Buying or Selling Brooklyn Nets' Biggest Fears This Season

"The vibes have been straight, but who knows what the vibes will be if we hit a skid or if we’re not playing well or if somebody gets injured," Kevin Durant said earlier this month of the 2022-23 Brooklyn Nets, per the New York Post's Brian Lewis.

"That’s what makes a team is how we stick together through those times."

Those times of which KD speaks may be coming soon. They might even already be here.

Brooklyn was treated to a thorough ass-kicking by the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night, falling 130-108 in a game they never led. It was a showing of epically underwhelming proportions, even for those who believe the Nets are doomed to implode.

The usual, and colossal, caveat applies: One game is one game is one game. Multiple sources confirm there are 81 more left on Brooklyn's schedule. This could be a minor blip on the entire year's radar.

It could also be something more. The Nets struggled and, frankly, sucked in ways that were either eminently predictable or always considered potentially problematic. That warrants dusting off the ol' buy-or-sell panic meter to help us decide which issues, exactly, can and should and will be monitored the most in the coming days and weeks and months.

Ben Simmons turned in a memorable performance on Wednesday that he'd no doubt like to forget. He attempted just three shots and finished with fewer points (four) than fouls (six) while tallying five assists against three turnovers.

Fouling out in under 24 minutes is objectively funny. In this case, it's also not sinister. One of his two offensive fouls was questionable, and three of his personals can be written off as "He had to cover or help out on Jonas Valanciunas and Zion Williamson, who are both massive human beings."

Simmons' offensive performance was more troubling. He doesn't look like someone who wants to score when he gets the ball and clearly isn't accustomed to working so frequently as a screener. There didn't seem to be nearly as much purposeful off-ball movement as he hinted at during the preseason—though, to be fair, that could be on head coach Steve Nash—and Brooklyn looked flat-out gunky in the half court with him spending pretty much all of his court time alongside Nicolas Claxton or Day'Ron Sharpe. (More on this in a second.)

Whether the makeup of this Nets roster can (or should) sustain is a separate matter. I can't bring myself to worry much, if at all, about Simmons. Some of his offensive miscues were an issue of timing—he missed a gimme at the rim off a cut to the basket—and it gets harder to establish rhythm when you're in foul trouble.

This environment, at both ends, is also incredibly new to him. Chemistry takes time, and Simmons is still working through his return from back surgery and a 16-month(ish)-long absence. Any issue you have with how he held up versus Valanciunas and Zion, meanwhile, is more about the Nets' roster construction (and Zion basically being Protagonist Thanos) than Simmons specifically.

Verdict: Sell the panic

Let's have a gander at some of Brooklyn's defensive lowlights from Wednesday night:

• New Orleans grabbed a whopping 45 percent of their own misses in the half court. (Aside: Holy freaking crap.)
• Over 40 percent of the Pelicans' shot attempts came at the rim.
  
• While the Nets did put some bodies in front of the Pelicans at the basket, they allowed them to shoot 7-of-11 at the rim in the third quarter.
• Brooklyn committed four shooting fouls from outside the paint compared to zero for New Orleans.

A lack of size and brute force quickly became a recurring theme throughout the game. Which, duh. The Nets roster screams "Lack of size and brute force."

That doesn't make these warts any less concerning. Especially the rebounding problems. Many of Jonas Valanciunas' six offensive boards were the direct result of the Nets not sending help when he was boxing out or allowing him to just tip up missed shots from over the top without his man leaving their feet.

“We’re not the biggest team, we’re not gonna lead the league in rebounds,” Steve Nash said afterward, per Nets Daily's Matt Brooks. “But there’s still a level of understanding that that’s a weakness for us."

Brooks made a compelling case for Brooklyn's overarching defensive ceiling on a recent episode of the Hardwood Knocks podcast (35:25 mark). But their presence on the glass and bandwidth to rumble with bigger, physical frontcourts (Boston, Joel Embiid, Cleveland, Joel Embiid, Milwaukee, Joel Embiid) is questionable at best—and a shortcoming inextricably ingrained into the roster at worst.

Verdict: Buy the panic.

