Nets are learning the hard way that their offense can’t rely only on Julius Randle

详细摘要

It’s still early, but the Nets have had a couple of weeks of data to learn this new team, to see what works and what gets them worked over.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It’s still early, but the Nets have had a couple of weeks of data to learn this new team, to see what works and what gets them worked over.

What they’ve found out the hard way was less Julius Randle iso ball and more dribble handoffs, less watching and more moving.

“It’s a little bit of both. Earlier in the year, obviously you’re trying to [learn],” Michael Porter Jr. admitted heading into Saturday’s tilt at Memphis. “We didn’t get a chance to play a lot of games with Julius. But Julius doesn’t want to sit around and iso all game, either. So we’ve had conversations in film sessions where we’re just seeing what works, and then we’re trying to use each player to their skill sets.

“I know Day’Ron [Sharpe] can really pass the ball as well. He can, he’s good in the [dribble handoff]. So, him getting more usage out of that is helping him play better as well. So I think that we’re a ball-movement and a player-movement team. And then we have the luxury of having Julius, who can get those tough buckets off the dribble in those iso situations. So it’s a balance.”

Between poor spacing, a lack of movement — both the ball sticking and players not running to their spots — and a certain amount of natural deferring to the Nets’ only All-Star and their best on-ball scorer since the Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving era, the offense stagnated.

Through their first five games, the Nets went winless and looked terrible. Randle was averaging 5.4 isos — granted, often catching so-called grenades as the shot clock wound down. Their Offensive Rating sat at a wretched 104.8, and the fifth-worst Net Rating in the league.

But they’ve looked much better in splitting the past six games. Randle’s isos have more than halved down to 2.3. Instead, Porter leads the league in DHOs at 5.1; but he’s seen them bump from 4.6 to 5.5, per Clutchpoints. And Sharpe has seen his assists vault from 1.2 in the winless start to 6.5 in the 3-3 run since.

The Nets have been the beneficiary coming into the…

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