The Nets have been one of the better teams in the NBA for the past month.
And both Nets players and coaches admit their defensive turnaround — No. 1 in the league in December — could’ve happened sooner.
The hot streak started — or more to the point, their historic early-season ineptitude ended — when absences forced coach Jordi Fernández’s hand in getting more length and activity in the lineup.
But initial returns were good, and as the Nets have leaned into their multi-positional length, the results have followed.
“Probably there’s a lot of things that I could’ve done better to get there,” Fernández said. “Probably it’s lineups and size. Right now our lineups are bigger, so that’s something that I could’ve done. But as far as the players, they have to walk the walk and they have to learn, and I think we’re in a good place.”
The Nets were on pace for the worst Defensive Rating ever (128.5) with Michael Porter Jr. playing as an undersized power forward, Cam Thomas playing desultory defense and Brooklyn lacking enough size in the lineup for a reliable low man.
But when Porter had to miss the Nov. 3 loss to Minnesota, Noah Clowney filled in capably at power forward. Upon Porter’s return in the next game at Indiana, Fernández decided to shunt him to small forward to create a long-armed frontcourt.
Porter (7-0), Clowney (7-2) and Nic Claxton (7-2 ½) all have over 7-foot wingspans, and when rookie Egor Dëmin (6-10 ¼) entered the starting lineup the next game Nov. 7 vs. the Pistons, that quartet averaged almost 7-0 ¾.
That kind of length and ability to switch had Clowney convinced, even during training camp, that Brooklyn’s defense should and would excel.
“We have length, and I always thought from the get-go we were going to be able to guard,” Clowney said. “We switch a lot of things. I think it just took us a little minute to figure it out. There’s a lot of new people, a lot of new lineups, a lot here and there, things like that. We just had to grow with each other.”
That frontcourt trio has a solid 7.2 Net Rating and stellar 108.7 Defensive Rating in their 417 minutes together. Their length is a big reason for Brooklyn’s league-best 102.8 Defensive Rating this month.
“We always had potential to do it. We just weren’t doing it. When we did it and we saw results and we got a few wins off of it, we’re like, ‘Alright, let’s do this more often, let’s get more wins,’ ” Clowney said. “I don’t know the numbers; I don’t read any of that. But I know we’ve been damn good defensively. But I think it’s sustainable.”
Drake Powell (ankle) has been removed from the injury report and is available Saturday at Minnesota. Ben Saraf is on G-League assignment.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
