Brooklyn Nets’ BLOWOUT Win Over Wizards Sparks TANK PANIC Among Fans | Are Concerns Justified?

Brooklyn Nets’ BLOWOUT Win Over Wizards Sparks TANK PANIC Among Fans | Are Concerns Justified?

On today’s show, the Nets fall behind in the draft lottery standings with their win over the Wizards, leading some fans to sound the panic alarm over the team’s tank outlook and rookie development plan. Are those worries justified or overblown? I’ll answer that right now. [Music] You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. Welcome in to Locked on Nets right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Now the number one sports podcast network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nets reporter for clutchpoints.com. Thank you for making me your first listen of the day. The show is 100% free on all those great platforms. And on today’s show, we’re going to be talking about the Net’s tank outlook and the NBA’s tank landscape as a whole following Brooklyn’s second win of the season. We’ll also talk about Jordy Fernandez’s rotation decisions involving some of the team’s rookies and whether there’ll need to be a shift towards more of a tank emphasis and more of a rookie development emphasis. So, got all that coming up with Lucas Kaplan right now. And joining the show now, we got Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily. and Lucas, we’re coming off a Nets W and there is a lot of discourse going on amongst the fan base, some concerns, some people might be happy, but there’s a lot of conversation surrounding the Nets tank, surrounding the rookies, surrounding some of the top players on the roster. So, we’re going to get into all that, but I want to start off with what I’m calling tank hysteria. I’ve got segment one title tank hysteria. And we obviously came into the Nets this season. They revamped their roster. there was a tanking agenda in mind. A little bit of a youth movement or actually a lot of bit of a youth movement and everything coming out of the gate. Everything’s peachy with the tank. You know, they have however many losses. They’re clearly the worst team in the league. And then they pick up that win at Indiana. We potted after that. It was like, okay, that’s fine. You got to win eventually. You can’t lose them all. And then they come out and last night they stomp the Wizards. And the Pacers and the Wizards just so happened to be the two other one-win teams. So, the Nets fall back to third in the draft lottery standings. That comes with Jordy clearly trying to win these games. You know, playing some veterans over some rookies, which is ruffling some feathers. And, you know, when I started on this beat, Lucas, I never thought that I’d be covering a season where the Nets are 2 and 11 and have a -12 net rating and the fans would be complaining that they aren’t bad enough. And that’s what we’ve got here. That’s the position that we find ourselves in. But I do think that this hysteria, despite all of that, it does speak to a few things. It speaks to how starved this fan base is for a young star talent, a young, you know, face of the franchise building block. How rattled they are from how the team pretty much botched the tank last season. I think it’s fair to say that at this point. And then also how bad the NBA is at the bottom of the standings. So, it’s kind of an interesting situation because my whole takeaway that I’ve come I’ve come away with from how the fans have reacted to this is it’s a little bit ridiculous. Like the Nets are 2 and 11. They are pretty much clearly one of the worst teams in the NBA. And despite that, it’s not like a foregone conclusion that they are going to finish with the worst record in the NBA or even the second worst or the third worst. that does matter in regard to obviously the ceiling of your pick, but more importantly the floor and not falling back too far. So my thesis, the concerns I think are a little ridiculous, a little overblown, but I understand why some of the fans have some angst looking at the bottom of the standing and saying like, “Okay, this isn’t going to be a cakewalk to just the worst record in the league.” The Nets are going to have to shift at some point and do some things to try to compete for that, you know, top spot in the draft lottery standings. Other than being terrible, other than having the worst defense in the league and being two and 11, at some point we have to listen. I’ve been a Nets fan my whole life. At some point, we got to have some pride, guys. We got to we got to have some pride. We got to like I’m sorry. I know. I get it. I’ve been through all the draft picks, all the young stars in in in waiting in hope. You know, I I thought Marshawn Brooks was Kobe Bryant. We got to have some pride. They suck. They’re 2-1. They have the 30th ranked defense in the league. They have a non-garbage time net rating of -14, which is only decimal points better than Indiana, and a point in Washington. They’ve moved they’ve moved up to 27th in net