As trade deadline nears, Jacque says Brooklyn needs to get a bit bigger
It’s hard to pass judgment on a Nets team with three key front court players out due to injury, but one thing is clear: This team needs to get bigger.
It’s been the theme of the week for a Brooklyn team that got bullied in a loss to the conference-worst Detroit Pistons, then out-rebounded by 25 in a 43-point loss to the Boston Celtics, a loss so disgusting Jacque Vaughn said the team decided against reviewing the game film.
The Nets were so desperate for size against Boston, Vaughn experimented by playing both Nic Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe minutes together to combat Boston’s duo of Robert Williams and Al Horford.
“We still got outrebounded,” Vaughn said in a Zoom conference call with reporters from the Nets training facility on Friday. “It’s a problem for us, and I don’t see it going away anytime soon.”
Which brings us to next Thursday’s NBA Trade Deadline, one of few remaining opportunities the Nets have to improve the roster other than signing players who negotiate contract buyouts with their current teams before the end of the regular season.
It’s quite clear the Nets need to get bigger on the wings and at center, even with Claxton’s emergence as a fringe All-Star in Brooklyn this season.
Kevin Durant has been out with an MCL sprain, Ben Simmons has missed three straight games with left knee soreness, and T.J. Warren has missed three games with a left shin contusion.
Those are three players 6-foot-8 or taller who are each out of the rotation, forcing Vaughn to go small and start three guards each under 6-foot-5 (Kyrie Irving, Royce O’Neale and Seth Curry) alongside the 6-foot-7 sharpshooter Joe Harris and Claxton, whose lanky, 6-foot-11 frame has added muscle but still lacks the strength to handle the NBA’s true bruisers at the five.
Vaughn declined to comment specifically on team needs with less than a week to go before the Feb. 7 trade deadline but did address his team’s lack of size. Calling a player up from Brooklyn’s G-League affiliate Long Island Nets team is also an option, but unlikely a viable route to add a true impact player to a team with championship hopes.
“As a coach, you see the trends of the league: long, athletic, multi-dimensional guys that can play on both ends of the floor,” Vaughn said Friday morning. “That just makes it easier for you to get things done on both ends. We’ll exhaust all our resources, whether that’s Long Island, whether that’s hopefully our guys coming back healthy helps.”
A trade becomes complicated, however, due to the payroll constraints caused by player salaries, plus a lack of draft capital to use in a trade.
Durant is on the hook for $44M, Irving’s cap figure is $36.9M, and Simmons earns $35.5M for the 2022-23 NBA season. It’s unlikely any of those three players are moved by next Thursday’s