Brooklyn Nets CRUSHED by Charlotte Hornets in UGLY Season Opener | Are these Nets BUILT TO TANK?

Brooklyn Nets CRUSHED by Charlotte Hornets in UGLY Season Opener | Are these Nets BUILT TO TANK?

Coming up, the Nets are dominated by the Charlotte Hornets during their regular season opener. I’ll tell you why fans rooting for a top draft pick can rejoice and why they should be encouraged by Brooklyn’s rookies right now. You are Locked on Nets, your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Nets podcast right here on the Locked on Podcast Network. It’s your team, the Brooklyn Nets, every single day. I’m Eric Slater, Brooklyn Nete 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, I’m going to be recapping the Nets’s 13617 blowout loss in their season opener down in Charlotte. I’ll dive into what went wrong, whether the game is a sign of things to come, and how Brooklyn’s rookies fared during their debuts. Joining the pod now, we got Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily. And Lucas, it’s going to be a long season, man. It’s going to it’s going to be a long season. The Nets are blown out. 136 117 against a Charlotte Hornets squad that frankly like doesn’t have very high aspirations this year. And you know, Lucas, my thoughts before I give it over to you, like these were a lot of my I wouldn’t say fears, like these were a lot of my expectations for this season realized. And look, we’re going to talk a lot about big picture, what we think this means moving forward, what we think it could signal. I think we need to preface it by saying it’s only one game. Like the NBA, it’s an 82 game season. Things change. But I think that there were a lot of things that I was looking for, you know, I was expecting going into this regular season opener that came to fruition. obviously the inexperience of these Nets rookie ball handlers and I think that that is going to be a hindrance for them winning now on both ends of the floor and I think that we saw that just an overall feeling of inexperience and then also I just felt like there was a lack of leadership out there tonight. I mean, defensively, it was an abomination. Like, we’re going to get more later into what we think specifically went wrong defensively, but letting up 136 points to a Charlotte Hornets team that like has good players, but obviously like not one of the better teams in the league. And this is a Nets team that last season often or when it made its money, it was always based on effort a lot of times on the defensive end of the floor. We know Jordy Fernandez is a defensive-minded coach and that was just abysmal. And then, you know, I said the inexperience of the rookies and I just felt a lack of leadership out there and you talk about this team going from guys last season. Like last season, you look at the leaders, the alphas on this Net squad. You have Dennis Shruder, you have Cam Johnson, you can throw Dorian Finny Smith in there, and now you go from that to like Cam Thomas is your alpha ball handler. Michael Porter Jr. replaces uh Cam Johnson. Like you go from Dorian Finny Smith to Terrence Man. And I just thought that that was going to be a steep drop off on both ends or just from a leadership standpoint. And that was the case tonight and it just it felt like this was a Nets team that really didn’t have any identity or anything that they did well tonight. So what were your impressions and what was your main takeaway when you look at how this game unfolded? Yeah, I mean I wonder if that lineup and the rotations we saw were really a precursor to how Jord’s going to manage this season or if that was the result of solely a game in which the effort and defensive connectivity was abysmal and early in the third quarter Jordy had had enough and he, you know, threw out Tyrese Martin and Jaylen Wilson um in place of Cam Thomas and MPJ. J as sort of a I’m fed up, this is unacceptable. And that lineup with those two guys in there kind of got it back to a reasonable deficit and you thought, you know, this might become a game again. But beyond that, Nolan and Nolan Trayori not getting into the game until the fourth quarter, Drake Powell not getting in the game to the second half, you know, all 13 guys that were healthy played. Like is that going to be the kind of season this is from the jump and the whole way through where it it feels very much like a team without serious aspirations? I mean, we know they are, but is it just going to feel like that the whole season? And how much of that goes back to one of your main points, which is, I guess, lack of leadership, lack of structure, just a feeling like this team is just out there to either get better in the case of the rookies and the young guys or collect checks in the in the case of the veterans. And I know that might sound extreme after one game, but it just did not feel like they really had a purpose, a collective purpose out there tonight. Yeah. And that was like last season when this Nets team was exceeding expectations. It was led by like these veteran guys who were really playing hard on both ends of the floor. And that goes back to the point I was making just like the beginning of the year last year like Dennis Shruder was playing great offensively. And I’ve spoken ad nauseium about how I think that going from Shruder to rookie ball