The league's most foul team! With Durant's blue-collar as the cornerstone, the team's scoring champion was reduced to a substitute
On January 5th, Beijing time, because there are fewer NBA games today, we can talk about the performance of some teams in the past period of time, and the Clippers have been in good shape recently, they have won 13 of the last 15 games, and the team is now chasing the top three in the division. The Lakers, who were in good form at the beginning of the season, have lost 9 of their last 12 games, and there are also rumors of discord within them, and Ham may be cut in the near future.
On the Eastern side, the Nets' recent record is not ideal, they have lost 8 of the last 10 games, and won two games against weak teams like the Pistons, if it weren't for the overall strength of the East, the Nets would have fallen out of the top 10 in the division, and now they are ranked ninth in the East with a 15-20 record. According to the current situation, they will most likely be a play-off-level team, but the ceiling is the same, and it will be difficult to make the playoffs.
The Nets have a good roster thickness, which ensures that they can win some games, and since the start of the season, the Nets have averaged a total of 7 points per game of more than 11 points, but because of the lack of excellent team leaders, which also makes them have no stable scoring points at critical moments, resulting in the team losing a lot of games.
Last season, the Nets traded Durant for Bridges, Cameron Johnson and Crowder, as well as several first-round picks, Bridges was used as the core of the team, and as a result, he averaged 26 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, and led the team to the playoffs, so the Nets decided to make Bridges the leader of the team, and they intended to focus on developing him, for which the Nets did not even change their core roster in the offseason.
As a result, after the start of the new season, Bridges was revealed, and he played well last season because everyone was not familiar with Bridges' style of play, and he was a blue-collar man before, and no one expected him to play so well, but this season is different, the strong teams want to win, and they know Bridges better, so they are more targeted, so Bridges can't play at the level of last season.
Bridges averaged 20.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game this season, shooting 45% from the field and 35% from three-point range.
He has been a blue-collar position since he entered the league, and the reason why the Suns were willing to use the No. 10 pick to get him was because of his 3D attributes, after entering the league, Bridges has always been cultivated as a blue-collar player, and the Suns have not developed his offensive ability with the ball, as a result, he is such a blue-collar player, and the Nets also use him as a cornerstone to cultivate, it is worth mentioning that even now the Nets have not wavered their minds in the slightest.
According to U.S. media reports, the Nets still want to build a team around the Nets. If the team continues to be built around Bridges, the result should be predictable, and the Nets have no future to speak of. Compared to the first round pick they won in '21, Thomas Jr. was a better choice, Thomas's original draft template was Loewe, he has a good offensive ability with the ball, he proved himself in Du'ou's absence last season, and has scored 40+ in three consecutive games.
After getting more balls this season, Thomas has also played better, so far this season he can average 20.8 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, shooting 43% from the field and 35% from three-point range.
After all, he is a young player, and Thomas only has the basket in his eyes, so his teammates seem to be a little squeezing him out on the court. However, his ability is undoubted, he is now the player with the best offensive ability with the ball in the entire Nets team, and the player with the highest ceiling, there is no organizational ability to cultivate, after all, he is only 22 years old, unlike Bridges, who is already 27 years old, Bridges's style of play is already stereotyped, and Thomas still has a chance to change.
But the Nets and coach Vaughn just don't seem to want to recognize Thomas, and now they put Thomas on the bench, he is the team's scoring champion, and it is difficult for anyone to accept being reduced to the bench, so in the past two games, Thomas has a total of 18 shots and 0 shots, scoring 4 points, it is obvious that he is playing with emotions, the Nets have a good roster thickness, as long as they find the right leader, they can play very competitive.
Speaking of which, what do you have to say about the current Nets? Welcome to leave a message to discuss.