rating. So, hey, I mean, the worst team in the league right now. Oh, the Pelicans are also below them in Pelicans, Pacers, Wizards, all ahead of the Nets in net rating. Listen, I I I think I think there are two separate things going on. I think one, it objectively is disappointing to tune in to a season in which they are bad and watch Jagor get 15 minutes, 18 minutes against Orlando and Drake get 20. And that is the extent to which you’re seeing the rookie class unless you’re tuning into Long Island games and obviously that’s not the same thing. And then you know you get Noah Clowney I guess right like still in his third year. That is not fun and I’m not having I would like to see more of the rookies but that is probably a separate but related but separate conversation than well they’re not bad enough. They’re only two and 11 and and Jordy should be and the Nets should be like actively missing free throws uh and playing only like Nolan Trayor against the Wizards in November. It’s it’s a little much, you know. Yeah, it’s definitely a little much. And I think that for the fans, like I see some things on Twitter, which is obviously not the most rational place to be looking for takes sometimes, but some people saying like, “This is malpractice by Jordy and Shaunie. she get fired. And I’m like, look, like the Nets come into a game at 1 and 11. Do you expect him to try to coach to lose the game? Like I I understand the, you know, the objections with him playing the rookies limited minutes and playing some of these veterans more, which we’re going to get into. We’re going to do a whole segment on that. But at a certain point, like what you said, it’s just it comes back to what I’ve said about fan bases and tanks like this. Like a lot of people the, you know, thought process is you can go 0 and82, it doesn’t matter, whatever. all those people don’t have to be in the locker room and it is gets really you know ugly. It gets really um you know there’s a lot it’s a just a disheartening feeling when you’re going in and you’re losing all of these games one after another. So I understand you know the fan perspective but at a certain point like like you said like Jordy is a very competitive guy. He’s going to have to you know he’s going to have some pride and he’s going to try to win some of these games. Now, having said that, can I wait, hold on, can I just read you the Wizards main bench lineup in the at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the second quarter? Like the main lineup. Okay. At the I guess at the nominal one, we had Bub Carrington. At the nominal two, we had Cam Whitmore, Kon George, maybe he’s the two or the one, Cory Kisspert at the four, and Marvin Bagley playing center. They [Laughter] come on guys. Come on. That like No, but that’s Lucas. Like that’s the that’s the concern. I mean, like that’s why I think fans are getting a little, you know, getting a little angsty. And I understand it. I mean, like I I went through this yesterday on the podcast, like if you look at the standings, and we’re talking about like legit threats to the Nets to finish ahead of them in the draft lottery standings. And all of this matters because as I said before, like first first spot can only fall to fifth, second, sixth, third, um, seventh. And that’s important for the Nets because if the Nets get whatever spot they get, they’re going to fall as far as you possibly can. So they have to have to mitigate that. and we have to finish with the top. So, we at least guarantee a top five pick in the doomsday scenario that we all know is going to come true because of this Nets organization. But if you you look at it like the Pacers and the Wizards, you know, 1 and 13 and 1-2 respectively ahead of the Nets right now. The Pelicans 2 and 11, Kings 3 and 11, Mavericks 4-10. And if you’re looking at that and you’re talking about like legit threats to finish ahead of the Nets, definitely the Wizards cuz they freaking suck. Oh my god, they are a disgusting basketball team to watch. How many wins do you think the Nets are on pace for right now? It’s like 13, right? Something like that. It’s 13. It’s 12.6 if you want to be technical about it, guys. Whatever. I mean, Lucas, but this is this is the most nuts thing ever is that in a season where they come out and they do everything right with the tank and they look like they’re just this abomination of a team. There are a bunch of other teams who are just as bad if not worse. Like that’s the way it can’t just be easy with the Nets where they start off 2 and 11 and it’s like all right, we have this cushion in the tank race. Like we look clearly worse than all these other teams. There has to be some threats. And I mean, like, if you’re looking at it, I’d say the Wizards, obviously, the Pacers with how they’ve started. You look at teams that could tear it down, like the Mavericks and the Kings. There’s been some rumblings obviously about that, more than rumblings in the Mavericks case. And you know, the Pelicans, they don’t