Earn their hypes
Nets to see if buildup leads to wins
There’s no doubt the Nets won free agency. But how that translates to winning games is another thing altogether.
Despite all the hype his Nets have gotten, Kenny Atkinson admits he has no clue what kind of team he actually has — a contender or a lottery-bound disappointment. And it’ll take time to find out, until the Nets have played games that actually matter — starting Wednesday versus Minnesota.
“Yeah, you want to know who are you? How good are you going to be?” Atkinson asked rhetorically. “We can say whatever we want and we added new players, but I really don’t know right now. I’m not going to go say we’re a playoff team; I’m not saying that right now. We’re going to be in the conference finals or we’re not going to make the playoffs.
“It’s going to reveal itself. We’ll talk after 10, 15 games, I can [know] more. And that’s an exciting part for all of us, right? Who is this team? What’s going to be their identity? How good are they going to be? Are they a playoff team? An elite playoff team? Are they not a playoff team? We can all have our opinion on that; we just don’t know.”
That isn’t Atkinson just playing the curmudgeon.
Kevin Durant might not play this season as he rehabs a ruptured Achilles. Kyrie Irving may prove unable to lead this bunch. Questions will be asked about DeAndre Jordan’s motivation and Caris LeVert’s durability. And defense could be a problem; it sure was in getting run past by Toronto in their preseason finale.
An analyticsdriven team that tries to take away the 3 and force midrange shots gave up 47 attempts from deep. Wednesday they’ll open against a Minnesota squad that shockingly led the NBA in pace this preseason and was fourth in 3-point attempts.
Brooklyn’s transition defense — which was solid throughout the preseason but sorry in the finale — will get tested straight out of the gate.
“Onball defense, being able to guard your guy, it seemed like a lot of times we were getting broken down off the dribble. Guys were over-rotating and the byproduct was open 3s,” Joe Harris said.
“Sometimes the stuff we’ve been working on, you can let it slip a bit. The trip to China, whatever it might be. It was a mental and effort thing honestly. We have a lot of really good defenders … but anyone’s going to be a bad defender when you’re a lackadaisical step behind.”
The China hangover is real. For proof just take that 10-game sample size Atkinson said he’d use to start to judge his Nets. The teams that have trekked to China the prior four preseasons played to a middling 41-39 mark through their first 10, before going 338-238 the rest of the way — or a 42-win pace compared to a strong 48-win clip.
“That’s a good point. Maybe I’ll ask our analytics group because you need a sample size, then our performance group,” Atkinson said. “That leaves a bit of a question mark, are we going to take a little bit more time in evaluating. But I don’t think the guys want to use that as an excuse. They haven’t talked about it. We just have to play through it.
“I’m interested in seeing how we get out of the gate. I’d like to get out of the gate; there are some winnable games there when you look at schedule so it’d be great to get out of the gate. It’s important.”
With four of their first five at home, and only two of their first seven against winning teams from last season, the Nets have a golden opportunity. They can ill afford to fumble it away.