handlers exclusively rookie point guards was going to be a huge hindrance to the Nets competing. But also Dennis competed defensively, man. Like CJ played really well offensively. He competed defensively. Those guys are like were the head of the snake and the leaders. And we saw once Dennis left the Nets were, you know, astronomically worse. And obviously like that has to do with this offensive impact. But I think that there’s something to be said about the way that Dennis carried himself on the court, the way that CJ carried himself on the court. And I think a lot of that defensively is really important and that feeds to the rest of the guys. And I think when you have two guys like if you point to the alphas on this Net’s team right now or for the first at least the first half of the season, it’s Cam Thomas and it’s Michael Porter Jr. And those guys, what does it say about those two guys when Joy de Fernandez effectively pulls the two alphas and is like, “I’ve had enough.” In game one of the regular season, I mean, that was horrific. It was I mean, how bad was MPJ on defense? Oh my god. Like I mean like it was I don’t want to just sit here and and rag on him and you know come up with creative ways to insult his lack of effort on the defensive end although that would be very fun but because it is just one game but it you understand the worries now or at least it it gives credence to the side of fans and people that are like solely maxim optimizing the mathematical the odds of attaining a high draft pick is not always the best move. And on a night like tonight, you see why you kind of believe that to be true in a sense because it just does not feel like the defensive product that was put out there can lead to anything good. It doesn’t feel like that. You know, you see you see the you can see the dark side of that. Like I said this last season and I think that I’m still firm on my stance that the Nets didn’t do enough to maximize their lottery odds last season. I think they botched the tank and overall I think them doing everything they can to maximize that pick. I think that that should be priority number one and I’m firm on that. I’m not going to move off that stance getting you look at this Net’s team and you look at some of the other teams they’re going to face throughout the season. You don’t have anything until you have that guy. they need to get that guy. And I know it’s a lottery. Like we’re not gonna have that conversation, but you need to maximize your chances at that. So, like I said in my intro, like tankers, tank supporters rejoice. If you’re rooting for that, like this was a good game for that. But having said that, there is a dark side to that. And that was something that I prefaced, you know, a lot last season of the fans who said like, “Get rid of all these veterans. Like, we can go 0 and 82 and all And I’m like, hey, like I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but don’t act like there’s no downsides to that because there clearly are. And I think a lot of those were realized or at least you got a glimpse into what those could be tonight. I mean, that’s how bad MPJ was on defense tonight that were philosophizing about the ethics of a tank in in one game. That’s how bad it was tonight. I mean, listen, it wasn’t all on him. And just by the way, the Nobody defended well. Nobody defended well. We’ll dive deep as you said into the X’s and O’s or, you know, dive into them a little, but the point of attack defense was became just as bad as the weak side rotations and stuff. I mean, Charlotte was just walking to the paint. I mean, and some of that, okay, yeah, like YGO and Ben are going to get, you know, they’re going to kind of have to go through with these welcome to the NBA moments, but it was everybody. It was everybody in every position. And I mean it just doesn’t I don’t know it’s it’s it’s a it’s on opening night it’s a hard thing when you are a fan or a follower or probably a player on a team to be like is this what it’s going to be like for 81 games. I mean it’s hard to just put the math first when you’re thinking about a lottery that is seven months from now. Yeah. That’s why that’s why teams don’t want to tank. It’s an extremely undesirable thing to do, especially in a market like New York, but the Nets are doing it. And I think that a lot of people that I talked to argued strongly that, you know, putting Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. at the head of the snake is a pretty effective way to tank. And hey, it was one bad game. Cam and MPJ aren’t going to combine to shoot seven of 24 from the field every night. Like, they’ll have their offensive explosion games when they keep them in. But if you’re talking about the defensive end of the floor, and look, everybody was terrible defensively. So, I’m not pinning it all on MPJ. Dron was okay. Okay, I’ll say that most of the team was awful defensively. So, I’m not pinning it all on MPJ and CT. But if you’re a team, if you’re a fan who either is rooting for the tank or a fan who was worried that the Nets were gonna, you know, exceed expectations the way that they did last season, I would say that the leaders of the team set the tone, especially on the defensive end of the floor. And when your two top players, perceived top players, Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas, are guys that just do not give good effort on the defensive end of the floor. And I’m not saying it was just them again tonight, but I’m saying those guys set the tone. Whether or not they’re good defenders, like those are the perceived leaders of the team. And on the night like tonight, I mean, the defense from MPJ was like a joke throughout the preseason. And I I mentioned it after every postgame pod in the preseason, and I said, “Look, it’s the preeason. