Brooklyn Nets: Are They Really Playing Selfishly?
By Adam McGee
By now the majority of NBA fans will be familiar with Joe Johnson‘s criticism of his teammates as being too selfish, and after the team fell to another loss last night — this time against the Golden State Warriors — it might be time that they started to pay attention to that part of their game.
Joe Johnson may well be a veteran player in the league, but he’s by no means a talker. In other words, when he feels the need to call out his teammates, it’s unlikely he’s doing so without just cause. Speaking to the New York Post, Johnson emphasized this point himself too:
"“I don’t really say much. If I’m speaking on something or saying something, then obviously it has to be something.”"
Focusing in on where he felt the team was having problems in the early season, Johnson remarked:
"“I just think guys kind of exhaust their options and then when there’s nothing else for them, then they’ll pass it when they have to. For the most part, we’ve been very selfish. 4-2, I mean, it’s pretty good, but I wouldn’t say it’s where we want to be right now against teams that aren’t playoff teams.”"
Since his comments, the Nets have put together back-to-back losses, and what Johnson had called his teammates out on has been in full evidence.
In last night’s defeat at the hands of Golden State, Brooklyn had only 19 assists, while the previous night they could only manage 17 against the Phoenix Suns. When a team’s assist total is less than 20 per game, it’s generally not an indicator of a free-flowing offense, and it could come back to bite the Nets in a bad way if they don’t start to improve on it.
The Nets have always been an isolation-heavy style of team, as with players like Johnson, that’s the direction their roster shapes them into. Yet, taking a look at the numbers around the league in terms of passing, it becomes abundantly clear, that Brooklyn are distinctly lacking balance in their approach.
Brooklyn ranks 23rd in the NBA in assists per game, but that’s not even an accurate summation of just how selfish their play has been. Only 50.2 percent of the Nets made field goals are coming on assists, the second worst mark in the NBA, a surefire warning that Brooklyn are too reliant on the individual talent of their players, rather than the potential threat of them as a unit.
Looking at individual player passing stats doesn’t paint a pretty picture for Brooklyn either. Only Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett are currently averaging greater than 35 passes per game, while on strong passing teams like the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks they have four players each above that mark.
Quite clearly, this is a situation which should have Lionel Hollins‘ undivided attention, but that seems like it couldn’t be further from the case at the moment. The Nets coach seems particularly unperturbed by the whole situation, and in many ways, he even seemed dismissive in reacting to Johnson’s comments.
According to Nets Daily‘s collection of reports from writers like Tim Bontemps and Rod Boone, Hollins response was:
"“I read all of that. It means nothing. It’s one guy’s opinion. He’s entitled to it. I think the one thing he might not have said and take back, I think he’d take back was saying ‘selfish.'”"
The reality for Hollins is that Johnson’s appraisal of the team seems 100 percent accurate at the moment. If he doesn’t implement changes, or his players don’t make a more concerted effort to share possession, it will be a very slippery slope for the Brooklyn Nets.