By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer
BROOKLYN — At 15-6, the Brooklyn Nets own the best record in the Eastern Conference. That, obviously, is very good.
What’s not so good is that all six of their losses have come against teams over .500. In fact, they’ve won only four of their 10 matchups this season against winning teams.
"I just don't think we're in that category yet," Nets coach Steve Nash said last week after a home loss to the Golden State Warriors. "We got a lot of work to do."
Which leads us to this week’s Starting Five — in which we dive into a topic and break it down via a list. Sure, the Nets are great, but they could use some polishing. Here are five fixes they need to make to live up to expectations.
Yaron Weitzman pinpoints five things the Brooklyn Nets must fix if they want to win a championship. No. 1? Get some help for Kevin Durant.
1. Get Kevin Durant some help.
Here’s the good news for the Nets: Durant has firmly established himself as the best player in the world. The things he’s doing are incredible. He’s leading the league in scoring (28.6 points per game) while shooting an amazing 54% from the field.
He’s also playing 35.8 minutes per game, seventh-most in the league. The last time he played that many minutes was the 2015-16 season. He was just 27 years old then and, maybe more importantly, not recovering from a ruptured Achilles.
Durant is now 33 and playing on a surgically repaired Achilles tendon. Yet he’s carrying a bigger load than he has at perhaps any point of his career. For example: The Nets, due to their lack of wing depth (more on that later), often have Durant guard the opponent's No. 1 option.
Is this something that concerns the Nets? Seems to me it should, though when I asked Nash about it before their 112-110 victory over the Knicks on Tuesday, he was pretty blunt in his response.
"It's not ideal to have him have such a burden," Nash said, "but I don't know what options we have, other than to play him less and lose more."
That night, Nash was proven prophetic. Durant played 41 minutes against the Knicks, scored 27 points, dished out nine assists and spent a ton of time defending Julius Randle, often banging with him in the post. The Nets needed all of that to hold on for a two-point win.
For what it’s worth, Durant said he isn't worried. In fact, he said that during games, he’ll often push Nash for more minutes.
"I’m a basketball player. I enjoy to play. Like, I wanna play for 48 minutes," he said. "That’s just what it is. And I know a lot of people — I don’t even know if they’re concerned or not. I just think it’s just a conversation to have, like, I’m playing more minutes, and I’m coming off an injury, and all this other stuff.
"But I like to play, and if I can convince Coach to play me the whole second half sometimes and put me in earlier in quarters, I’m gonna do it every game. It don’t matter. My basketball life is not that long, so I’m gonna get the most out of it."
Fair enough. But the question is: Can Durant keep this up for the entire season and still have gas left in the tank for a playoff run?
2. Find some depth.
Before trading for James Harden last season, the Nets had a decision to make. Did they think they were better off moving forward with a Big 2 of KD and Kyrie Irving plus depth, or should they give up the depth, get Harden and move forward with a Big 3?
We all know how that played out. And now, due to Irving’s vaccination status and New York City's vaccine requirements, the Nets find themselves chasing a title with a different approach: a Big 2 and no depth. At this point, they basically traded Jarrett Allen, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris LeVert for nothing.
Granted, no one could have predicted that Irving would miss perhaps the entire season due to a vaccine mandate, but look at the past few Nets box scores, and you’ll be shocked by both the names of the players in the rotations and how many minutes some of them — like KD — are playing.
"It might be someone different every night," Nash said of the team’s rotations. "Which guy has a better matchup or is playing better or has it going. We're just gonna have to do it by committee."
Not all of this is the Nets’ fault. Joe Harris being out for two months due to ankle surgery hurts. Nic Claxton has missed 15 games because of an undisclosed non-COVID illness, robbing the Nets of some much-needed rim protection and young legs. Add those two to the mix, plus a red-hot Patty Mills (he’s shooting a ridiculous 47.8% from deep on 6.6 attempts per game), and you have the makings of a strong rotation.