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt. If it continues into the regular season, I’ll let you know.” Game one of the regular season, Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas were so bad defensively that Jordy it seemed like in frustration pulled them and went 13 deep and would he have done that anyway? Right. That that was my question like is this how re how much should we look into the rotation because that’s how you know again that’s how bad it was and I don’t get and like you know the tanking thing is not an individual choice by the players on the team and that’s why you can feel frustrated when you’re watching this. It’s like they were the most aggressive pick and roll defense in the league last year. They’re always up the a two on the ball, which means everybody else has to rotate and be aware and fly around. And when you look at a game tonight, it makes you think like, what what were they what was MPJ working on in the preseason? What were they doing in practice to have that tonight? You know, I get Drake Powell being looked off and it leads to a dunk, but I mean, you’re watching this game and you’re like, “Oh, wait. If they’re playing at the level and the guys they trust to rotate around it are rookies Terrence man, Cam Thomas, and MPJ, are they going to be the worst defense in the league? Like, is that likelier or than not? That’s how bad it was. I I want to get into we’ll get into this conversation more later when we close it out, but I do think that that is a real worry and the defensive drop off for a team that like they weren’t great defensively last season, but they had games where they their defense and their effort kept them in it. We’ll get more into the X’s and O’s of it and how this personnel probably will not maximize what Jordy is looking to do defensively at the end of the show, but a lot of these listeners, a lot of you guys are obviously here to hear about the rookies, the Nets rookies made their debut, at least four or five of those guys. So, we’ll get into them, what we liked, what we didn’t like from Jorman, Ben Saraf, and co. We continue locked on Nets after a quick break. 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Rouette, stop making excuses and start making moves. Coming back from the break on today’s Locked on Nets episode, recapping a blowout Nets loss in their regular season opener to the Charlotte Hornets 136 117. But one of the main stories obviously or the main story outside of the Nets tank this season is these Nets rookies and four out of the five made their debuts tonight. Two really got the lion share of the minutes. That was Jagor Gilman and Ben Saraf splitting the point guard rep point guard reps. So let’s start with Jagor Gilman. He had 14 points, five rebounds, two assists, four of six from three in 22 minutes, four of six from the field. Also did not attempt a two-point. And you know, this was I think it was a positive debut for Jagor. Like I think this is really like what we saw in summer league somewhat a continuation of it and somewhat what I expected like from the sense of a major positive. This the three-point shooting looks for real like the three-point stroke. He was four of six in this game. He hit some deep ones. He hit a step back. He hit a lot of catch and shoot. You look at, you know, through three summer league games and now one preseason game, one regular season game. So, five appearances with the Nets. He’s 17 of 34 from three. So, he’s shooting 50% on high volume. Now, it’s only five games, but we heard all this stuff from the Nets about how he shot the cover off the ball in the off season. They are in the pre-draft process. They have no worries about his shooting. He seemed to back that up thus far. Now, there are the concerns obviously about what he’s going to do as a ball handler and what those how those limitations could impact the rest of the game and whether he’s going to get there because while we saw him handle pressure pretty well, I would say against Toronto in his debut, it was a struggle today. Like we saw him he nearly uh lost the ball and got stripped early on one of his first possessions. Then he did get stripped after that and then you know there just wasn’t a lot of off the dribble juice and that has been something that has been extremely limited thus far you know through through his appearances at summer league and these two. So what do you see from Jaor in this game and overall do you think that this performance you come away encouraged with it or are you more focusing on some of the concerns that you’ve had? I’m encouraged by it. I like that he doesn’t get a two-point field goal in the box score even though that’s there’s a very questionable a two-point field goal attempt left-handed hook floater thing. I was like who who keeps the stats because I saw that like Jagor