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Remember way back before the Brooklyn Nets' training camp in September? Fans might have reasonably expected Steve Nash and Co. to field the best Big 3 in the game. They also may have guessed the team would struggle defensively, but blow the doors off teams on offense. Things don't always go according to plan, do they?
Last season, the Nets led the entire league in offensive rating (117.3). They only ranked 22nd in defensive rating, however. As Nash might say, they didn't “profile as a team of elite defenders.” This season, has thrown us more than a few curveballs and not just on the theme of vaccinations.
Nash revealed the biggest (non-Kyrie Irving) surprise of the early season following their 96-90 win over the hapless Detroit Pistons.
“We've improved defensively,” Nash said. “I think our defense is ahead of our offense which I don’t think anyone was predicting coming into the year. That makes me happy. And I think our guys guys can feel a sense of pride in each other that they are defending.”
Indeed, this year's Nets have a near-inverse 20th best offensive rating and the 7th best defensive rating, per NBA.com.
Brooklyn trails just two teams in opponent effective field goal percentage (47.8%). Only the Utah Jazz and Miami Heat have been holding teams to a less efficient clip.
Another bit of a surprise (part of the same theme) is that the team ranks 5th in defensive rebounds (38.9) per outing–despite that being something the coach labeled as the team's Achilles heel.
They're also 4th in blocks (6.0) per game.
Well look at LaMarcus Aldridge, where is @NekiasNBA #WeSawYou pic.twitter.com/KSfJnyn0FB
— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) October 30, 2021
One problem that limits the Nets' defense from being even better is their opponents average 20.4 points off turnovers. Only four teams (Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Houstoin Rockets) allow more points of turnovers per game and none of those groups have realistic title aspirations. If Brooklyn can stop coughing it up so much, they buy time to get back in transition and set up their currently stalwart defense.
The worst example of points allowed off of turnovers this season came in Friday night's game.
James Harden GLITCHED on this play 😅 @shaqtin pic.twitter.com/yvh2c6h6iR
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 6, 2021
After the game, coach Nash was asked what happened to Harden on that play and if he spoke to his star about it.
“I didn’t say anything to him,” admitted Nash. “I think James is, I think in that moment he was tired. And made a mistake and he owned up to it, he said he made a mistake. I don’t need to tell him that he made it, he knows he made it.”
Nash continued “you know stuff happens and it's about how you respond to it and we responded…that’s the NBA, you play three, four games a week… you're gonna have games where emotionally or physically or tactically you’re not sharp. And tonight we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be but defensively we scrapped and won the game down there.”
We will see if this tenacious tendency holds over time. We'd expect their offense to improve and their defense to regress a bit. But for now, the Nets are winning games with a script few would have predicted.