have any incentive to tank. So, they unless they’re just a complete joke of a franchise should be able to finish ahead of the Nets. But you look at it, like I talked to draft people, I talked about this yesterday. The top of this draft is extremely highly regarded and there’s an anticipation around the NBA that it’s going to start to get ugly. There’s going to be a lot of teams throwing their hat in the ring aggressively. And sure, the Nets did that with their offseason moves, but at a certain point, like you with the in-game decisions, with the rotations, with some of how they’re prioritizing, you know, some of the rookies or not prioritizing them at some point, despite them being 2 and 11, they’re going to have to do some things to try to compete with these other teams if they want to finish at the top. As sad as that is, I know this whole conversation is sad, but it’s the reality of where the Nets are at right now. They can’t miss out on another blue chip talent. Like they need to do whatever they can to get to the top of these lottery standings. They do. They do need to do that. There is a need to develop the existing young talent on the roster to the best of their abilities. And I’m not saying that can take precedence in like going all out to win game 78, right? Or like the Nick Claxton buzzer beater in Philly last year, but that is a consideration. And if you finish with the worst record in the league, right, you only have what? A 43% chance to get one of those top three picks. Wait, less less like a like a 39% chance. Something like that. I thought it was over 40, but yeah, something in that ballpark. It’s around there. And the floor also decreases. So like for example, if you have the third worst record in the league, you can fall to seventh, right? Yeah. There’s only a 7% chance of that happening. If you have the fourth worst record, there’s a 2% chance. And I know what you’re gonna say. Nets fans were already conditioned for the worst possible outcome. A very smart person told me one time, to live in a better world, you have to first imagine it. You can be you can be you could be a little bit optimistic. I promise it won’t kill you. You can believe that the 98% thing that has a chance of happening is more likely to happen than the 2% thing. Even if you feel like the 2% chance of falling to eighth if you’re fourth is inevitable because it’s the Nets. I don’t know, man. They’ll beat the Wizards. It’s okay. That’s my take. I I agree with you. I think it’s okay. I do think that they’re I understand the angst from the fan base. I think it’s a little bit It’s not justified yet. We’ll see if things don’t change. But the thing that I do think is justified is some of the fans that are upset that some of these rookies aren’t playing more minutes and the way that Jordy has gone about some of these rotations in recent games, particularly involving Jaor and Drake Pal and some pretty curious decisions. So what were those? How do we feel about them? We’ll get into all that we continue locked on Nets after a quick break. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. SAS promised to make work easier, but now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps that slow down your teams and simply don’t work together. That’s not SAS. 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It’s good to be right. Coming back from the break, continuing with today’s Locked on Nets episode, talking with Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily. And Lucas, we’re talking about the Nets potentially needing to do more to boost their tank, as crazy as that sounds, with where they’re at in the standings. And what is that going to look like down the line? That’s probably going to look like leaning more into development than they have. And they haven’t fully leaned into development yet. These rookies are not playing as many minutes as I think they could be. And that has ruffled feathers with a lot of people within the Nets fan base. You look at it, you know, during this game last night against the Wizards, Gagorman and Drake Pal 19 minutes a piece. And in both of these conversations for the point guard spot with Jaor, it’s kind of been Jaor and Tyrese Martin have been jockeying for minutes. And then you look at the wing spot off the bench, it’s been Drake Pal and Zire Williams. And Jordy has he’s trying to win games. I said that. That’s clear. And in that process, Jordy has defaulted to the veterans. It’s not like that drastic. Like you look at the last eight games since Ben Saraf uh was sent out of the rotation and it was Jagor and Tyrese as the point guards. Tyrese is playing 22.7 minutes. Jagor is playing 20.6. So a little bit more Tyrese. The last five games since Drake’s been back. Uh Zire Williams is playing 20 25.6 minutes. Drake Pal is playing 22.6. So the arrow is pointing slightly in the veterans direction and I understand that because I’, as I’ve said, you know, Jordy is trying to win games and put his best foot forward and send