GT: Nets @ Hawks 12/10- 7:30......... It's 5:00 PM, Do you know where Kyrie Irving is?

[JoseRizal]

Marks needs to sit down and ask Kyrie where he would be interested in playing at around the league. A huge reason we are struggling because we have 30% of our salary cap not playing.

Time to go. If we can get someone like CJ McCollum in a multi team deal let's do it.

I wouldn't mind a 1-on-1 swap w/ Simmons as well.

[_Und3r][D4wg_]

The Hawks came out to play so this was a good win. Nic and Cam lowered the average age just enough to allow the team to keep up with those young turks. Despite the previous loss to the Rockets, there's no reason for the fanbase to be in complete shambles. This team isn't an unstoppable force right now, but it doesn't need to be until next year March onwards... There's still time to build up to that.

[ecuhus1981]

Am I dreaming or did Harden just lose handle of the ball for the 2nd time this game?

Not really a big deal. 20 pts, 11 asts, +6

Yeah but like why? So bizarre.

I've been mentioning it since the preseason, he's nursing some undisclosed left hand issue. It's like he loses dexterity in it sometimes. I would expect it to subside with time, just another hurdle in getting back to the 100% Harden we know and love. In the meantime, he's gutting out every game for us, and we need it.

[TheNetsFan]

This was a great win to be honest. The Nets defense was solid in that 4th. It looks like this is our identity right now. We're going to have to rely on our defense and hope that KD and Harden can pull us through

Even Harden just admitted that the spacing is terrible. We're going to have to really hunker down on being a defensive, ugly win club

Agreed great win.

I would feel better about being a defensively focused team if we actually generated some offense from turnovers and transition, you can definitely win that way (see bubble Lakers). For us, it feels like we can get the other team to miss but then they'll also get the offensive board a decent amount of the time too, just frustrating basketball. The work in progress goes on.

To be a decent transition team, you need at least 3 guys pushing the ball up the court. Harden and KD aren't getting out in transition, which means everyone else has to. That's not going to happen when guys like Aldridge or Millsap are also on the floor. Without Kyrie, Mills is probably the only one capable of leading a break, and he'd need 2 of Claxton, Brown or Bembry with him.

[MrDollarBills]

Marks needs to sit down and ask Kyrie where he would be interested in playing at around the league. A huge reason we are struggling because we have 30% of our salary cap not playing.

Time to go. If we can get someone like CJ McCollum in a multi team deal let's do it.

I wouldn't mind a 1-on-1 swap w/ Simmons as well.

Not me, Simmons isn't a good fit here with Harden as the PG and he's a non shooter

I would ship Kyrie in a 3 team deal with us, POR and PHIL

[MGrand15]

Good win over a good team, still frustrating how we still can't get any separation even though we shot 10% better from the field.

King - Nate McMillan for playing TLC the whole 4th quarter

Double agent TLC

I was wondering why Nate had TLC out there dude gave them nothing

TLC was in prime form tonight. Brought back some memories.

[NetsWorld]

Nash did a great job adjusting LMA/Claxton tonight; LMA got his buckets in the first half and rested the second knowing we needed to contain Tray and Claxton shut him down when he came in. Great adustment.

[JoseRizal]

Marks needs to sit down and ask Kyrie where he would be interested in playing at around the league. A huge reason we are struggling because we have 30% of our salary cap not playing.

Time to go. If we can get someone like CJ McCollum in a multi team deal let's do it.

I wouldn't mind a 1-on-1 swap w/ Simmons as well.

Not me, Simmons isn't a good fit here with Harden as the PG and he's a non shooter

I would ship Kyrie in a 3 team deal with us, POR and PHIL

I think we can use him the way we use Johnson. His D will be invaluable in the playoffs, just don't expect much on the offensive side.

[MrDollarBills]

Double agent TLC

I was wondering why Nate had TLC out there dude gave them nothing

TLC was in prime form tonight. Brought back some memories.

Dude went 0-8. I'm not sure how he's still in the league

[MrDollarBills]

I wouldn't mind a 1-on-1 swap w/ Simmons as well.

Not me, Simmons isn't a good fit here with Harden as the PG and he's a non shooter

I would ship Kyrie in a 3 team deal with us, POR and PHIL

I think we can use him the way we use Johnson. His D will be invaluable in the playoffs, just don't expect much on the offensive side.

I'd rather have CJ McCollum

[GTR11]

Not me, Simmons isn't a good fit here with Harden as the PG and he's a non shooter

I would ship Kyrie in a 3 team deal with us, POR and PHIL

I think we can use him the way we use Johnson. His D will be invaluable in the playoffs, just don't expect much on the offensive side.

I'd rather have CJ McCollum

It's all wishful thinking. As of right now Kyrie showing us that he's willing to sit out entire season. No team will give anything for him period.

Harden will be a FA and leaving to Philphy is very possible as I mentioned before. Three way trade can be done. At that point landing Ben is much better than being left dry.

My main concern is KD. He ultimately will decide how our future will look like. I wish he stays with us, generational talent don't play for your team every decade, we'll that's of course if you not Lakers.

[sashaturiaf]

Good win over a good team, still frustrating how we still can't get any separation even though we shot 10% better from the field.

King - Nate McMillan for playing TLC the whole 4th quarter

Double agent TLC

I was wondering why Nate had TLC out there dude gave them nothing

That's why I got Nate McMillan as King for this game, TLC can do everything for us besides check himself into the game.

[JoseRizal]

I think we can use him the way we use Johnson. His D will be invaluable in the playoffs, just don't expect much on the offensive side.

I'd rather have CJ McCollum

It's all wishful thinking. As of right now Kyrie showing us that he's willing to sit out entire season. No team will give anything for him period.

