Brooklyn Nets: What to Expect From Andrea Bargnani

One positive mention of Andrea Bargnani on Twitter is likely to be followed by negativity the likes we haven’t seen since, well, the last time Bargnani landed on a new team. The Brooklyn Nets represent Bargnani’s second fresh start of his career, after a disastrous two-year run with the New York Knicks.

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Fans can’t be blamed for the vitriol they’ve spat at Bargnani — especially Knicks fans — as the 7-foot Italian played just 71 out of a possible 164 games and contributed to one of the worst seasons the Knicks have had in their storied history. For crying out loud, Bargnani recorded two steals in 785 minutes of play last season.

We could cherry pick (and that harvest would be plentiful) a lot of terrible Bargnani statistics from 2014-15, such as the fact that on one of the worst teams in the league, he posted a minus-9.6 per-100 possessions. Think about that for a second — on a team filled with guys you’ve never heard of, Bargnani found a way to make them remarkably worse just by being on the court.

Supporters of Il Mago would try to focus on the fact that Bargnani hasn’t been healthy since the 2010-11 season, when he averaged 21.4 points and 5.2 rebounds (the Toronto Raptors were 3.1 points worse per-100 possessions with him on the court).

Bargnani’s 2014-15 was bad, inadequate, deficient, faulty, miserable and just shoddy.

I think the dogpile is high enough for now.

WHAT CAN BARGNANI DO?

Is Bargs going to make an All-Star team? No. Is Bargs going to make All-NBA? Hell no. That doesn’t mean he can’t have a bounceback year and provide quality shooting off the bench for the Nets.

Despite the fact that just about every analytic points towards Bargnani as one of the worst players in the league, he did have a couple of areas of success last season — most notably, his ability to knock down the mid-range jumper.

Would it surprise you to know that Bargnani can still shoot the ball very effectively? Check out this chart that shows a variety of forwards and how they fared last season from the mid-range:

It’s true — put Bargnani in the right spot and he’ll knock down some jumpers. Digging a little bit deeper (via stats.nba.com) shows us Bargnani can make open jumpers. When he was wide open last season (defined as the closest defender being 6-feet or further), he shot 46.3 percent. When we limit shots to being from 10 feet or further, he shot 46.2 percent, including 39.1 percent from the 3-point line.

Is it so crazy to believe that Bargnani simply isn’t the kind of player who is going to do a great job when counted upon to create his own shots? If head coach Lionel Hollins can get Jarrett Jack back to his 2012-13 Golden State Warriors form and if the Nets as a team can collapse the defense, Bargnani should be able to set his heels and fire away.

SO HOW IS HE SO BAD?

Defense, or lack thereof. It’s hard to look away from the car crash that is Bargnani’s defensive tracking. He allowed opponents to shoot 6.9 percent better than their season average against him and a ludicrous 10 percent better from the 3-point line.

From greater than 15 feet he allowed opponents to shoot 10.8 percent better. That’s so bad, it’s hard to believe — especially for a guy with some length, that you’d think could affect or alter some shots. He found a way to block 27 shots in 29 games last season, but apparently every other shot went in against him.

The second part of Bargnani’s (well deserved) reputation hovers around his passing ability. For his career, he’s averaged just 1.5 assists per-36 minutes. If you’re a Matt Bonner-type (also at 1.5 assists per-36) who is just planting your heels at the 3-point line, I could understand…which brings me to my next point.

WE MUST CATEGORIZE BARGNANI DIFFERENTLY

Whether it’s fair or not, Bargnani will always have the stigma of being a No. 1 pick that just didn’t pan out. It doesn’t help that he earned $11.8 and $11.5 million in each of his last two seasons, either. We simply expect more out of guys like this.

Credit to DraftExpress.com, who accurately predicted this fate:

"He has a long way to go before finding a position and being a complete forward instead of a tweener, and until then he’ll face harsh criticism and pressure that could kill his confidence and development. The higher he’s going to be picked, the worse it will end up being."

In 2015-16, Bargnani isn’t going to start. He’s not going to play huge minutes. Heck, depending on how much Hollins can ignore his defensive deficiencies, he might not play much at all…but that’s OK. Bargnani has been to the bottom. He’s been criticized — hell, killed — by just about every media outlet in the NBA.

Now that Bargnani is on a veteran’s minimum contract and in a role where very little is expected, I encourage everyone to look at him in a different way. He’s not the next Dirk Nowtizki. He’s not revolutionizing the game. He’s not the future of the NBA center. He’s simply a serviceable backup big man who needs to play on a team that can provide him with open looks at the basket.

Whether Hollins can pull the strings to make that happen remains to be seen.

Next: NBA Draft: Best Player Ever Selected in all 60 Spots

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