got one drive to the basket and it was one of the only times that he touched the paint and he like he faded away which you don’t like to see and then he like he missed so badly that it went to I think Dron or Nick and they laid it in. He got an assist. I’m like, who’s keeping these stats? Because that was clearly a shot attempt. But but go on, Lucas. Uh yeah. No, but I I I I would be encouraged just because a the shot looks very clean. Um and you know, there were a couple times where he was able to like sustain a dribble into the paint. And I think the Nets very clearly think that in the modern NBA and with a good offensive coach and with better screeners than Nick Claxton and Dron, although Dron’s okay, you will be able to scheme paint touches for Jaor. And he is a very similar physical profile to Cam Johnson. Very similar as a ball handler. Jagger was a little longer, but when you look at like the perceived lack of especially coming into the league or when Cam Johnson was 20 years old, 19 years old um and still at pit like not explosive, not bendy, you know, could be pushed off their spot. And yet you saw last season the Nets were constantly able to scheme up opportunities for Cam Johnson to get into the paint, right? To get by the level of the screen. And with Jaor, he has these passing gifts that will turn those opportunities into really good offense. And you saw maybe I think one or two of those tonight. You know, a kickout pass or maybe a guy wasn’t there. But um if the shot is real, you know, he’s not exactly the player Cam Johnson is with better passing. But I think tonight was just another step in the right direction of seeing the vision even though you know Cam Johnson made leaps and and bounds as a ball handler from age 19 to age 28 and 27 and Jagor will have to do the same thing because the ball handling can’t be you know getting stripped on his way up the court. But it was a positive step in terms of you can kind of see the vision the Nets have for him and it doesn’t seem so unreasonable. Yeah. A way that I’ve been looking at it and you can interject if you think it’s flawed is that I felt like the three-point shooting if that comes around like that would lend itself to him having a floor and the ceiling is going to depend on the development as a ball handler and some of those other things and that’s assuming that the three-point shooting comes along. But if you look at it like based off what you’re saying like Cam Johnson not a one to one comp but if he has the three-point shooting and he’s shooting like high30s on high volume can do it off the dribble can go off the ball like I think that’ll obviously open up some of the things that he’s doing like on the ball and off the dribble but he can also slide to the wing and then he has this size defensively where you hope he has some versatility on that end and he can fill out a little bit and like that like if Jagor is shooting like high30s from three on decent volume like he’s going to be a rotation player in the NBA if not a starter. on like a good team. Now, the ceiling and can he be like a top three guy on a good team? I think that that’s going to depend on a lot of the, you know, ball handling, subcreation stuff, like off the dribble juice, that coming along. And that is a big question right now. Like, it’s, you know, it’s five appearances with the Nets, you know, three summer league, two with Brooklyn here. And I’m not going to draw any grand conclusions, but these were like knocks on him coming into the draft was his lack of shake, his lack of twitch, his lack of strength, the lack of like self-creation and some of that stuff. How would that translate against bigger NBA defenders? And you look at the numbers like through these five appearances, you know, three summer league, the preseason, and then this one, he’s taken 38 shots and 32 of them are threes. So like the the paint touches and all that stuff, it just it hasn’t really been there at all. like he’s made in those five games, he’s made two two-point field goals. One of them was one of them was that dunk against the Magic summer league and then one was like the back door cut that he had against Toronto. And you know, like this is a guy whose biggest gift coming into the NBA, he was perceived as the best passer in in the in this year’s draft class. And that inability to get downhill and touch the paint has like been a hindrance. Like I don’t know how many assists he’s had total. He’s had six or seven assists through five games, I think. So, I I wish I I there was that quote during summer league where someone on the net said, “Well, we’re not worried about his shot diet and, you know, his lack of primary creation opportunities. You know, this is not how we plan to use him throughout the season.” Something, you know, do you remember kind of what quote I’m talking about? It was, am I getting the gist right? Yeah, that was it was Steve Hutzel and we asked him about why Jagger was spending so much time off the ball and you know what he’s going to need to do to be more effective initiating offense and he said add strength is going to be huge and then also this is not what how we envision necessarily using him like it’s going to be a different role and then there was also that Keith Smith article where he talked to a unoff person so it was both of those things and and that uh article essentially relayed the same sentiment and I just didn’t get it at the time Because I mean it’s fine and he has a long career ahead of him, but it it’s not all about the way that the Nets are using him. It’s not solely an issue of like function in the larger sense. And tonight you saw Yeah. Jaggore is going to have to try to handle the ball and get into the paint and he is really really going to struggle very mightily. Um and I, you know, wrote pre-draft, I wrote postdraft. My worry for him is my swing skill is not the shooting, it’s all of that stuff. And I and I like the way that you look at it. Um, you know, if the shooting really is good, then that does give him a floor. But the swing skill is how much he’s going to be able to leverage that passing. And yeah, we’ll see it throughout the year. And the only thing you can really say from today is like getting matched up with Colin Sexton of all people in his first game is just he attacked dog on the perimeter is is very funny. He smelled blood in the water. Yeah. And a guy who’s just like like just standing there is like at Jaor’s waist and just like living under his dribble. Yeah. Like that’s a tough first match up. Closing it out on on Jaor like Yeah. And I would just like the stuff it’s going to look ugly like some of the stuff like when he’s trying to get downhill when he’s trying to do some of those things. It’s going to look ugly. He’s not always going to be able to do it because he has kind of like a bean pole of a screener and Nick Claxton a lot of the time and also he doesn’t have the tightest handle. But I do feel like there were times where he can get downhill. Even in transition, there were a few times where I just want to see him go and try and just get down there. And it’s like I’m not going to compare him to Ben Simmons and like give Nets fans Vietnam War flashbacks, but I just I want to see him start to try to do those things. And I think that he will. Like I’m very confident that he will as the year progresses. So he will. He was a little tentative in semi-transitioning a couple times with the ball. And he’ll that part. Yeah. As long as he’s trying stuff, Nets fans should be He’s going to have to he’s going to have to do that. He’s going to have to attack with purpose. And once he does that and he like teams start respecting it, that’s when his playmaking is really going to show. And I also think that the Nets will put him in some sets that they didn’t necessarily tonight that will get him more openings. But Ben Saraf was the other Nets rookie who played a ton in this game. And he had eight points, seven rebounds, four assists, two of seven from the field, 0 of three from three, four of six from the free throw line. He played 20 minutes. And I think it was it was also like a lot more or less what we’ve seen from Sarra. We saw some of the craftiness. We saw him getting downhill. We saw him probing able to get to the rim and score in the mid-range. The three-point shot looks ugly. I’m glad that he took three tonight though in 20 minutes. Like I think that that’s a positive. But you see the craftiness and like you see the NBA skills that are there. He got blocked at the rim a few times. He had some turnovers. But I came away from this saying like there were some plays in this game where I said like, okay, Ben looks the part, at least offensively, and he had some reps on the ball where he’s doing things like frankly that Jaor just isn’t probably going to be able to do for a while. Now Jaor has the three-point shooting. It’s like if we could just put these guys into a room and we could take Ben’s like craftiness and, you know, downhill off the dribble juice. We could take Yagor’s three-point shooting and make them into one player. We’d have one really, really high level prospect. But we don’t right now. But what did you think about what you saw from Ben? Yeah. Well, that and like Nolan Trayor’s like speed and you’d really have one big We could combine all three rookie point guards into one player. Yeah. When Mr. Joai gets, you know, the fusion uh invention um and and brings it over here. Yeah. I thought Ben was uh kind again really what we have seen during the preseason and summer league when he took that little one-legged floater runner in the paint. I expected it to go in. You know, when I saw him trying to snake that pick and roll for his first bucket in the first half, I expected a good result. Now, you really saw against like Musa Diabate and some and and Kulk Brener who’s just huge. you saw the struggles, right, in terms of like he doesn’t have a lot of explosion and and punch downhill and that is going to get him into trouble in the NBA in addition to the three-point shot, but you really kind of weren’t surprised, I think, by his game, which is a compliment. And you know, he seemed like he knew where the ball needed to go and is going to be like a fine offense offensive organizer for this, you know, very bad team, but he’s at least going to be able to provide them a structure and some paint pressure, it seems like. Yeah. And that’s a major positive. And I think that as the year goes on, we’re going to see some more come out of his game. I think he’ll get more comfortable. Like there were a few plays where I saw him get downhill and it looked like he