Harden will be a FA and leaving to Philphy is very possible as I mentioned before. Three way trade can be done. At that point landing Ben is much better than being left dry.

My main concern is KD. He ultimately will decide how our future will look like. I wish he stays with us, generational talent don't play for your team every decade, we'll that's of course if you not Lakers.

We're fortunate that Kevin signed the extension prior to the Kyrie debacle and Harden's non-extension.

[sashaturiaf]

Not really a big deal. 20 pts, 11 asts, +6

Yeah but like why? So bizarre.

I've been mentioning it since the preseason, he's nursing some undisclosed left hand issue. It's like he loses dexterity in it sometimes. I would expect it to subside with time, just another hurdle in getting back to the 100% Harden we know and love. In the meantime, he's gutting out every game for us, and we need it.

That makes sense, his floaters have been off all season when they were pretty automatic last season.

[Papi_swav]

Great fun back and forth game. When Claxton came in thats when we took over. He's just so disruptive on defense. Another solid team effort, everyone contributed. LOL how funny it is to see TLC stinkin it up for the Hawks lmaooo glad hes not here no more. Dude missed all his shots and some easy layups

[JoseRizal]

Great fun back and forth game. When Claxton came in thats when we took over. He's just so disruptive on defense. Another solid team effort, everyone contributed. LOL how funny it is to see TLC stinkin it up for the Hawks lmaooo glad hes not here no more. Dude missed all his shots and some easy layups

I wonder how Clax would've impacted our last game against the Warriors, as he certainly can stay in front of Curry.

[NetsWorld]

Great fun back and forth game. When Claxton came in thats when we took over. He's just so disruptive on defense. Another solid team effort, everyone contributed. LOL how funny it is to see TLC stinkin it up for the Hawks lmaooo glad hes not here no more. Dude missed all his shots and some easy layups

I wonder how Clax would've impacted our last game against the Warriors, as he certainly can stay in front of Curry.

The lane wouldn’t have been open for their players to drive. The Nets couldn’t switch that game and they kept doing it and Warriors made us pay. With Clayton playing elite D out on the perimeter against these guards, they won’t like it when their main playmakers struggle getting passes in. The Nets defense is ridiculously good this year and it’s only getting better.

[HardenGoat]

Great game and I thought Nash did a great job tonight with the rotation. We have to realize Claxton is being worked in after that long layoff and Nash is using him to close games. Harden had a solid game but he needs a lob threat to open his lane. I sound like a broken record here but it is obvious to me the lanes are rarely open. A shooting big that can roll with him is key. Iam less worried about Harden because at some point his shot will come back. He’s getting stronger and more confident each game. Claxton could possibly find his offensive niche with him too. He’s such an awesome defender though. Love him. I hope this is the last game we see Millsap take Griffins spot. Griffin needs to come back. Nash should have seen enough by now.

[LOUiS-D]

There was a stretch there in the 4th before they decided to iso and spread and let trae take him one on one, where clax was everywhere on defense. He was an octopus. Love to see it.

[sashaturiaf]

Going to do a bit of a writeup after this one, it's about 1/3 of the way through the season and we can see this team is pretty much what it is currently. Not saying this is our final form but as it stands, this is the team we've got.

1. Our spacing and lack of movement is just horrendous - it's really hard to fathom considering we were the most unstoppable offense ever seen less than a year ago and now we are stuck with this. We play way too many non-shooters together at once and it just makes it way to easy to load up on Harden when he attacks off the PNR, I can tell James isn't 100% physically either but he's facing 3 people in the paint a lot of the time and this is the result you get. We never get any easy baskets. It's hard to watch at the moment but if you're intent on going full iso then unleash Cam Thomas and make him the 2nd option or 3rd option after Aldridge. We will be an ananachronism but hey at least embrace your identity. Of course if we can follow through with #2 we can make things a lot easier on ourselves which is the preferred approach.

2. The roster needs a shakeup since it has too much overlap, I don't blame anybody but Kyrie for this since this roster was designed to have him here but there's just way too much duplicating skills between James Johnson, Bruce, Bembry, Millsap and Blake. I think you need to lose at least 2 of those guys and replace them with guys that can offer something different, it's not hard to find someone in the fringes who can hustle on D and make some 3s (case in point - Garrison Matthews and Austin Reeves on the Lakers) and an young energetic big who can finish some lobs (guy like Rashuan Holmes was found in the G league off the scraps). I like JJ since he's got size and is good at dribble handoffs etc.. since he's played a long time knowing how to operate as a non shooter, so I think one of Bruce/Bembry and Millsap/Blake need to go. And also take Jevon Carter with them, he's not it.

3. Clax needs to play, I'm sure anybody with any investment in this team knows this but he brings too much to this team that nobody else can offer. I'm sure there's reasons why his minutes are so inconsistent right now (illness, ramp up, politics with minutes etc...) but we need him to play. He's a rim running threat on offense and switchable big on defense, play him at least 15-30 minutes a game depending on matchup.

4. I love our fight and scrappiness, how can a jump shooting team not be finesse? That's kind of us right now and while it's weird it's keeping us in most of these games. Dont doubt the chemistry and comraderieship is on point right now and Nash deserves some credit for it, also Patty Mills to me is the best teammate in the NBA.

5. KD is the man, there's certain players where rules and circumstances don't apply to them and he is one. Just a pure baller, drop him anywhere with any rules and a hoop and he will dominate. We are a lottery team right now if you replace KD with say a PJ Warren.

I have very little faith Kyrie is coming back this season (or even ever - but that's another discussion) but with the right roster moves and adjustments I think we can still challenge for a title. Embrace the defensive style, make things open up for Harden and I'll bank on KD carrying us home in some ugly ugly games.