Here on Brooklyn Balling, I’ll try to recap the chaos that was the 2013-14 Nets season with a series of “Season Review” posts on the players, trades, and even coach that shaped how this year turned out. Paul Pierce was last, and Andray Blatche is up next.
Andray Blatche might be the biggest enigma on the Nets roster this season, last season, and maybe for a couple of seasons back as well. Brooklyn signed him off the proverbial scrap heap to the veteran’s minimum in the 2012 offseason after some strange–and highly paid–seasons with the Washington Wizards.
Blatche played 19 minutes per game in all 82 games of last season for the Nets, serving a key bench scorer while adding some rebounding and defensive help.
This led the team to bring him back this past offseason after his one-year deal expired. This second contract gave him a slight pay raise and a player option for the 2014-15 season, an option he may or not not exercise this summer. Last season, Blatche got some playing time but, per 36 minutes, actually scored less as his field goal percentage decreased from over 50% to around 48%. He took around one more field goal per game as well.
However, simply putting Andray’s stats in average form probably doesn’t do his game justice. There is nothing average about Andray Blatche, and when you look at his game logs from the past two seasons, that becomes pretty obvious.
One game, he could score 17 points in 25 minutes in a win over the Warriors (On Jan. 8th) and just two games later, he could play just nine minutes and score six in a loss to the Raptors (Jan. 11th).
Blatche’s role in Jason Kidd’s system changed from game-to-game, as he played more when he was hot and not making stupid mistakes while playing less when his shot was off and his play was sloppy. This was exhibited in this year’s postseason, as Blatche saw both his minutes and points drop from last year’s playoffs.
In his 12 postseason games against the Raptors and Heat, ‘Dray reached double figures just twice, was held scoreless twice, and scored four and five points twice on two different occasions.
Clearly, some games, Andray was feeling it from the field and was able to make a big difference for Brooklyn. However, too many times in this season’s playoff slate, Blatche was Bad Blatche, not Good Blatche, which accounted for the diminished playing time and performance.
The Nets, especially against the Heat, could have used good offense from him during their late-game droughts that destroyed their chances of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.
With a player, not team, option on the table for next season, Blatche’s future with the Nets really isn’t known at the moment. His option allows for a small salary increase from around $1.3 million to $1.4 million, which is a number that he could easily surpass on the open market.
The Nets do have some salary possibly coming off the books with the potential departures of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and maybe others, so they may have the additional cap room to entice Blatche to return with a more lucrative offer. If that is truly so remains to be seen, though, so this situation is one to watch as the offseason progresses.
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