The Brooklyn Nets were the beneficiaries of one of the more confounding trades of the offseason when they acquired Bruce Brown from the Detroit Pistons for Dzanan Musa and a second-round pick. Barely two months later, Musa has been waived by the Pistons and Brown played in the closing lineup of the Nets game against the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this week.
It took Brown a while to even begin earning opportunities with this team. He played a total of 13 minutes in the first seven games with four DNP-CDs, but once he was finally forced into action he made the most of it with a six point, six rebound, five assist outing over 23 minutes in a blowout win over the Utah Jazz on January 5th.
Now the Brooklyn Nets have constructed a true super-team, adding James Harden to Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in a triumvirate of superstars. Considering what we know about the strengths and weaknesses of this team (the weakness is defense, and boy is it weak), it’s more important than ever that Bruce Brown stays in the rotational mix
Bruce Brown has value for this Brooklyn Nets super-team
Make no mistake, Brown’s numbers won’t jump off the page at you. He’s averaging 6.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.4 blocks and 0.3 assists since breaking into the rotation against the Jazz, and his shooting splits are fairly meager at .565/.182/.714, but Brown is one of those unstat-able players that coaches love to go on about (Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart are a couple of examples of this phenomenon).
His defense both on-ball and off it is a clear plus. On this team that is going to have a nightmare of a time stopping opponents, it’s imperative that head coach Steve Nash finds a way to keep him in the rotation, especially in high-leverage moments when stops are critical.
No game proved this to be more true than Wednesday night’s double-overtime matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In a 58 minute game, the Nets allowed 147 points and a defensive rating of 124.5, and they had absolutely no answer for an incendiary Collin Sexton who scored 42 points on 16-of-29 shooting from the floor.
Brown played just seven minutes in this game. Mind you, he didn’t excel in his brief playing time, but even a smidge more of his defense would have gone a long way to prevent the Cavs from eventually overwhelming them.
For example, it would be nice to have a player like Brown on the floor who can dog Cedi Osman’s drive all the way to the basket, forcing a tough shot outside of the restricted area. When he’s on the bench, this Nets squad simply doesn’t have anybody that can make life difficult on opposing scorers, and there really isn’t anywhere else for them to find such a thing.
Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash does have plenty of rotational dilemmas on his hands, but one of the benefits of having so many high-usage stars at his disposal is that low-usage defenders like Bruce Brown are worth their weight in gold.
For the Detroit Pistons, Brown would have just been an offensively-challenged 3-and-D guy who can get stops that don’t matter. But for the Nets, Brown is a player who Steve Nash will have to find a way to get into closing lineups in the biggest games this season.
Wednesday’s game against the Cavs was the first game Harden, Durant and Irving played together and there will surely be wrinkles to iron out. One of those wrinkles will consist of making sure Bruce Brown is on the floor when every possession is critical.