Brooklyn Nets: Starting lineup, rotation after the James Harden trade
Rotation Pieces
Definitely playing
Bruce Brown apparently had no value to the Detroit Pistons, who shipped him to Brooklyn for an absolute pittance. He has tremendous value to the Nets as their only plus guard defender. With Spencer Dinwiddie out for the year and Caris LeVert now in Indiana, every option the Nets currently have to defend opposing guards is gone, except for Brown. Brooklyn needs him to improve his offensive output to some degree to truly succeed with him on the court – he is averaging just 4.1 points per game and 14.3 percent from deep – but he will have to play either way.
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The same is probably true for Landry Shamet now, especially with Kyrie Irving not around. The Nets effectively moved the 19th pick in this past year’s NBA Draft to bring in Shamet, who has been somewhat disappointing thus far. The former LA Clipper has scored in double figures just once despite the games missed by this team’s other offensive options. Shamet’s strength is off-ball scoring, but he is shooting just 27.5 percent from deep thus far. Hopefully one of Brown or Shamet will improve offensively as the season goes on and give head coach Steve Nash another option to rely on.
Finally, Jeff Green will be a fixture in the rotation, and at this point, it may be exclusively as a small-ball 5 behind DeAndre Jordan. He cut his chops at center, interestingly enough, with James Harden in Houston. Now Nash is using him as a change-of-pace from the traditional Jordan and Jarrett Allen. With Allen now in Cleveland, Green will need to fill in most of the non-Jordan minutes.
Possible options
The Nets may certainly add some players into this back-of-the-rotation mix, but for now this coaching staff has to use what they have. Tyler Johnson may be the backup point guard behind Harden, but after showing out in the bubble this past summer he has had a muted presence in Nets games thus far. Chris Chiozza has played about twice as many minutes; the former Florida guard is on a two-way contract.
There are no other wing options, as the Nets are now perilously thin with LeVert, Taurean Prince, and to some extent, even Rodion Kurucs gone. Reggie Perry is a traditional power forward who could spot some minutes at center, but he’s a rookie on a two-way contract. Second-year center Nic Claxton showed some spark at times last season but has yet to play a game this season due to tendinopathy.