IT’S A SMALL WORLD
Without Allen, Nets will be undersized
James Harden will more than replace Caris LeVert’s production, but in Brooklyn, there is no replacement for Jarrett Allen. For a Nets team with an already shaky defense, this is a big problem.
Allen, who reclaimed his status as one of the league’s best starting centers this season, was the Nets’ cost of admission into basketball lore. He is now in Cleveland, set to anchor the Cavalier defense for years to come.
Allen’s absence means more minutes for DeAndre Jordan, who at 32 years old is well beyond his prime days. Nets head coach Steve Nash started Jordan at the beginning of the season, but it became glaring that Allen was the better player due to his youth, athleticism and mobility in switching onto guards and forwards.
Jordan did, though, play his best game of the season against the Knicks with Allen held out due to the pending trade. Anything done at Madison Square Garden should be taken with a grain of salt, but the veteran big man turned back the clock to the tune of nine points and 12 rebounds (both season highs) to go with two blocks in the Nets’ win.
Nets head coach Steve Nash understands he cannot ask Jordan to play his minutes and Allen’s. Jordan has not played more than 30 minutes in a game this season and is averaging just 18 minutes a game.
“I think DJ can play a great role for this team,” the Nets coach said pregame on Sunday. “He’s still shown to be really effective, but I think we still go with a smaller lineup at times. I don’t think he needs to play 30 minutes a night. … With his age, playing four games a week, playing a high load, we don’t want to overtax him there so he can be effective in the spurts he does play.”
The Allen trade has created a dilemma, and Nash is using a solution familiar to one of his assistants.
Mike D’Antoni, now an assistant in Brooklyn, was the head coach in Houston who super-shrunk his lineup around Harden. The last formidable rendition of that Rockets team totally forewent a traditional center and traded Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks, instead opting to start Harden’s close friend and stocky, two-way forward PJ Tucker at center.
Tucker’s size and build allowed him to defend post players, his three-point shooting (career: 36%; this season: 55%) drew opposing centers away from the rim, and his hustle, heart and effort on both ends of the floor made him an invaluable piece of the Rockets’ puzzle.
The Nets did not acquire Tucker in the Harden trade, but they do have a player on their roster who projects to play that role.
Brooklyn added veteran forward Jeff Green to the roster during free agency, and he has already played minutes at the five this season. Green is shooting 45% from three so far, is a savvy, versatile defender and also has a relationship with Harden, Jordan and Kevin Durant, having played with each of them in past seasons.
The Nets also drafted rookie Reggie Perry 57th overall out of Mississippi State. He is a long way from playing regular minutes, but he has proven to have three-point range and was a scoring and rebounding machine in college.
Don’t expect to see Nic Claxton on the floor any time soon, either. Claxton, the second-year combo big man out of Georgia who was diagnosed with knee tendinopathy at the beginning of the season, has not seen any play time to date. Nash says there have not been any setbacks on his injury rehab, but what was initially listed as a fourto-six week injury timeline has been pushed back to “some time in February.”
There’s one more reality to factor, and that’s the league’s new gunslinging GM. Sean Marks is a man on a mission, and that mission is to put in place whichever pieces Durant, Harden and Irving need to deliver New York City its first basketball championship since the 70 s — on the other side of the Manhattan Bridge.
Marks hopes his players use Allen’s departure as an opportunity to “seize this moment and take their games to the next level … use this platform to really step up” like Spencer Dinwiddie did last season after injuries to both Irving and LeVert.
“We hope other guys on this team will do the same,” Marks said, before finishing: “and also the people that we bring in in the future.”