The Brooklyn Nets have had to work on a lot of things to begin the season, but they seemed to be clicking on all cylinders in their most recent blowout win over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle are still figuring out how to mesh well together, but the Nets have balanced the floor very nicely with considerable size and playmaking to surround both forwards with.
Porter has become one of the best threats off the ball in the league, considering his knack for operating off of ball screens and participating in high-low actions.
Because playmaking is not his strength and he tends to perform much better without having him operate with the ball in his hands, playing slotting him next to Randle, Day’Ron Sharpe, Danny Wolf and Egor Demin could make his life a whole heck of a lot easier on offense.
“I just told Ju, me and him [are] going to have to take it on ourselves to get us organized and be in the right place, be involved in the offense,” Porter said. “So we were just trying to communicate more, make quicker decisions and get into things quicker. We’ve got a lot of capable guys. I don’t know how many people are in double figures. It seemed like a lot, though. So we got capable dudes. And when we share the ball like that, everyone gets to have fun, feel like they’re in a rhythm. We can be pretty good offensively.”
The Nets still lack a true go-to option to go to at the end of games, as rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. is still learning how to operate at the next level.
The Pelicans are not a well-established team by any means, despite boasting considerable wing depth, so the Nets will need to find ways to carry this momentum forward against more competitive teams.
Nets coach Jordi Fernandez has heavily prioritized touching the paint and putting pressure on the rim over the last couple of years, as that opens up infinite scoring opportunities.
Nolan Traore, Randle and Wolf are more than capable of executing the offensive sets Fernandez wishes to run each night, but the key to making that work is to surround the team with a bunch of 3-point shooters to draw more closeouts and open up more driving and cutting lanes for each of the Nets’ rim attackers to exploit.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow