Brooklyn Nets: Shooting, As Expected, Killing Nets Early

As the Brooklyn Nets entered the 2015-16 season sans point guard Deron Williams (and his monstrous contract), there was a lingering question that popped up every time I looked at the roster.

Where is the shooting going to come from?

Say what you want to about the decline of Williams’ game (and plenty was), the Nets also lost Mirza Teletovic and Alan Anderson in the offseason, meaning three of the team’s five most active 3-point shooters from 2014-15 are wearing different uniforms this season.

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Williams was the leading 3-point shooter for the Nets last season, hitting 36.7 percent. Teletovic was the most active 3-point shooter, taking 4.8 long bombs a night before going down with blood clots in his lungs at midseason, but he converted just 32.1 percent.

Among the returnees, only Joe Johnson (35.9 percent on 4.2 attempts per game) and Bojan Bogdanovic (35.5 percent on 3.3 attempts a night) appeared to even remotely cause concern for opposing defenses.

Through three ugly losses to start the season, it is shooting that is killing the Nets (there are other factors as well).

Brooklyn, despite three straight double-digit drubbings, has attempted fewer 3-pointers per game than any team in the NBA—just 12.7.

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Given that just 21.1 percent of those attempts have actually gone through the rim, maybe it’s for the best the Nets aren’t really bothering to try.

Wayne Ellington is 3-for-9. Jarrett Jack is 2-for-6. The rest of the team is 3-for-23, including Bogdanovic’s 0-for-7.

Part of the problem is point guard play, proving that you often don’t miss what you have until it is gone.

Yes, Williams was a shell of his former All-Star self. But despite that, he still averaged 6.6 assists to 2.3 turnovers per game last season and the team had a 1.51 assists-to-turnover ratio as a unit.

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In three games this season, Jack has 16 assists in the two games he’s played, but as a whole, Brooklyn has recorded 57 assists on 108 baskets—just 52.8 percent—and has 40 turnovers for a ratio of 1.425-to-1.

Last season, 56 percent of Brooklyn’s 3,069 makes were assisted.

The Nets do a terrible job so far in the catch-and-shoot game. Of their 25 catch-and-shoot 3s, they’ve made only six. They have yet to attempt a 3-pointer without a defender within two feet, meaning their offense is not doing anything at all to get shooters open for free looks.

Try to make a living taking nothing but contested 3-pointers and you’re not going to survive, simply put.

The shot chart tells the story:

“I think everybody is pretty much frustrated at this point,” Johnson told the New York Post after Saturday’s 101-91 loss at Memphis. “But we have to keep working, keep pulling at them and just keep going hard on both ends of the floor. … It’ll come together.”

Of course, it’s easy to be optimistic in October. There are still 79 games remaining and the season still seems rife with possibilities.

And in fairness, it’s not as if Bogdanovic will go 0-for-the-season from 3-point range. They’ll figure it out to some degree.

Whether that degree will be enough to get Brooklyn into the playoffs for the fourth straight season—a lofty goal, but considering their first-round pick belongs to the Boston Celtics for Billy King’s ill-fated pipe dream of building a championship team with ancient players two summers ago, it’s not as if Brooklyn has anything to gain by going full Hinkie.

Next: NBA: 10 Bounce-Back Candidates For 2015-16

Figuring out a way to get a clean look from deep would be a good first step.