The Brooklyn Nets coach compared the Nets rookies to NBA champions Shay Gilgus Alexander and Jalen Williams.
The net was widely criticized after the draft for acquiring five players who recorded the NBA in the first round. Not only that, but most of those picks were aimed at bold dominant playmakers with limited shooting capabilities. One of them needs to be resolved, right?
The net lost the Summer League opening game to the Oklahoma City Thunder 90-81. After the loss, the Brooklyn coach compared his situation to that of the Thunder, who won the championship.
NETS assistant coach Steve Hetzel was asked about his team’s strategy of bringing multiple ball-controlling players into the same draft class.
When asked if Brooklyn’s ball handlers could coexist in the long term, Hetzel said, “This is how we build our roster. The league is currently multiple ball handlers, multiple attackers.”
Hetzel continued. “If you look at the teams that just won the championship, you have Jalen Williams and Shy Gilgus Alexander.
It’s a difficult comparison to sell. Yes, the best NBA teams have multiple stars who can attack and play. Beyond the lightning there are Jason Tatum and Jaren Brown of the Boston Celtics, and LeBron James and Lukadon Sic with the Los Angeles Lakers.
However, the Lakers lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs due to lack of balance. Playmaking talent won’t take you far.
Thunder has a balanced mixture of Chet Holmgren’s rim protection and rebound, and Lu Dort’s perimeter defense and fire, paired with playmaking.
If the answer to success was as easy as bringing in as many ball handlers as possible, they would have been the only players drafted.
In a recent episode of the Bill Simmons podcast, Bill Simmons defeated the darkest situation in the NBA. He had the net at the second spot in the Eastern Conference.
Brooklyn has entered the summer with about $55 million in cap space. Therefore, they were in the mix for some well-known free agents. Instead, Net traded for injured Michael Porter Jr. and Cam Johnson behind a successful season, and for Terrance Mann.
Combine these new players with the first five round rubies. It’s going to be a long season in Brooklyn.
“I don’t really love the young guy on this team. I don’t even know if my favorite net asked who my answer is. Do you think it’s Nick Claxton?”
“Who have as the best net asset? Who do you go home about thinking ‘it’s our man’? ”
He continued. “At some point, I want to have a combination of young building blocks and cap space.
“I don’t understand what they did with all the cap space. There they basically turned everything in the cap space into Terrance Man. It was really stupid and somehow lost Cam Johnson.”
The net wants Hetzel to be right and hopes the team will have multiple rookie playmakers in trend setting moves. Otherwise, this can become awkward soon.