had the right read and he was just a tick off on the timing and a tick off on the delivery. But I think that that thing those things will become cleaner as the year progresses. And I think the three-point shot like he took three threes today in 20 minutes. Like I think that’s probably the highest volume that he’s had in any game thus far, summer league and the preeason and now the regular season. And then if he continues to do that, if he can start taking some off the dribble because, you know, like they’re giving him a lot of space. Like they’re working under screens. They’re giving him a lot of space on the perimeter. I’d like to see him just pull up and take some of those. And that’s like something that he did he did with um Ratzio Far. So I think he’ll start to do it. I think he just needs to gain some confidence and get into it. Now the other two rookies that played, Nolan Troy and Drake Pal, they played like eight minutes a piece. Like Nolan hit a three, which was nice to see. Drake Pal had a nice transition layup. I think you saw a lot of the fluidity defensively, but they played a little bit. I’m not even sure if those guys were planning to get in the lineup or if it was like more just Jordy Fernandez rage quitting Gam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. So, not going to talk too much about them, but we’ll see. Like, they got in. It was nice. Drake turned his ankle a little bit. Well, hopefully he’s healthy, but when they get some more extended run, we’ll get into them. But, I think we do need to answer the question of is this Net’s defense gonna just be completely an abomination? and how could that affect the rest of their season. So, we’ll get into that when we close out Lockdown Nets after a quick break. 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After you place your order, select podcast in the survey and select my show in the drop-own menu that follows. Coming back from the break, closing out today’s Locked on Nets episode, reacting to a blowout loss in the Nets season opener down in Charlotte with Lucas Kaplan of Nets Daily. And Lucas, this defense like it was, we went over it a little bit at the top, but it was atrociously bad. And I think I did we did a preseason pod and I think I joked with you like Lucas what are your expectations for you know the Cam Thomas Michael Porter Jr. starting five defensively and the other early returns didn’t look good. But it wasn’t just them like it was Terrence man, uh, Zire Williams at the point of attack just getting fried. The next rookie obviously like the rotations are going to be a little bit of a struggle. And this is something that I said on my last episode is Jordan Fernandez’s D in this blitzing scheme. Like the Nets blitzed I think it was 14% of their screens last year was the highest in the NBA since 2021. And when you do that, there’s a lot of back-end rotations. Like there’s a lot of scram switching and all these different things that are really involved. And when you have five rookies and you have Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr., it might be a recipe for disaster. And honestly, I regret it because I might not have given this point, this topic enough time leading up to this regular season opener. So, what are your thoughts on is this just going to be a disaster defensively? I mean, we got the worst. I think as as bad as the roster looks on paper defensively, it’s tough to imagine the weak side defense, the point of attack defense, and the transition overall effort, any of those being worse than it was today. So, I I didn’t Sorry to cut you off. Yeah, sorry to cut you off. I didn’t even mention the Nets got outsc scored 23 to five pass break points tonight and it was 18 to zero in the first half but go on I had to throw that stat in there. I mean the the Musa Diioate block and then where he just like D it’s like that I mean yeah those are you’re running suicides in uh in high school for a play like that. I mean, so it’s tough to imagine those three areas, point of attack, weak side, transition, any of like it felt like the worst case outcome for all those tonight. But in the half court, um, you know, cleaning the glass said Charlotte put up like a 94th percentile offensive rating in the half court today. you start to look at the roster and the way they’re going to play and you’re gonna be like, well, how can they survive with this batch of guards and wings trying to rotate and apply lowman, you know, resistance. The best play anybody made today was Cam Thomas like came over and fouled Ryan Kulk Brener. Uh that he was only got a rotation. He was only late by that much, you know, and he could have stolen the ball. I mean, that’s how bad it was. I And I mean, could it be like again, they don’t really have an incentive to win, but you wonder if Jordy can really stick with this if it if it’s going to be this bad. But then again, today like was barely about scheme. It was just the effort overall. I think that that’s a good point to leave it. Like I think this scheme is going to be rough when you have when you have Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. sharing the floor with one if not multiple rookies. like a defensive scheme this involved having that type of personnel out there is not a recipe for success. But you know when you get outsc