The Pistons, the league's second-to-last team, played the Nets away today. Of course, the Nets themselves are also a batch of dishes, because they are in the east, so they are ranked 11th, but it is difficult to be 12th in the west. The Nets are currently ninth from bottom in the league and will soon overtake the Jazz to move into the bottom eight. There is nothing to say in this game, the Nets are fighting for dignity, in fact, they have long since gone to the momentum, and the team has now missed the play-offs.
Winning now is just about allowing the player to continue to grow, because the team doesn't have a cornerstone at the moment, and the Nets need to find a way to shoot Thomas and Bridges. In recent times, the Nets have tilted team resources to the small train, helping him to play good statistics. It was obvious in this game that Thomas had unlimited firing rights from the beginning of the first quarter, and Schroder had been creating opportunities for him, but the overall strength of the Nets was too poor to drop 12 points in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Nets' offense was still piecemeal, and the Pistons ended the first half with an 11-point advantage. In the third quarter, Klooney, a Nets wonder, delivered 12 points and 3 blocks in a single quarter to help the team chase the difference to 9 points. It wasn't until the final quarter that the Nets played a wave of waves, and Thomas and Schroder led the team to a 19-0 run to kill the suspense. On the Nets' side, Thomas had 32 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, hitting 10 of 25 shots, 2-of-8 three-pointers, Schroder had 24 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists, and Bridges only scored 13 points.
So far this season, Thomas is averaging 22 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3 assists per game, shooting 44% from the field and 35% from three-point range. That's more than Bridges' 20 points and shooting 43.6 percent. Perhaps in the Nets' view, giving Thomas resources is a priority over Bridges. Because Big Joe's value has dropped sharply recently. When Durant had just completed the trade, it was precisely when Big Joe was at his most valuable, and at that time, the Grizzlies were planning to stud a future draft pick, but the Nets rejected it.
After a year of testing this season, everyone knows that Bridges is difficult to play as the core, and he is at most the poor version of Paul George. The Nets are tough right now, basically a dilemma. Their '24, '25, '26 and '27 first-round picks and swaps were all sent to the Rockets in the Harden trade, all unprotected. So Rockets fans don't need to hate Harden, he did leave a treasure for the Rockets. This year, the Nets' signing is likely to be eighth or ninth, and the small probability is the top three.
Even if they can't draw the first three picks this year, the Nets won't make much improvement in the next three years, or even worse. That year, the Green Army used Nets draft picks as capital to rebuild the White Prostitution Double Tanhua, one of which was sent to Philadelphia for the first round of picks and first-round picks. Therefore, the Rockets have been able to earn at least one Tanhua pick in the past 4 years, which is the worst ending. Although the Rockets have six sons, they don't have too much talent. The top three picks will continue to draw if they use it themselves, and the top 10 picks will be used as trading chips. There is nothing wrong with the Rockets' 40 wins this year, in fact, the same as last year's Thunder.
The offseason is a difficult decision for the Rockets, how much should they use to keep Shin Kyung and Jalen Green? or just one person to let one go? Then Adams and Eason are also coming back, Van Jordan occupies the No. 1 position, Dillon is the No. 3 position, and the Rockets do not have much room to bring in reinforcements at present. At least until Green and Shin Kyung are decided, everything is unknown. The good news is that the Rockets will certainly not be of that kind next season, and at the end of the day, this will only be the first serious season after the Rockets have been in a bad swing.