Brooklyn Nets: Can Young Backcourt Make An Impact?
By Vijay Vemu
The Brooklyn Nets have a good young duo in the backcourt this season, can they make an impact and show some potential?
There is not another way to put this. It will be a long season for the Brooklyn Nets. They are in a rebuilding process and it could take a while before they are contenders again. There are multiple obstacles when it comes to this rebuild.
First off, the Nets 2017 and 2018 draft situations are tricky. Both picks were included in their deal with the Boston Celtics that sent Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn. Based on the future of both of those teams, it looks likes the Nets are clear losers in this trade.
In next year’s draft, the Celtics hold the option to swap picks with the Nets. With the way that the Nets roster is set, it looks like they could very well end up on the top five of the draft order. But they would be at the mercy of the Celtics, who could switch draft places with them.
Essentially, Brooklyn’s draft position could go from top five to outside the lottery. Along with this, Brooklyn doesn’t have a second-round pick either. That pick is owned by the Atlanta Hawks, who acquired it from the Nets in 2012.
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Their situation for the following year, 2018, is worse. For that draft, the Celtics straight up own Brooklyn’s pick. The Nets will come into the draft without any draft picks that night as their second-round pick can go to either Philadelphia or Charlotte.
With the Celtics looking like a playoff contender, this means that Brooklyn will likely have to try to rebuild without having a lottery pick for two straight years. Having no second-round picks doesn’t help either. It looks like a very steep mountain to climb for Brooklyn’s management.
Rebuilding starts with the draft and without that, the Nets will have to get creative with the roster they currently have and in free agency.
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Along with the lack of picks to help rebuild, the Nets still haven’t found a key cornerstone to rebuild around. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is looking like a great piece for the future, but Brooklyn has to ask itself if he will develop into the type of player they can build around.
Right now it’s not looking like that, with his lack of a jump shot and inconsistent scoring holding him back. Brook Lopez is Brooklyn’s best player, but with them being a sure lottery team and rebuilding, trading him away for assets could make sense.
But there is one spot where the Nets could find a bright future and that’s in the backcourt, where the Brooklyn Nets have some talented players.
In the draft, Brooklyn moved up a couple of spots in the draft to take Seton Hall point guard Isaiah Whitehead. They also initially signed undrafted free agent Yogi Ferrell to a Summer League contract. The point guard from Indiana ended up playing decently in the Summer League.
He averaged 8.8 points and shot around 43 percent from the floor.
Brooklyn also picked up Michigan guard Caris LeVert from a draft-day trade with the Indiana Pacers. LeVert underwent foot surgery earlier this year and couldn’t play in Summer League due to that. He is expected to return by training camp, however.
Whitehead played around the same level as Ferrell did in Summer League. He also averaged 8.8 points but shot a much better percentage from deep at 41.7 percent. Whitehead also averaged around seven more minutes per game than Ferrell.
However, they both will be fighting for backup guard minutes this season.
The Nets picked up Jeremy Lin in free agency and he is a sure lock to be the starter. Brooklyn also picked up Greivis Vasquez, who will likely take some minutes off the bench. Both Lin and Vasquez will give the Nets some scoring and stability to the point guard position.
Both know how to run an offense, although Vasquez is more of a loose cannon scoring at times. But both will give a veteran presence to the younger players.
That puts both Ferrell and Whitehead in a tough spot considering both need minutes to develop as point guards. One solution for Whitehead is to move him to the shooting guard spot to get him minutes on the floor.
At 6’4″, Whitehead has a good size and frame to be a shooting guard. He also gives the Nets another ball handler on the court. Whitehead can attack the basket and is also very good in the pull-up game. Along with Lin, he could offer a very strong offensive backcourt for Brooklyn.
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It will be a tougher situation for Ferrell. Unlike Whitehead, he isn’t big enough to play the shooting guard position. That means he has to seriously impress the Nets coaching staff into playing him some minutes.
He probably will get some garbage time minutes this season with Brooklyn but he also has to get some competitive minutes. Ferrell can score in a hurry and his jump shot coming off the pick and roll can cause problems for defenses.
But there are still questions about if he can be good on the defensive end as well with his size.
Both Whitehead and Ferrell could be the future backcourt of the Nets. With Whitehead’s versatility, seeing him and Ferrell play in the backcourt is a very real possibility. Yet the chances of seeing that happen this season probably won’t happen.
Both Vasquez and Lin will dominate the minutes at the point guard spot. So that eliminates Ferrell. Whitehead still could make an impact at the shooting guard position, but with the Nets uncertainty about LeVert, we still have to see how they feel about Whitehead playing the 2 spot.
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The future doesn’t exactly look bright at the moment for the Brooklyn Nets. But Whitehead and Ferrell could give Nets fans something to believe in.