scored 23 to five in fast break points like that and the turnover margin was not that drastic that you would think that that was the case like that’s want to also just like point of attack defense like none of these guys are elite point of attack defenders but like you know defense like guard your yard like have some pride. I mean, Zire has to be a little like I I I this was the worry with him where it’s like, well, what position is he actually defensively? Like, what’s who does he guard? What’s his best role? But it it cannot be just change direction, move, I’m right by you. I mean, yeah, that was that was a lot that was a lot of guys tonight. I mean, like, you look at it tonight like I saw that with Zire a bunch of times. I saw it with Terrence man. I saw it with Iris Martin. Like guys were just getting blown by. Obviously like Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. same thing. But when you look at these with this wing rotation like Dennis Shruder like he guarded at the point of attack last season. Dorian Finny Smith like not a lead at it but he tried. Like these guys I think they will try. Like I think that tonight that’s why I don’t think the defense is going to be this bad. I think that there are scheme limitations with this personnel that I think are going to make it really difficult and that might lend itself to Jordy moving off of this, but I do think that these guys are going to guard better in the at the point of attack in trans and in transition because Jord’s just not going to tolerate this. I mean, they and in terms of one thing on the scheme that I want to know real quick, you know, they’re going to need to rotate and help at the rim and fly around, right? Putting themselves out of position. If you take Drake Powell out of this uh off this team, they’re the most they’re the least athletic wing room in the league, right? I mean, if let’s call the wings, you know, the guys guarding off the ball, Cam Thomas, MPJ, Terrence, man, Tyrese Martin, Jaylen Wilson, those, you know, those guys have all probably combined for three dunks in the last five years. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay. That sounded mean when you said it like that. It’s true. I mean, okay, listen, the game against the Cavs on Friday will be like down to the wire for some reason because that’s just how early season NBA basketball works. It’ll be like 89 87. Yeah, but uh yeah, I think there’s there’s limitations defensively, but I do think that Jordi Fernandez last year showed an ability to get more out of guys a lot of the time, and I think that he’ll continue to do that. And I’m really interested like as the year progresses, like we saw like CT play 25 games last year. Obviously, Michael Porter Jr. wasn’t there. But those guys are going to have to show more on both ends of the floor. Obviously, they didn’t get too much. We didn’t get too much into their offense. Like they shot poorly tonight. It is what it is. But on the defensive end of the floor, like if those guys are going to be the leaders early in the year, like they’re going to have to show more on that end. Otherwise, Jordy isn’t going to tolerate it. And we’ll see. And TT, like I I did a bold prediction show yesterday and I wrote an article today. Like I think that I’ve been pretty clear like I think this is trending towards a trade. Like I I just I’m in my gut. I feel like that’s where it’s going. The Nets are probably stuck with Michael Porter Jr. for a little bit. So, I want to see how that dynamic plays out and how Don’t sound so excited. No, I mean I like I like MPJ as a player like in some regards, but there were clear questions about his want to on the defensive end, his want to as a rebounder, some of these things during his time in Denver. And if this season like it’s a tanking year, if it starts to spiral, if he starts to be like, I’m getting my points and all that, I want to see how Jordy reacts to that. So, that’s going to be really interesting to see. But, Lucas, appreciate you taking the time as always. We got the regular season home opener coming on Friday against the Cavs. So, we’ll see how that plays out. Maybe it’s close like you said because that’s just how things go with the Nets sometimes. But, we’re going to have you on for much more episodes throughout the regular season. So, appreciate you taking the time as always, man. And, uh, yeah, I’ll talk to you soon. That does it for today’s episode of Locked on Net. Hope you guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas. If you do not already, make sure to subscribe to Lockdown Nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast, whether Apple Podcast or Spotify. If you enjoy the content, take a second, smash the like button, leave a comment, leave a fivestar review. Anything you can do to engage is much appreciated. We got the Nets regular season opener on Friday, so we’ll have more coverage of this game also moving into that game when I’m back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball.

Erik Slater and Lucas Kaplan react to the Brooklyn Nets’ 136-117 blowout loss to the Charlotte Hornets in their season opener. They analyze whether the ugly performance is a sign of things to come and how the Nets’ rookies fared during their NBA debuts.

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