night, given what he's recovering from.

He's not closed the last two games up to his standards, but stop getting in your emotions and saying things like he should come off the bench.

Absolutely.

You'd think KD didn't just return from his 4th health-related absence this season, the way his own fans are coming for his head. Chill, everybody!

Two games ago, Durant was dropping 42 points on like 75%TS, and some of y'all thought he was the MVP. Two off nights and he's washed???

It's a frustrating L, no doubt. But we're healthy, we're fighting for each other and sticking together. We'll figure it out.

I just looked up KD's game log for the year and in 30 games played this was his second bad shooting game, the other one he shot 6-21 against Miami, he also had few subpar games he shot in mid 40%. Also since he came back from his last hamstring injury Nets are 4-3 in the games he played and have averaged almost 118 points in those games, so takes like we were better without KD i saw in this thread are First Take level of dumb. He had a bad 4th quarter in a Bucks game and a selfish second half vs Mavs, where you could tell he was trying to shoot himself into a rhythm, no matter how much it was hurting the team. So far I'd say positives have by far outweighed negatives considering he could have came back looking like post-achilles Kobe.

[MrDollarBills]

When Harden returns I would consider moving Harris to the 2nd unit and we start games off with Harden, Irving, Brown, KD, and Claxton.

We need to get off to better starts. That requires guys who are going to defend and rebound. Nash going all offense is killing us.

Agreed, the current starting lineup is just a little too finesse and teams are doing whatever they want against us. Soft + guys not used to playing each other equals disaster on defense. We are living and dieing by our shot and that's not the recipe for a championship.

I feel we are really missing Harden's physicality on both ends, Harden ball wasn't always pretty but we were able to grind out wins that we aren't doing now. When we get back to full health I would close with this lineup

Claxton
Green
KD
Harden
Kyrie

Now that lineup is both big and switchable, still doesn't solve our physicality issues inside but I think there's enough combined length to bother teams. Now the main obstacle is time, need to nail down our rotations and get the reps in before the games that matter start to creep up on us.

I would even close out with Blake if the match up depends on it over Green, but I agree with that thinking.