Net Returns

There’s been no shortage of apparent contenders to join Miami atop the pecking order in the NBA’s Eastern Conference

The Knicks were perhaps the first to emerge on the back of an aging roster who were putting up 3’s at an almost hysterical rate. The Bulls have always seemed a threat so long as the possibility of Derrick Rose returning remains real. Atlanta has assembled a pesky roster which has proved it has what it takes to stay relevant. Indiana has charged toward the top on the back of lights out defence as well as the sudden emergence of Paul George as a star.

And the most recent arrival at the Eastern Conference pretenders lounge are the Brooklyn Nets.

I wasn’t all that comfortable with Coach Avery Johnson’s Christmastime sacking, (it had the same fingerprints found on the body of Jerry Sloan in Utah), but on hindsight the move to oust the perhaps too conservative coach might have been the right one.

Since Johnson’s firing and P.J Carlisemo’s albeit brief reign, the Nets have gone 8-1 with their only loss on the road to the Spurs. They’ve shot into the East’s top 4 and are now within just 2 games of Miami.

To be fair, up until last night’s defeat of Indiana the Nets winning run had mostly been at the expense of the NBA’s bottom feeders. The Nets however cleared 95 in all but the Spurs game, which indicates a sharp offensive improvement considering that in the final 10 games under Johnson, that offensive watermark was breached just twice.

The Nets remain the slowest paced team in the NBA, which though not affecting their turnover rate (they’re still league average perpetrators) has helped them in transition defence where they’ve remained among the NBA’s top 5 point per game units despite poor defensive field goal numbers.

So what statistical sidenotes do I want to inject at this point to highlight the Nets resurgence? Well I couldn’t possibly write something on Brooklyn without mentioning Reggie Evans.

Evans features in 5 of the Nets 6 most fruitful line-ups and easily remains the team’s, perhaps the league’s, best rebounder. Remarkably he earns $11.5 million less per season than Kris Humphries who he seems to have replaced as the team’s starting power forward.

When Evans plays more than 20 minutes the Nets are 17-4, and 5-10 when he doesn’t.  

After tomorrow’s home game against Toronto, Brooklyn will play 5 of their next 6 contests on the road and all against teams with post season claims. When they do return they’ll have home games against Miami, Chicago and the Lakers meaning that by early February we’ll know just how serious the noise from Brooklyn is.