a message to the rest of the locker room. Even if I think the rookie should be playing more minutes, I think the thing that I take objection is in the game flow of some of these games. There’s some moments where like Drake is cooking and he has like a few straight buckets and then he gets yanked. There’s some moments where like Jaor in that Magic game, he hits a really big pump fake sidestep three. He goes to the basket. He almost throws down a dunk. He misses it, but like productive plays yanked. Doesn’t really go in for the rest of the game. Like that is where I don’t really understand what Jord’s doing with some of this stuff. How have you felt about the rookie rotations and the lack of minutes and the fan reaction to it? It’s annoying to watch because I’m, you know, I’m here to watch Jaor and Drake. That’s what we all want to watch. It’s tough for me to have a strong feeling about it because it is so early. It is November 17th when we’re recording this. I mean, it four months from now, it’ll be the middle of March. It’ll just feel like a year like years have passed in that time. So, I’m willing to be patient and wait it out and hopefully the minutes go up. And I it’s tough for me to sit here and be like as much as I would just like to see Jaor play 35 minutes a night, you know, they are per PVP stats eight points worse with him on the floor and Tyresese Martin has a plus4 net swing. Now, I know that’s not going to continue like that all year. I know we’re talking about small sample sizes, but the Nets have been worse as as to be expected, right, with Jagor on the floor, 19-year-old skinny point guard, and better with the 26-year-old that, right, had a good camp, had a good summer, got converted from a two-way to a standard contract last year, a guy that they love. Is that the going to pay long-term dividends for the franchise? Probably not. But do I understand the coaching staff in a random November game when you’re 1 and 11 and you have no idea what the conversations are like behind closed doors with the front office with the ownership group? Like am I going to fault them for going with that ladder guy who you’re 14 points per 100 better with a veteran? No. Do I want to see it continue all year? No. But that’s where I’m at. It’s November 17th. It’s frustrating and you can point to individual games like especially with Drake Powell, but I also do understand wanting to implement at least the bare minimum of a culture of you have to earn it. Yeah. And that that’s been my takeaway is, you know, I’m not a huge fan of some of just like the in-game rhythm feeling of the flow of the game and some of the decisions that Jord has made in that regard, but I don’t think there’s any debate at least with Jagor and Tyrese. Like Tyrese clearly gives them a better chance to win. Like he is the more NBA ready of the two and he should be. He’s you know four he’s whatever what is he seven years older than Jaggor right now. So that goes without saying and Jordy is trying to win these games which when you’re one and 11 like I can’t fault him. And he’s also had this mantra of nothing is given. Like that’s the phrase that he keeps repeating when talking about these rookie minutes. And you know, if this continues into January, February, March, that’s when I would have a real problem with it. If Danny Wolf isn’t up in the NBA by then, I would by then I would have a problem with that. But it’s a little too early, I think, to be having, you know, just complete hysteria about the rookies not playing enough minutes because if you look at Jaor, like Jaor is playing 21 minutes per game right now. I look, that’s 12th among all rookies right now. Now, Jaor is on a team that’s tanking and should be, you know, trying its hardest to boost its draft lottery odds and do everything it can to develop players. So, would you like to see him a little bit higher than 12th? Yes. Like, I think so. I think you can say that. But the end of the day, is it a massive deal that Jaor is playing 21 minutes a game instead of 25 or 26 minutes a game? I don’t think it’s the biggest deal. If that continues for the whole year, then I would have a problem with it. But the way that it’s going right now, like I think Jordy is trying to send a message to the rest of the locker room. Like you talk about culture, the dreaded C-word. I don’t want to bring it up. I don’t want to like fans to start uh blowing up my replies with uh you know, angry tweets. But there is something to be said about a player like Tyrese or a player like Zire, these guys who have done everything the Nets have asked of them and have produced in spurts, like rewarding those guys for that. There’s also something to be said for the rookies, not just handing them everything and letting them get complacent, trying to keep a little hunger with those guys. So, I understand it, but I understand if you’re a Nets fan who’s all in on these rookies and the draft picks and you’re seeing Tyrese Martin playing over Jagor and all these other rookies aren’t even playing, I could see how that could be a little frustrating. It’s just tough to analyze it on a game-by-ame basis. Like, after half the season, hopefully they, you know, we can take stock of their minutes, right? Because as Jordy says, there’s truly no sub for there’s no substitution for real NBA reps. But at the same time, it is also fair to be like, listen, I know Danny Wolf’s averaging 20 and 10 in the G-League, but I think he’s been bad on defense. I think he’s, you know, his assist turnover ratio is underwater. Like, I haven’t seen a lot of the playmaking. He’s chucking a little bit. I’m not saying this to kill him, but it’s okay to say, “Well, why don’t you prove you can do these things in the G-League that we want to see from you, and then we’ll bring you up.” Again, if it takes all year, I think that’s BS, but if it takes another couple weeks or a month, you know, it’s just so early. Like, it it’s just so early in this season. Yeah. Yeah, and I I want to bring this back to the tank conversation we had in the first segment for a second because while the Nets are really bad and you know I think there are a lot of overreactions amongst the fan base. They are playing better basketball of late. Like they played in that Raptors game, they ended up losing by double digits, but it was like somewhat competitive. They play in that Magic game where frankly they could have won it very easily. And then they blow the doors off the Wizards. And you know, since a certain person went out of the rotation, out of the starting lineup, and I don’t want to say it because I don’t want fans to get super mad, but the Nets have looked better, you know, and I feel like the conversation, the reason like I I don’t know. I just I look at them and I look at them like versus the Wizards last night or versus that Pacers team, albeit that Pacers team was missing a lot of guys. And I think they do look significantly better than these teams on the court. So, while they’re like two and, you know, while they’re 1-1 going to that game, now two- 11, like they’re playing a little bit better now. Like the arrow is pointing up slightly. Can you admit that? Yes, I think it’s true. They’ve also like, listen, MPJ was the least active, worst defender in the league through those first five games. And I don’t think it’s quite that bad anymore. I think Terrence man has honestly made fewer like what are you doing mistakes on defense. Um Clax is is improved a little bit on defense. Like everyone is at least seems like most of the time giving a professional effort, right? Maybe not a great one all the time, but like a professional one. And maybe that was to be expected, right? Because when they were 0 and7 and they had a 131 defensive rating, it was like this. They can’t be this bad forever. I mean, this sounds very dis it sounds very disrespectful, but the effort at times felt like unprofessional, you know, just like I don’t want to be here. It was like a slap in the face. And Jordy said that after I think it was the Rockets loss that like you can’t ever take an NBA game for granted and he was like going off the floor mumbling stuff to himself like you know while he was walking off like talking to himself. You could tell it was getting a little bit ugly there and I feel like we’ve seen a little bit of a shift and you know the Nets had that meeting u I think it was after the Philly game which might have been the most embarrassing game of the season and they had that meeting as a team. Jordy met individually with Noah, some other guys, and the effort has been better. And Michael Porter Jr. has been a player that in these last two games is playing his best basketball of the season and is really keeping the Nets competitive and it’s leading me into a conversation or thoughts about, you know, what does this move the needle for you with Michael Porter Jr.? Is this at all is this doing anything for you? The way that he’s playing and the impact that he’s having. So, we’ll get into all that. We’ll answer some questions about MPJ. We close out locked on Mets after a quick break. Your ambition just met its match with Robin Hood. You play for the win, not just on game day, every day. 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He had season high 34 points last night, 11 of 18 from the field, and he set back uh recorded seven assists in back-to-back games, which is his careerhigh. He had six assists in the first quarter against the Magic which tied his career high for an entire game. So MPJ is playing some pretty high level basketball and it’s really gone with I feel like I described it yesterday on the podcast as it seems like a more serious brand of basketball. It seems like at least in these last few games that Jordi Fernandez somewhat has gotten through to him. The defensive effort while still not good. The defense it’s not abysmal or like laughable. And the shot selection is getting a little more serious. He’ll take some bad shots, but we’re seeing a lot of, you