Shannon Sharpe explains why the Nets are not the best team in the Eastern Conference despite having "the best players."
But the Nets have also made some mistakes. They’re too dependent on aging bigs — players such as Blake Griffin, who was recently benched, LaMarcus Aldridge and Paul Millsap — and they don’t have enough capable wings on the roster.
That’s why Durant has to spend so much time hounding opposing top guns. DeAndre' Bembry has shown flashes, but it’s clear that Nash doesn’t really trust anyone outside of his starting lineup.
3. Find a two-way big.
The Nets began the season with Griffin as their 4 and Claxton as their starting center. Two games later, Griffin was moved to the 5. The Nets considered him one of their better positional defenders, and he provided some rim protection by leading the league in charges drawn.
The problem is that he has been unable to hit a shot. He’s shooting just 31.8% from the field and is a "those-numbers-can’t-be-right" 9-for-56 from deep. So in late November, Nash benched Griffin and gave the scorching Aldridge his spot. Aldridge has hit a ridiculous 57% of his midrange jumpers, according to Cleaning the Glass, one of the top marks in the league.
The problem, of course, is that he was never a great defender or rim protector, and now, at the age of 36, he has become a turnstile. The 1.15 points he’s surrendering on average in isolation possessions is one of the league’s lower marks, according to NBA Advanced Stats.
Statistically, the Nets’ defense has actually been good this season. According to Cleaning the Glass, which removes things such as garbage-time possessions, they have the league’s 12th-best unit. But if they continue to ride Aldridge, you can expect that number to fall.
Next time you tune in to a Nets game, watch how eager opposing guards are to drag him into pick-and-rolls.
Maybe Claxton’s return will solve this issue. But at some point and somewhere, the Nets are going to have to find a big man who can hold his own on both ends of the floor.
4. Get James Harden to stop overthinking.
After the Nets’ loss to the Suns on Saturday, a game in which he dished out 14 assists but scored just 12 points on 4-for-15 shooting, Harden was asked by reporters how he approaches the balance between playmaking and scoring. His response was a little strange:
"I'm just trying to figure it out," he said. "It's been a little difficult, especially since — well, whatever — but it's been a little difficult. But I'm trying to figure it out."
Harden responded Tuesday with a monster performance against the Knicks, racking up 34 points and eight assists. But you can tell he’s trying to find his place in an ecosystem in which not everything revolves around him the way it did in Houston, but because of Irving’s absence, the group still needs his scoring.
Harden is thinking too much — which is never good for a player. Nash explained it well this week.
"I always want James to attack," he said. "I want him to attack and put pressure on the defense. If it ends in a shot more times than not, great. If it ends in a pass more times than not, that’s great, too. For me, I don’t necessarily want to pigeonhole him into, ‘You have to score. You have to play make.’ I want him to be aggressive, be himself and make plays."
Harden’s numbers will be there by the end of the season (right now he’s averaging 21 points, 9.3 assists and 8.0 rebounds and shooting 41.6% from the field and 36.3% from deep). And despite all the hoopla about him adjusting to the new way the game is being officiated, he’s getting to the foul line seven times per night. The big difference for him was being in shape, and after an offseason of recovering from a hamstring strain, he seems to be back physically.
But the consistency is still not there. Maybe now that he’s healthy and in shape, it will return. But it bears watching.
5. Play up to their competition.
The East is stacked. The Bucks, winners of eight in a row, look like a juggernaut, with Giannis Antetokounmpo having grown as a passer and Grayson Allen having added some punch, and the Heat are talented and tough. Never mind teams such as the Bulls, Sixers and Hawks, all of which would be tough postseason outs.
In other words, there are a handful of squads that, come playoff time, could give the Nets all sorts of fits. And the fact Brooklyn has struggled against good teams is certainly cause for concern.
None of this means the Nets are doomed. But I think it’s fair to say that if you’re a fan of this team, you’re probably less confident today than you were a few months ago.
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of "Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports." Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.
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