November Brooklyn Nets Sadness Index
By Greg Cassoli
Your monthly check in on how the Brooklyn Nets draft stock is looking
November has come to a close, and that means it’s time for our monthly review of Brooklyn Nets fans’ misery. If you missed our first installment, you can check it out here. If you don’t have time to read the “October Brookly Nets Sadness Index,” the brief synopsis is thus. The Celtics are good. The Nets are terrible, and Boston has the rights to their first round draft pick in the next two years. That means they can compete in the present and not hinder any opportunities for acquiring a franchise-altering talent through the draft in the future. Following two basketball teams all year is an exhausting task, so we’re simplifying it for you by providing monthly updates on what is happening in Brooklyn.
November was a fairly unpleasant time for the Nets and their supporters. The team went a meager 4-8, lost their starting point guard/second best player, and now find themselves tied for the fourth worst record in the league. That’s a decidedly poor showing, though it’s not an entirely unexpected one.
Losing Jeremy Lin to a hamstring injury was a major blow. Brooklyn’s depth was already almost nonexistent, and having Lin on the shelf has meant a lot of Sean Kilpatrick, Isaiah Whitehead, and Randy Foye pretending like they play point guard. Those aren’t tenable solutions, but the team’s options are incredibly thin, and they’ll have to roll the dice with them until Lin’s injury runs its course. There still hasn’t been a time table set for his return, and that won’t help Brooklyn in its efforts to avoid the cellar.
The Nets are down to second to last in defensive efficiency. They rank only twenty-second on the offensive side of the ball, and seem to be realizing their destiny as one of the worst teams in the NBA. Their fans will take pride in a recent victory over the Clippers on Tuesday, and they should. L.A is one of the best teams in basketball. That’s a small triumph in an otherwise depressing month though, and things might take a turn for the worse soon.
The Nets have a relatively light schedule to start December, but will face a significantly more challenging second half of the month, including games against San Antonio, Houston, Toronto, Golden State, Cleveland, and Charlotte. They’ll need to bank some wins early, or else they may be looking at worst-case scenario. Celtics fans should be pleased with that.
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If the season ended today Boston would have between the fourth and sixth best odds at landing the first overall pick in the draft. That’s an improvement from last month, and the Nets are just two losses away from giving them the best odds at that selection. Times in Brooklyn aren’t sad enough for jubilation throughout Celtics nation, but they’re certainly worrisome enough for optimism. That’s a nice place to be less than twenty games into the season.