Worrying about the 4-5 rotation is an extension of the defensive and rebounding concerns. It's also an entirely separate matter.

Brooklyn's fate predominantly hinges on Ben Simmons and Nicolas Claxton surviving minutes together on the offensive end. That didn't work out against the Pelicans.

In the 15 minutes they logged together, the Nets posted an offensive rating of 60 (*chokes back vomit*), shot 8-of-20 overall and just 1-of-6 from three and looked every bit as clumpy as those numbers imply.

Alternative frontcourt combinations don't promise much relief. Simmons isn't any more of a cleaner fit next to Day'Ron Sharpe, and it isn't yet clear if the Nets will or should lean on him for extensive minutes at center. He logged roughly one minute on the court without another big, and if the time he spent shuttling between Jonas Valanciunas and Zion Williamson is any indication, Simmons-at-the-5 arrangements are not matchup-proof.

Downsizing to Markieff Morris alongside Simmons or Morris-plus-a-center doesn't solve anything, either. You're still mostly talking about a collection of non-shooters who will, through most nights, be at a physicality deficit on the other end.

Failing a trade for outside help, the Nets offense must succeed in spite of this setup rather than because of it.

Verdict: Buy the panic

Joe Harris (left foot) and Seth Curry (left ankle) missed the Nets' season-opener. Both are recovering from ankle surgeries within the past year, but Steve Nash doesn't seem worried about either. Hooray.

Everybody knew T.J. Warren (left foot) would begin the season not only on the shelf but without a timeline for making his debut. Brooklyn had Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons on the floor Wednesday, all at once, in an actual game that counts toward the standings. That's a win in itself. But all three players tend to have "stuff" going on over the course of the year. The Nets' durability will be a fluid situation all season..

Even pristine availability across the board, however, doesn't address a dearth of wing depth.

In a throwback to his Utah Jazz days, Royce O'Neale was nominated as tribute for Brandon Ingram duty. He will routinely draw those assignments, again, and give up a ton of size. Durant will sponge up some of those reps throughout the season and had a couple of good possessions on BI against the Pelicans. But he can be put on tilt when opposing wings dribble into drives off the catch that he treats as closeouts. Also: He shouldn't have to be an offensive superstar and then go guard other offensive superstars.

Simmons can handle this exact workload. But the Nets roster is structured in a way that won't always allow him to tackle the best perimeter players. There is more demand for him to tussle with combo forwards and true bigs.

The returns of Curry and Harris won't help. Harris has been an underrated on-ball defender in previous seasons, but he's working his way back from ankle surgery and not big enough to go possession-for-possession with the power wings of the world. A healthy Warren would go a long way, but counting on someone who hasn't played since December 2020 is all kinds of risky. Edmond Sumner, at 6'4", is not the answer.

Judgment should be reserved until the Nets play more games against teams that don't have a Godzilla Humanoid running the show from the 4 spot. But this is yet another drawback they may not be able to fix or escape without a trade.

Verdict: Put the panic on layaway.

Credit the Nets with saying pretty much all of the right things after getting spanked at home by the Pelicans. And definitely credit them for navigating a drama-free training camp and preseason. The latter is nothing short of miraculous.

But!

This is still a team that actively tried to dismantle itself from within over the offseason. Kevin Durant reportedly requested a trade and then pushed for the organization to jettison both general manager Sean Marks and head coach Steve Nash. Brooklyn gave Kyrie Irving permission to seek sign-and-trade scenarios before he picked up his player option.

Everyone is back anyway. And we're just, like, supposed to believe the status quo is peachy keen? Puh-lease.

Nothing immediately damning seems afoot. But the Nets are the NBA team most likely to go from "seemingly content" to "existential crisis" after a nondescript loss. And while winning en masse has a way of curing all, everything we've just discussed suggests Brooklyn isn't guaranteed to do anything of the sort.

Verdict: Do not touch any transaction involving Brooklyn Nets vibes with a 100-yard pole.

Unless otherwise noted, stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead or Cleaning the Glass and accurate entering games on Oct 20. Salary information via Spotrac.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.