Bridges doesn’t need high shot volume
Nets coach Jacque Vaughn doesn’t anticipate that Mikal Bridges will score 45 points every game. His shot-attempt numbers have increased since he was acquired from Phoenix, including 24 in his 45-point outburst Feb. 15 against Miami, but that’s not necessarily what Vaughn needs.
He’d rather see Bridges gradually develop his game, whether via mastering the pick-and-roll, beating defenders off the dribble, stringing together offensive rebounds or sparking the Nets in transition. That would allow the other rotation players to blend together and create a scenario with “one of these dudes being an AllStar on this team, one of these dudes being a defensive first- or second-team,” Vaughn said Wednesday.
“All those things, we’re definitely gonna tap into, but at the same time, try to win games while we’re doing that. And so that’s where you find yourself where you want guys to be comfortable to take risks and be curious and be interested, but at the same time, we gotta win games going forward.”
Bridges has compiled 18 or more shots in two of his three games since joining the Nets’ rotation, placing his per-game average at 13.8 this season — the most in his career.
Still, he has only been with the Nets for about two weeks. Bridges and the other newcomers are still learning the team’s terminology, which greeted them on the locker room board and in video sessions. But Vaughn has also gathered input from Bridges and Cam Johnson, the two players received in the deal that sent Kevin Durant to the Suns, and implemented it into their offensive sets.
The tweaks mostly stem from angles and locations, Vaughn said. The Nets looked at what the Suns did and moved their pin-down screen location up to the elbow, along with other instances where he will look for Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton and Bridges, among others, to be synced together.
“We’ll probably have three or four quintessential sets that you’ll see us live out of,” Vaughn said. “That elbow will be a piece of that.”
➤ Vaughn acknowledged the need to monitor Claxton’s minutes the rest of the season, especially in the Nets’ four sets of back-to-backs. That could mean additional time for Day’Ron Sharpe, Yuta Watanabe or Dorian Finney-Smith at the center position.
“We’ll have some options going into those games,” Vaughn said. “So we’ll be strategic about what games he plays more minutes in than others, but still get a pulse of getting him some rest as we get going in these 24 games.”
➤ Though the Nets will monitor who’s available, signing a player bought out by another team isn’t a top priority. Vaughn, along with general manager Sean Marks, doesn’t want to harm the locker room culture despite the open roster spot, he said.