Ranking each NBA team’s All-Decade starting 5 from the 2010s
26. Brooklyn Nets 2010s all-decade starting lineup
- D’Angelo Russell
- Joe Johnson
- Paul Pierce
- Thaddeus Young
- Brook Lopez
If there’s one thing that can be said about these Brooklyn Nets, it’s that they aren’t likely to have trouble closing out tight games. D’Angelo Russell, Joe Johnson, and Paul Pierce have all been ice-cold assassins at one point or another and can all be trusted to produce a bucket late — even Pierce in his advanced age.
For as talented a scoring backcourt as Russell and Johnson are, they would get obliterated at the defensive end. Throw in a Pierce who, at this point in his career is far closer to the end than the beginning, and Brooklyn isn’t stopping anybody on the perimeter.
Thaddeus Young had some underrated levels of production on some horrid Nets squads, but Brook Lopez is the most intriguing piece to this core.
He’s an elite sniper in the present, but that prowess from beyond the arc only came during his final season with the team. For most of his tenure in Brooklyn, Lopez was best with his back to the basket and was pretty proficient in doing so.
Russell had his breakout All-Star campaign in Brooklyn, but it would be interesting to see how he operates alongside another ball-dominant player like Johnson.
On a perfect night, that backcourt pairing lights up the scoreboard and carries the Nets to a win. More often than not, however, the chemistry and defensive issues would prove far too difficult to overcome.