Prince passes first defense test
Early into Nets training camp, Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson had a mandate. He knew what slotted starting four Taurean Prince brought to the table on offense: a lights-out three-point shooter who understood the offense the Nets run thanks to his days in Long Island with the team’s G-League affiliate.
But how would Prince respond as the Nets’ top defender, tasked with defending anywhere from physical fours to crafty guards when switching on screens?
“The challenge for him is gonna be to be our defensive stopper,” Atkinson said in late September. “We got the three. We’ve gotta get him to play that D.”
If his first test was against the Knicks in the Battle at Barclays, Prince passed with flying colors. He may not have hit the three, but he certainly played the D.
In the Nets’ 113-109 rollercoaster ride victory over the Knicks on Friday, Prince was tasked with defending Julius Randle for much of the night. “He’s gonna be undersized a lot of nights at the four, and obviously (the Knicks) are real big, so it was a big challenge for him to guard Julius,” veteran guard Garrett Temple told the Daily News. “I mean, 5-for-15. We couldn’t ask for anything better.”
That’s a fact: The Nets couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Prince gave up more than 30 pounds in his matchup against Randle, the de facto best player on the Knicks’ roster, but it didn’t look like it on the floor. “They were running a lot of plays to get the ball to Randle in iso situations and post-ups,” Temple said. “T.P. did a good job staying in between the ball and making big time stops for us.”
“The Knicks tried to go at him early. I think they thought they had the size advantage,” Joe Harris added post-game. “But Taurean is an excellent defender on the perimeter but also in the post, and he just makes stuff really difficult. Guys are not gonna be able to back him down. They tried doing it a number of times whether it was Randle or Portis, and he just does an excellent job of holding his ground and making it tough on guys.”
Defense at the four was supposed to be one of the Nets’ weaknesses. After all, the perception around Prince during his time in Atlanta was what Atkinson alluded to in training camp: excellent three-point shooter, needs to improve on defense.
Prince, when made aware of those comments in training camp, said he was going to ask for the role of defensive stopper anyway. At least against the Knicks, checking bigger, more physical forwards, he answered the bell.
It’s not like Prince is getting any real preparation in practice. The only other true four on the roster is Rodions Kurucs, and Kurucs doesn’t have the size of Randle and Marcus Morris.
“He’s not 6-11 but he’s pretty strong,” Atkinson said. “That was one of our concerns coming in here with Randle and Portis, how strong they are. They posted us up but I thought he led the charge with his post defense.”