The Nets offense is busted. And they can’t wait on Kyrie Irving — or Kevin Durant or Caris LeVert, for that matter — to fix it.
That begs the multimillion dollar question of what’s wrong with the Nets offense? And how do they solve it?
“With the first group, we’re getting a ton of open looks. But with that second group, it’s simplifying the package — here’s two or three things we can use with this unit,” Kenny Atkinson said.
“[Dzanan] Musa loves to get to his left hand, so let’s put him here in this set. Theo [Pinson] likes these two plays, it’s his comfort zone. That was part of the emphasis [Thursday], simplifying the package for that second unit.”
Irving will miss a fourth straight game on Friday against the Kings. Since he went down with a shoulder impingement, the Nets’ offensive rating has been dead last in the NBA (they were 10th before he went down).
And while they defended their way to wins over the Bulls and Hornets, the competition is about to get better.
“We worked [to] clear up some things, especially with that second unit — what are some specific things we can do to generate better looks for our guys?” Atkinson said. “We try to give them something — here’s a couple of things we can do without really practicing that hard.”
Those couple of things are basic basketball. In layman’s terms, they include getting out on the break, embracing a Mike D’Antoni “seven-seconds-or-less” style and moving the basketball.
None of this is new or innovative. But drilling it back into their heads was clearly necessary. It paid dividends Wednesday against the Hornets, and they reinforced it going into Friday versus the Kings.
“With the lineup we have now, with the exception of Spencer [Dinwiddie], we don’t have a lot of ball-dominant, one-on-one guys that can make plays like that,” Joe Harris said. “So we’ve got to do a better job just moving it, moving yourself, getting off it and then letting the offense flow that way.”
It’s been a little while since the offense has flowed.
When Atkinson first arrived, he would’ve rather suffered through an IRS audit than a season playing isolation basketball. But a coach maximizes talent, and with the Nets having Irving — and eventually Durant — they’re third in the league in isolation plays this season.
The bad news? They haven’t been any good at it. They’re last in shooting out of isolations (31.5 percent) and next-to-last in effective field-goal shooting (36.5). Bereft of his three best players, that’s just the roster Atkinson is left with right now.
He’s had to concoct motions to get more clean looks for Harris, Taurean Prince and Garrett Temple, in the lineup replacing LeVert.
“Yeah, now especially we have a lot of different actions where it’s to get guys — shooters — on our team open: Garrett, myself, Taurean,” Harris said. “A lot of that stuff comes from the ball going from one side to the other — so whenever the ball is moving, we’re going to get better action for shooters.”
The Nets have made the fourth-fewest passes in the league. With this makeshift rotation, that’s going to have to change.
“Our best offense a lot of times is when we get a defensive stop and we can get out and get our attack break offensive action,” Harris said. “Whenever you can get out the first seven seconds of the shot clock and try and get a shot, that’s usually when your best offense comes.
“Then in more half-court settings … whenever we can get the ball to move from side to side, get the defense shifting, get the defense to work, break down, we have more success offensively.”