know, offball movement. Obviously, him taking the threes off of zoom actions and curls and all that that he does really well, but also him showing a really good feel for, you know, how to get these back door cuts off of pin downs when defenders are top locking some of these actions. The Nets getting the high lows for easy buckets. He’s just he’s playing a very efficient brand of basketball these last few games. And I think that like you and me have had conversations about MPJ that sometimes he has 25 points and it feels like the least impactful 25 points ever. These last couple games I don’t quite feel that way. And I’m just wondering with you, has this moved the needle at all for you and how you’re how you feel about Michael Porter Jr. and his outlook? No, I Well, I don’t know. That’s an interesting question. I think it just goes to show you situation in the NBA, especially with respect to like numbers is everything. Like these guys are so talented that even the slightest adjustment in situation can drastically change what your production looks like. And this is not a minor change. Um, I think this is a huge credit to it should make Nets fans feel really excited for Jordy whenever he gets like a real A1 hopefully offensive talent. Um, like down to the little things, right? Last year, all these pet actions for Cam Johnson, most of them had him going to his right side. These all have MPJ going to his left. Like little things like that are are, you know, they should be done, but Jord’s doing them. MPJ likes shooting going to the left. He g he’s given MPJ as a way bigger target than Cam more opportunities to back cut to kind of seal off uh smaller defenders like you said when they top lock and Clax throws it over the top. You know MPJ really doesn’t have the best handle and so Jord’s allowed him to create all these advantages off the ball like you fly off screens you get a handoff or you back cut like it. So credit I’m not just trying to credit Jordy. credit to the player and coach for making this work, but I think it’s just a a really nice pairing of offensive system right now and uh skill set and you know, God, he can he can shoot. And even like those floaters he takes when he’s like driving left and like throws it up with one hand as he’s falling out of bounds and it looks like he’s just trying to draw the foul. It’s like, man, this guy has so much basketball skill in his right wrist. His his dexterity and his like body control and understanding of positioning is just insane. Like you said, like there’s some I remember a specific play in the Orlando game where he he, you know, kind of got the dump off off the top lock on the high low and then a defender came over and he like caught it and in one motion like turned his body 180 degrees and like made a fall away like floating push shot. And I’m just like the degree of difficulty on some of these shots is insane. But I do think that there’s something to be said about Jordy like I feel like somewhat getting through to MPJ in these last few games because you heard MPJ talking about this going into the season. Like he came in, he’s out of the Jokic Jamal Murray shadow. He said it to us at summer league like I feel like I have a lot more to my game. I think it’s going to be a lot more ISO like some more pick and roll reps and all that stuff. And Jordy kind of shut that down right in the beginning of training camp. was almost like pretty much said to us like no like he can’t dribble so he’s not going to do that stuff and these last few games like MPJ’s not doing a lot of that stuff and it seems like he’s just really committed and really like realized in some of these offball actions that he has experience doing that you know Jordy is putting him in good positions and he can get his numbers more efficiently with that and the Nets also have a couple of big men who can pass the ball at a pretty decent level so that is helping a lot but like you look at MPJ’s numbers for the season. He’s now at he’s near 56 effective field goal percentage. That’s seventh among 17 players attempting over 18 shots per game. So with the expanded role, he’s near the top of the players on high volume in terms of efficiency. He’s assisting on 17.3% of his teammates made shots. That’s more than double any other season in his career. And he does have a plus 6.7 offensive rating, which the Nets bench sometimes is god awful. But his offensive rating is the fourth highest among all forwards who play over 200 minutes. So all these numbers are good. And for me, like does it me make me feel like MPJ is going to be a long-term piece for this Nets team? Maybe not. But it does give me, you know, at least it’s interesting in regard to how he can buy into a role and fit in. Also, like you said, Georgia Fernandez’s ability to get the most out of some of these players who have differing skill sets and his ability to adjust things. That should be a resounding positive. I feel like for Nets fans, it’s amazing that he can even sustain a 