A surprising Nets lineup that could play important minutes
The Brooklyn Nets' 2022-23 season was a complete whirlwind. It started with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving on the roster. Ben Simmons was back, in theory, as the third member of a Brooklyn 'big three.' In the end, Simmons was backup to Spencer Dinwiddie and Nicolas Claxton while Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson served as the Nets' primary one-two punch. What a difference four months make.
Irving's poor off-court etiquette led Brooklyn to trade him to Dallas. KD followed him out the door with a trade request to the Phoenix Suns. The Nets ended as the No. 6 seed, but the team struggled to play .500 basketball after the deadline. That was not for lack of trying on the part of Mikal Bridges, though. The former Suns standout took his game to another level, averaging 26.1 points on 60.7 TS% in 27 regular season games with the Nets.
Brooklyn enters the new season in a precarious position. On one hand, the Nets are not good enough to contend. A rebuild would make sense... if only the Rockets didn't own Brooklyn's next half-decade of draft picks due to the James Harden trade. The Nets are not short on draft capital, however, after bleeding Phoenix dry in the Durant trade. General manager Sean Marks has enough trade ammo to improve the roster quickly if he so desires.
The Nets aren't expected to make a run at Damian Lillard, so odds are the roster stays relatively stable between now and opening night. Brooklyn is going to angle for a postseason spot with Bridges entering his first full season as the No. 1 option. Cam Johnson re-upped on a four-year, $94.5 million contract over the summer and Brooklyn peppered the roster with subtle, but impactful additions — Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney on draft night; Dennis Smith Jr., Lonnie Walker IV, and Darius Bazley via free agency.
Ben Simmons, Spencer Dinwiddie, Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, and Nic Claxton are tentatively predicted to start for Jacque Vaughn's team. Simmons is the obvious wild card here, as he's allegedly the healthiest he has been since demanding a trade from Philadelphia. A full-strength Simmons would drastically change the equation for Brooklyn, but it's hardly wise to bet on Simmons given his track record.
That lineup is the best collection of talent on the Brooklyn roster, but not all the pieces fit. Simmons and Claxton are both non-entities outside the painted area on offense. Spencer Dinwiddie can play on or off the ball, but his value as a slasher and creator is hamstrung if Simmons and Bridges are dominating touches.
Expect the Nets to start and close games with different lineups on most, if not every night. The nature of a potential "surprise" lineup in crunch time largely depends on Simmons' level of production, but he's a five-man group to keep your eyes peeled for.
By the end of last season, Simmons was essentially relegated to backup center duties. Simmons has never been particularly successful as a center, even if his 6-foot-10 frame and unique ball skills make him an intriguing small-ball five on paper.
That goes to show how bad it got. A significant contributing factor was Simmons' lingering back injury. He wasn't moving the same way defensively and he couldn't get momentum going toward the rim. Simmons' ongoing confidence struggles and long-running rim-finishing reticence were also factors, and the combined weight of it all left Simmons as a shell of his former self.
All the reports this summer suggest that Simmons is back to his old ways. He's moving well, working on skill development, and excited for a fresh season with teammates who support him. That all sounds great and hopefully it bears fruit. If it does, and Simmons is truly out of his funk, the Nets suddenly have a much clearer path to making noise in the East.
At his core, Simmons provides two unique attributes — his transition playmaking and his defense. He's not much of a half-court scorer, nor is he even the passing genius Philly fans used to pitch him as. Simmons is at his best when he's able to get a running start on the fast break, in turn collapsing the defense toward the rim before locating shooters on the perimeter. He doesn't read the floor like LeBron James, but he passes a lot. Sometimes too much. He operates with an earnest desire to elevate teammates, which is what made the Sixers' offense such a regular season buzzsaw at Simmons' peak.
On the defensive end, Simmons' reputation is cemented. He needs to have full range of motion, but he's 6-foot-10 with the ability to guard one through five. He doesn't protect the rim — a key drawback to small-ball units built around Simmons — but he's strong enough to defend in the post and quick enough to check Trae Young for an entire playoff series.
Let's say Simmons is the Simmons of old. The Nets are going to go small late in games by necessity. We shouldn't underrate Claxton's defensive impact last season, but a healthy Simmons provides important offensive juice for Brooklyn — offensive juice Claxton's presence stifles. The best way to build an offense around Simmons is to surround him with shooting and at least one competent half-court playmaking guard.
This lineup checks all those boxes. Bridges became a mid-range maestro for the Nets last season, frequently dribbling around screens and burying the defense beneath a sea of pull-ups. Cam Johnson is an elite spot-up shooter custom-built to thrive off of a drive-and-kick machine like Simmons. Royce O'Neale and Dorian Finney-Smith can drain 3s too.
What makes this particular unit so intriguing is the size element. Bridges is the smallest player in the lineup at 6-foot-6 and 209 pounds. The shortest wingspan belongs to O'Neale (6-foot-9). Brooklyn has five genuinely switchable defenders here. Simmons and Bridges can shutter elite ball-handlers. O'Neale, Finney-Smith, and Johnson all have enough strength to guard up a few spots in the frontcourt.
The Nets would miss Claxton's rim protection, but there's enough length flying around to make up for it. Plus, it's Simmons and four shooters, a concept that worked extremely well during Simmons' healthy Sixers run.
One could chalk this up to wishful thinking on the Simmons front, but even if he's only 80 percent of his pre-injury self, there's reason to believe a lineup like this could pay dividends for the Nets while maximizing whatever Simmons has left in the tank.
