What if the Brooklyn Nets Aren’t Bad?

There is a popular rhetoric among Boston Celtics fans this year that the Brooklyn Nets are going to finish in the absolute basement of the NBA. The speculation, and hope, is that the Nets land somewhere in the bottom three spots of the standings, most likely joining the Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers. As most Celtics fans know, the Boston Celtics hold the rights to Brooklyn’s 2016 and 2018 1st round picks and a pick-swap in 2017. To put it simply, the worse the Nets do, the better off the Celtics will be.

More grounded Celtics fans have been quick to point out that even if the Nets finish in dead last, there is only a 25 percent chance that the lottery selects Brooklyn for the 1st overall pick. When you factor in the dismal Lakers and 76ers, the chances of the Nets earning the number one pick seem increasingly low.

Oct 28, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Brooklyn Nets center Andrea Bargnani (9) drives up to the net during the first quarter against the Chicago Bulls at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Furthermore, the top pick in the NBA draft is far from a sure thing when it comes to talent panning out. Sure, generational NBA talents such as Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, Blake Griffin, and Derrick Rose have been top picks in their respective drafts, but so have Anthony Bennett–a bust so far– and Andrea Bargnani–a role player at best.

There is just one more roadblock standing between the Boston Celtics and LSU star and number one prospect Ben Simmons; The Brooklyn Nets are showing a bit of a pulse in what looked like a dead season.

It all started on Wednesday, November 11th in Houston, TX. After losing their first seven games, the Brooklyn Nets held on tight to defeat the (admittedly struggling) Houston Rockets 106-98. Yep, the same Houston Rockets who downed the Los Angeles Clippers to advance to the Western Conference Finals in the 2015 NBA Playoffs.

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It happened again on Tuesday, November 17th, this time in Brooklyn’s own Barclay’s Center. The Nets defeated the Atlanta Hawks–also conference finalists last year– 90 to 88 thanks to a huge late-game shot block from Brook Lopez (who also led the team with 24 points).

In between these two semi-significant wins, which have brought the team to 2-3 over their last 5 games, another strange thing took place. On the other end of the country, in Oakland, CA, the Brooklyn Nets took the reigning NBA champs, the undefeated Golden State Warriors, to overtime. Though they lost the game 107-99, it was a promising performance from the thought-to-be slumping Nets.

In each of these three games, the Brooklyn Nets had different point and rebound leaders. In Houston, it was 22 points from Bogdanovic and 12 boards from Brook Lopez. At Golden State it was Jarrett Jack’s 28 points and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s 13 rebounds. At home against Atlanta, the Nets surged on Lopez’s 24 points and Thad Young’s 11 rebounds. This goes to show that, even in the post-Deron Williams era, the Nets have some guys who can play.

Nov 18, 2015; Charlotte, NC, USA; Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez (11) protests after being called for a foul during the second half of the game against the Charlote hornets at Time Warner Cable Arena. Hornets win 116-111. Mandatory Credit: Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports

Brook Lopez is undoubtedly the center-piece of the team now that they are without Williams, Pierce, and Garnett. He surprised many people this summer when the 27-year old elected to sign a $60-million dollar, 3 year contract extension with the Brooklyn Nets. Despite the bleak future of the team, Lopez must have seen something worth sticking around for. So far this season, Lopez is averaging about 20 points per game and 8 rebounds.

At 34 years of age, it is a little surprising that Joe Johnson is the minutes-leader on the Brooklyn Nets. His backcourt partner, Jarrett Jack is also 32-years old. Together, the duo is averaging less than 30 points per game. Thaddeus Young, the teams starting power forward, is a bright point in the mixed-and-matched Nets roster. Young is in his 9th NBA season, though he is just 27 years old, and he is averaging some career-high numbers. 8 rebounds per game is a career-high for Thad, and his 56 percent shooting percentage is a career-high as well. His 15.8 points per game is second only to a standout 2013-14 NBA season in Philadelphia where he averaged 17.9 points per game.

Just to hammer my point home, that the Brooklyn Nets might not be as awful as everyone thought, here is a little head-to-head comparison between them and the Boston Celtics. The Nets are 9 spots above the Celtics in team FG percentage, shooting 44 percent to Boston’s 42.6. Boston is 28th in league shooting threes at just 30 percent, but Brooklyn is one of the two even worse teams shooting 29 percent from behind the arc.

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Admittedly, in the short sample of the season we have seen so far, the Boston Celtics look fairly promising and the Brooklyn Nets, at 2-10, look pretty abysmal. Things seem to be turning around, albeit slowly, in Brooklyn, and it’s not inconceivable that they challenge for a low playoff seed later on in the season. It is a long season; Celtics fans should sit tight and not order their green Ben Simmons jerseys just yet.