27% usage rate with like his lack of ability to like, you know, bring the ball up and create space just with an isolation dribble. Uh, again, not a slight like his skill set has been very valuable for a championship winning team. It’s like he’s, you know, accomplished so much and his back is constantly has fallen apart in the past and he’s overcome that. I mean, just a great career, but like, you know, he’s he’s at the same usage rate pretty much as Kawhai who’s now hurt. Paulo Bonero, De’aran Fox, Denny Odia, uh he’s above Kevin Durant and France Vagner. Like, you could say what those want what you want if he should have a lower usage or if those guys should have a higher usage. Again, usage isn’t everything. But the fact that they can even run this many possessions through him is pretty shocking if you’ve like, you know, watched all of his prior possessions or a lot of them in Denver. Um, and he’s gotten, you know, really, it seems like much better at when he’s doubled, right? Like if they’re playing high ball screen coverage, he can see the roller or he can see the corner. Um he is pretty good at like keeping the ball out of harm’s way and yeah it’s been it’s been you know really impressive. I mean and I hey it’s fun to watch too. And he’s he’s a we’ll close it out after this and he’s obviously a punching bag for obvious reasons you know in terms of just like comedic discourse surrounding the NBA. A lot of things that he does off the court goes without saying like fair game there. on the court. There are a lot of unserious moments, but I feel like in all that it does get lost in the fact that like this guy was like a high impact starter on a championship team. Like he’s not he’s not like a joke of a player. I think like some Nets fans have like written him off and said like us included at points because his defense was just frankly so embarrassing, but like if he locks in and he commits, he has the talent. You know, obviously the offensive talent goes without saying. And then defensively like he does have the size in some of these things where if he buys in he’s committed and all these things like he is he does have potential to be an impactful player on an NBA team and you know we only have like a minute left so I’ll throw it over to you for like very brief thoughts but you know Cam Johnson is struggling over in Denver and I have said that you know I felt like while CJ was probably a better fit in Denver and a more serious player and more of a veteran presence I felt like the trade discourse after that in regards to Nuggets fans NBA as a whole, the pendulum swung a little bit too far to like Cam Johnson’s this unbelievable player and MPJ is just like unserious. I feel like we’re seeing like they’re a lot closer than I think some people were, you know, talking about it after that trade. Yeah, I mean it was a great trade just for the 2032 unprotected Denver first. The guy I’ve been thinking about and it’s not my original thought. Why is this diff like we love Lowry Market and we constantly try to trade him to the contender, right? that’s just missing that one final piece. He’s been that’s been his like role in the wider NBA discourse for three years. What What makes his seasons in Utah different or better than what MPJ is doing right now? It’s been 13 games. He has to sustain it. He has to keep playing regular bad defense and not or like horrific defense. Um, but that’s like a guy I think about. I’m like the situations are are are everything. and you look at him at Lowry’s numbers. What’s the difference? I have the I have the answer. You I’m going to leave it on this. The The difference is that Lori Markin isn’t playing Andrew Tate clips for his dates and he’s not um and he’s not talking about his uh his vices of women and and other and his brother having no money all that. We’re not Larry Markin’s over in Finland like having a good time in the offseason and just no controversy. That is the difference. But Lucas, appreciate you taking the time as always. Uh, always great having you on. I think that we, you know, talked, we gave as much credience to some of the Nets fans concerns as we could, but Nets’s got Boston tomorrow, so we’ll have you back on the show soon. And, uh, yeah, man. I appreciate you taking the time. That does it for today’s episode of Locked on Nets. Hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Locked on Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the content, take one second right now, smash that like button, leave a comment, leave a fivestar review. Anything you could do to engage is much appreciated. We got the Nets playing the Celtics for a home and away. So, I have coverage of all that and more when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan discuss the Brooklyn Nets’ tank outlook 13 games into the season. They dive into fans’ concerns about Jordi Fernandez’s decisions, the team’s rookie development plan, Michael Porter Jr., and more.

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