Brooklyn Nets: Biggest strengths and weaknesses for 2017-18

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Strength No. 1: Pace

The Brooklyn Nets were a bad team last season on both sides of the ball. But head coach Kenny Atkinson made a decent amount of changes in his first season that will go a long way toward changing the fortunes of the franchise.

The most dramatic of the changes was the pace of play for Brooklyn. In 2016-17, the Nets had the fastest pace in the NBA, using up 103.6 possessions per game (per ESPN.com). The Nets played faster than the Houston Rockets, the Phoenix Suns and even the NBA champion Golden State Warriors.

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Exploiting pace of play is a great way to close the gap when playing a more talented opponent. Pace of play played a major factor in almost all of Brooklyn’s 20 wins last season. The Nets were 10th in the league last year in fast break points per game. New arrivals Mozgov and Russell were starters in L.A., where the Lakers finished sixth in fast break points per game, so they will have no trouble adjusting to Brooklyn’s frenetic pace.

The only downside of the playing style — for now — is the increasingly high turnover rate. The Nets were second-to-last in turnovers per game. Russell will be helped out by the fact that Jeremy Lin is likely to share a big chunk of the playmaking duties in the offense.

Brooklyn’s up-and-down style is likely to produce a lot of exciting moments this upcoming season. But with Russell and the new additions in town, expect the Nets pace to frustrate opponents even more in 2018.

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