It’s been an unexpected season of sorts for the Brooklyn Nets.
That is to say, they have been one of the worst teams in the entire league rather than one of the best as many expected them to be prior to the season. They were supposed to challenge the Miami Heat and match up very well against the Indiana Pacers. Both notions are seemingly laughable at this point.
So what exactly has gone wrong for them to have a 9-18 record – tied with the New York Knicks for sixth worst in the league – after nearly two months of basketball? Just about everything, starting with injuries.
[Related: Bernucca: In Trying to Overtake Knicks, Nets Have Become Them]
Paul Pierce broke his hand and missed a couple of weeks. Deron Williams has dealt with an assortment of ankle injuries and has missed 12 games. Andrei Kirilenko has missed all but four games due to what he calls the most intense back pain of his life. Jason Terry has missed 16 games due to a knee injury. And of course, Brook Lopez will miss the remainder of the season after breaking his foot against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Phew. That’s an awful lot of injuries to deal with.
On top of it all, Kevin Garnett – considered the most important acquisition in the offseason – has looked like a shell of himself on both ends of the floor. His ability to hit mid-range jump shots with consistency has all but abandoned him, and the ability to finish near the rim with a defender on him has also dissipated. Check out his shot chart from this season compared to the season before:
2013-2014 shot chart:
2012-2013 shot chart:
The difference is simply incredible, and there is no logical explanation as to why this has happened. You could go the “I blame Jason Kidd” route, but I’ve seen enough missed shots from a wide-open Garnett this season to know that Phil Jackson couldn’t solve this particular issue. If you are regularly open (like Garnett has been) and fail to hit shots game after game, your offensive schemes have to change entirely and will suffer as a result. This is far from saying Garnett is the biggest reason to blame, but he’s certainly not helping an offense that is considered average at best.
Defensively, the Nets have been an absolute disaster. They have the second-worst defensive rating in the league, and has allowed teams to shoot 40.1 percent from beyond the arc, making them the worst team in the league at defending the 3-point line.
These are difficult times for the Nets. You can’t expect a team to be consistent under a first-year coach with so many players consistently in and out of the lineup. Naturally, the blame will fall on the shoulders of Kidd and Billy King, and yes, they do deserve some blame. However, I’m not sure any coach could survive the horrendous cards these Nets have been dealt.
After handing the Nets another loss on Monday, David West had this to say:
Blame the GM….
— David West (@D_West30) December 24, 2013
It’s not totally clear as to what the power forward was referring to, but it seems logical to assume that he was referring to King in this case.
[UPDATE: West clarified his tweet by saying he was praising Larry Bird and Kevin Prichard for his team’s incredible record]
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.