New Jersey Nets Breakdown: Nets Offense Misses The Point

[Erick Blasco]

 

 

As evidenced by their drubbing at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder 114-93, the New Jersey Nets remain a team stuck in neutral. Despite shedding a fantastic amount of cap space to recreate their roster this offseason, New Jersey is still one of the league’s bottom feeders.

 

With such a remade roster, it’s only fair to start with the incumbents using the Thunder game as a guideline.

 

Devin Harris—7-13 FG, 5-5 FT, 3 AST, 2TO, 19 PTS—has terrific end-to-end speed, which makes him an excellent transition player where he tallied eight of his 19 points. In the halfcourt, he’s quick to attack seams to the basket and has mastered a nifty stop-and-step-through maneuver to finish around the hoop.

 

However, Harris was only 2-6 on his jump shots, which suggests that teams can sag off him to limit his success. He also missed two layups, including one when he posted Russell Westbrook successfully but couldn’t finish the shot.

 

Worse was Harris’ passing, with at least a half dozen passes deflected, flat lining New Jersey’s offense. He only generated three assists:

 

 

• A bounce pass off a screen/roll with Brook Lopez where Lopez caught the ball, barreled into a defender, and finished a tough layup;
• An uncontested lob to Derrick Favors when Oklahoma City’s weak-side failed to rotate after Favor’s man showed on a screen; and a nice split of a double team
• A nifty split of a double team led to Harris jumping in the air and throwing the ball at Kris Humphries’ feet, forcing Humphries to fumble around for two seconds before dunking.

Of Harris’ two turnovers, one came on a spin move where Westbrook ripped the ball out of his hands highlighting Harris’ lack of strength, with the second coming on a botched jumpstop.

 

Harris is fairly effective at attacking his man and getting a decent shot for himself, but because of this, he’s less of a point guard who makes teammates better, as he is a scoring guard who passes as a second option—one of the main reasons New Jersey’s offense has been so inefficient under his watch. It’s hard to generate effective weak-side and five-man offensive sets if a point guard is running mainly two-man games and attacking off the dribble.

 

Defensively, Harris poked a dribble away from Westbrook for a nice steal, but he tended to get stuck on screens before giving up on possessions, while also was lounging around on a sideline out-of-bounds play when Westbrook caught the pass, caught Harris with his pants down, and zipped to the bucket for a layup.

 

The point being that while the Nets have problems elsewhere, they’re struggles begin with Harris’ awful defense and inability to make teammates better.

 

http://www.netsdaily.com/2010/12/31/1906734/new-jersey-nets-breakdown-nets-offense-misses-the-point

[The Truth]

damn Erick, are you a professional writer? this is impressive.

 

I wouldn't be entirely opposed to the Nets trading Harris. the problem, though, is that so many of the league's teams already have great point guards. out of the thirty clubs, I'd guess that maybe only two or three would have genuine interest in Devin. I just can't see them getting anything of equal value for Harris alone. if they involve themselves in a larger trade, on the other hand, that can change. something tells me their deal for Melo will occur next week, but I'm still not sure whether or not I want that to happen.

 

you hit the nail on the head when you said they needed help on the wing. whether or not they deal for Melo, one thing they need to do is trade Murphy. he's a big expiring contract and you hate to see that go to waste. things look bleak now, but they've got some stuff working for them. assuming they don't get Melo, they should have plenty of money to spend on free agents in the coming years. they also have some good, young players and lottery picks on the way. all those things combined are usually a recipe for success when building a contending team.

[Erick Blasco]

damn Erick, are you a professional writer? this is impressive.

 

I wouldn't be entirely opposed to the Nets trading Harris. the problem, though, is that so many of the league's teams already have great point guards. out of the thirty clubs, I'd guess that maybe only two or three would have genuine interest in Devin. I just can't see them getting anything of equal value for Harris alone. if they involve themselves in a larger trade, on the other hand, that can change. something tells me their deal for Melo will occur next week, but I'm still not sure whether or not I want that to happen.

 

you hit the nail on the head when you said they needed help on the wing. whether or not they deal for Melo, one thing they need to do is trade Murphy. he's a big expiring contract and you hate to see that go to waste. things look bleak now, but they've got some stuff working for them. assuming they don't get Melo, they should have plenty of money to spend on free agents in the coming years. they also have some good, young players and lottery picks on the way. all those things combined are usually a recipe for success when building a contending team.

 

This Carmelo trade the Nets are working on makes a ton of sense to solve most of their problems. They'd get major help at the wing, they'd still have Lopez and Humphries as a respectable frontcourt duo, and at the point, they can survive with Farmar. You are right that there won't be too much interest in Harris at the price tag he has, but he's a useful scorer. I just don't think he's any kind of difference making point guard. I'm sure a team like the Bobcats could use a player who could create his own shot the way Harris can.

 

Ultimately, I just hope that people who look at Harris as some great player realize that he's talented, but he's very much a flawed player. In the long term (New Jersey will suffer in the short term without a player to pick up his scoring load), they may be best off shipping him out.

[The Truth]

i'm still on the fence about Melo. the way I feel about the trade is going to depend on exactly what they give up and exactly what they get in return. the biggest factor, though, is whether or not they can extend him. if they make this deal without a guaranteed extension, I'll be entirely against the deal.

[Erick Blasco]

i'm still on the fence about Melo. the way I feel about the trade is going to depend on exactly what they give up and exactly what they get in return. the biggest factor, though, is whether or not they can extend him. if they make this deal without a guaranteed extension, I'll be entirely against the deal.

 

I think no matter where Melo goes, he'll sign an extension. If he doesn't, he may lose out on major money because of the CBA expiring,