Nets pieces just don't fit
At Grantland, Kirk Goldsberry has published an emphatic decsontruction of the Miami Heat's half court offense. Interspersed with quotes from the protagonists themselves, Goldsberry demonstrates the efficiencies of Miami's offensive system, one tailored to suit the strengths of its talent. Long story short, LeBrom James orchestrates, Wade cuts, Bosh is the crucial mismatch to it all, and everyone else spaces the floor.
It works because the system is built around players ideally suited to it - the power forward-sized playmaker, the centre-sized face-up scorer, the athletic two guard with the sharp cuts. They identified the most efficient shots and found how best to find them. The core message is that players are targeted to fit a system. And this brings us to the Nets. Who didn't.
Somewhat touted a 'super' team in the same way that Miami are, Brooklyn are only upper echelon with regards to their payroll. With a starting five featuring five All-Stars, two definite Hall of Famers and one probable one, the Nets' collective accolades rivals Miami's, yet their on-court product does not, and will not ever, compare. Even if fully healthy and playing well, they aren't in the same ballpark. Simply put, the pieces don't fit.
Miami's pieces fit despite their decreasing individual value. With the exceptions of James (who somehow continues to improve and who is making a legitimate run at best player ever), Bosh, the resurgent Michael Beasley, Norris Cole and Mario Chalmers, everyone on the Miami roster is on the decline as an individual. Yet their ability as a unit is ever growing, and Beasley's resurgence itself is a testament to that. Miami designed a system suited to the three key players within it, and everyone else does just enough. They targeted high IQ players with jumpshots and adequate defense. They targeted efficiency.
Brooklyn, meanwhile, didn't. They targeted Alan Anderson. They targeted Shaun Livingston. There is no efficiency. There is no system. There is a mismatched bunch of marketable parts which cannot even be marketed after so toxic of a start. At the head of it all is a coach who shouldn't be, a man who met the criteria for coaching purely by being a long time NBA point guard, credentials which should have earned him a place on the bottom of the NBA coaching tree and not the top.
This isn't a situation like the Heat's 9-8 start to the 2010-11 season, either. That Heat team just needed to find its way. There was no discord, no (valid) coaching questions, no staff on gardening leave, no irreversible age problems on the roster. That was a team with all the right toys in the toy box but without having figured out how to play with them yet. They learned.
Contrastly, this Nets team is irreversibly flawed. They are notably old, being run off the court, struggling badly defensively and not getting the easier high percentage looks offensively in transition that come from youth and athleticism. They are a half court offensive team with only one consistent quality half court option, barring a return to 2009-10 form from Deron.
The Lakers created a similar problem of their own doing last season. In piling up the star talent, amongst a host of other problems, they failed to put a team that could run with the best full court point guard in the game, and stunted the offensive game of one big man by trying to force the other one. Throw in the wrong choice of coach into the mix, and the potent mix imploded.
There are strong corollaries in the current Nets scenario. For all the talents they have, or have had, Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson are too similar at this point to be of much help, the only difference being that one has lost more and the other started with less. Williams, hindered by continued injury, has looked alarmingly under par thus far, and despite looking deceptively similar to the player of his Boston days, Kevin Garnett's offensive decline is palpable and tells a grim tale. The injury to Andrei Kirilenko, the one man who despite his own advancing age could inject some life into the stagnant team, has not helped. Yet his return will not assuage all these doubts.
Brooklyn is better than this. However ill-fitting the talent, there's enough of it to make the playoffs. And they will be better than this, due mostly to Deron's impending return from injury. But they're not that good. And anyone who took the bait, myself included, didn't think it through enough.
None more so than Billy King.