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| Jason Kidd has coached four games this year (missing the first two due to his DUI suspension), winning one (Utah) and losing three (Orlando, Washington, Indiana) |
It's pretty fair to say the beginning of the new NBA season hasn't exactly gone to plan for the Brooklyn Nets and new head coach Jason Kidd. The Nets are 0-3 on the road, losing to subpar opponents in the Magic, Cavaliers, and Wizards. A recent home loss to the Pacers and win over the Heat were both promising, but altogether not fulfilling enough to make up for the uneven play.
The problems causing the slow start are varied: countless turnovers in key moments of games, three-point jumpers taken when drives to the basket could be made, and too many missed free throws.
Brooklyn has averaged 16.7 turnovers per 100 possessions thus far, which comes to be in the middle-of-the-back amongst NBA teams, but is still high for a championship-caliber team which isn't necessarily lighting up the scoreboard. Brooklyn's free-throw shooting percentage (hovering around 73 percent) is another statistic that looks unfavorably for the Nets, since it's just five percentage points better than the worst team's (the Magic's 68.1%).
The Nets, as a old team with a bunch of key players older than thirty years of age, don't get up and down the court very fast, resulting in the less field goals they attempt (78.8 per 48 minutes, good for sixth-worst in the league) and, thusly, the less points that can be scored. Brooklyn also hasn't scored many points via the fastbreak as the Nets have scored a league-wide seventh-lowest percentage of their points on fastbreaks (11.1%, just .1% better than the Spurs).
We know the Nets aren't going to play like the seven seconds or less Phoenix Suns when Mike D'Antoni was in charge, but it wasn't expected the offense would be this stagnant, especially with the scoring talent present on the floor at any time for Jason Kidd. The only thing making the Nets' PACE rating (according to NBA.com's Stats page, how many possessions a team has per 48 minutes) somewhat reasonable (96.83, roughly in the middle of the NBA) is that Brooklyn has attempted a lot of free throws so far, mainly thanks to Brook Lopez and Paul Pierce.
All of the statistics and ratings I just mentioned make Brooklyn's situation look dire and like one which can't be easily resolved. Such a supposition cannot be proved or disproved right away, since the season is young. Less than a 1/10 of Brooklyn's regular season slate is completed, so there is ample time for the Nets to get used to playing with their new teammates in a winning fashion.
When the Miami Heat played their first season with LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh three years ago, they started off an uneven 9-8. Granted, the Nets haven't played seventeen games yet, but the sentiment is the same. Set-in-stone statements and assertions shouldn't be made after such a small sample size of games, citing the Heat's debut season as evidence.
However, the similarities between Miami's situation and that of Brooklyn by no means give the Nets a free pass for the first quarter of the season. After the rough start, the Heat picked up the pace right away, winning eleven games in a row to improve its record to 21-8. If the Nets can't jump out on a streak like that soon, then all worries about the team will subside and only visions of titles will remain. But if not, the concerns and questions will linger.
It's for this reason why it's important for players and fans of the Nets need to express patience with this team, at least early on in the season. Most likely, Brooklyn is going to be fine at the end of the day. There are way too many playmakers and All-Stars on this team for it to remain one hanging around below .500. The law of averages will kick in at some point to bring the Nets up from the cellar of the Eastern Conference.
It's not known by anybody when this transition from disappointing–but talented–squad to electrifying–and winning–squad will be made. It could be on Wednesday, when the Nets head to Sacramento to take on the Kings. It could be in a month or, in a worst case scenario, after the New Year. If everything goes right, though, it will happen, and when it does, the Brooklyn Nets are going to be a team that no one wants to face in the regular season or the playoffs.
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