Nets may bother opponents - but will Brooklyn be any good?

Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor is joined by Nekias Duncan to discuss Brooklyn’s outlook for the coming season – and while the team may play hard on defense, it is not likely to challenge for the playoffs. Check out the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

This is just a young team with a bunch of fun players who I think have a chance to be really good in the long term, and they had a very busy offseason starting on draft night, they’ve made all of their picks: Jaeor, Damon, Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Sarraf, Danny Wolf, four of those guys being point guards of different shapes and sizes.

Then, of course, they acquired Michael Porter Junior, Haywood Highsmith, Terrence Mann, Kobe Bufkin as well, losing Cam Johnson and Trenton Watford.

But ultimately, this Nets team, my big question with them, Maias, when you look at all the names on paper, is how are developmental minutes gonna be distributed here?

Cause there’s a lot of mouths to feed when it comes to developing the young guys here.

There’s just a lot of names on the Nets that I think have a chance to be good in the long term.

No, I think that’s fair.

I think for me, with this Brooklyn team, and I hope I get the year correct, I could just look this up right now, but I want to say it was 2023.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were still in their rebuilding phase.

But for the first, I want to say, one and a half, two months of the season, they were a top 10 defense.

And then, you know, trades, we’re sending folks, hey, come sit over here, etc., and they were bad again, and then they kind of wrapped it up following, you know, what happened last year, etc.

My sneaky, like, Naka slash hot take question for Brooklyn is like, are they going to be a top 10 defense through like December 15th before it all falls apart?

I think they are really gonna bother some people early in the season.

I’m not, I don’t have any delusions about them making a playoff push, but I think the defense is going to be really good.

And then, from there, like, just what are we getting from Cam and PJ is kind of where I start with this Brooklyn team.

But the defense, I’m super excited about.

Yeah, I think their defense is gonna be exciting, as you said, more ball pressure, and they just have a lot of dogs on the team.

Even their young guys coming in.

I think players like Jaeor Damon, he can defend, you know, Danny Wolf is not a good defensive player necessarily as a rookie, but he plays hard.

I have a lot of guys who play hard, is my Overall point here, and I think Nolan Traore as well is coming off the bench for them, I’d assume, is he able to apply that ball pressure as well with his speed, athleticism, and versatility.

And, and can any of these guys pop offensively?

Does De’Mon look like a potential star?

Does Nolan Traore put it together offensively and look like, you know, a Dejounte Murray type of player with his speed?

Does his shot look better?

There are a lot of guys on that Nets offense, rookies that there’s a chance, you know, this Kobe Bufkin, does he stay healthy for once after, you know, I loved him in the draft out of Michigan.

He never put it together in Atlanta, but he was also hurt every single year.

He was also behind guys.

But like, can he put it together?

There’s a lot of these guys on the Nets that I’m excited to see if they have a star that pops, but ultimately, if I’m a Nets fan, I hope we’re fun.

I hope we’re exciting, but boy, I hope we’re in the lottery again.

I don’t want to be in the playoffs by accident, Nets.

That’s what I don’t want this year for the Nets.

Nets may bother opponents – but will Brooklyn be any good?

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