In a weekend dedicated largely to basketball’s collegiate level, the Brooklyn Nets still got busy. Playing host to the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks on Saturday and Sunday, they split their pair of games the way you’d expect them to, falling to the ever-mighty boys from Beantown before topping their notoriously mediocre foes to the south.
Despite Brooklyn making up no ground in the standings, they looked like victors each time we saw them, putting up an admirable fight shorthanded vs the league’s best and then stiff-arming one of the association’s hotter teams down the stretch en route to a win.
With the weekend now over, Brooklyn’s left with just two more back-to-back sequences to tackle this season — one at the end of the month and then the third and second-to-last games of the year. But while we still have this last one in our rear view mirror, let’s take a final glance at it.
Maxwell Lewis is Making the Most of his Moment
We’ve reached a point in the season where it’s just as improbable as it is unwise for the Brooklyn Nets to make the Play-In tournament. As of Monday afternoon, they sit 5.5 games removed from that speed date with the playoffs, but also 14.5 weeks away from a top prospect should they hold their ground.
That also means it’s time for Brooklyn and its fellow basement dwellers to adjust their priorities. With the playoffs becoming less and less likely, there’s not much more for teams to do than open their doors for young talent to grow and develop. Entering for the Brooklyn Nets: Maxwell Lewis.
With a career-high 16 minutes of burn vs the Celtics, Lewis tallied 15 points after going 6-of-7 from the field and 3-of-3 from deep. In the game as a whole and in the possessions he took the floor for, Maxwell was an eager participant. There were no signs of rookie stagnation. He pulled a quick trigger in catch-and-shoot situations and attacked in transition...
Lewis then tallied 10 points on 4-of-7 and 2-of-4 shooting vs the Hawks. In his combined games over the weekend, he poured in 25 points on an impressive 81.8 TS%. Up until that point, he had just 21 points in his entire NBA career.
While there’s no telling when/if he’ll surpass other wings campaigning for spots on the team next year, guys like Jalen Wilson or Ziaire Williams, Lewis did look ready for that kind of a competition, at the very least. His willingness to shoot, put the ball on the deck, and even contribute to Brooklyn’s renowned ball-pressure made that clear. (For the record, he has a team option and a $100,000 guarantee next year.)
Generosity is at an All-Time High
Statistically and visually, Brooklyn’s willingness to share the rock has been abundantly clear over the past handful of games, including their most recent pair. The Nets finished with 33 assists on 43 made field goals vs the Hawks. The day before, they notched 34 on 42 made shots.
It’s been pretty and in a sense poetic, as the team has ironically looked more in sync than ever at the offensive end despite massive overhauls to the rotation following injuries and what we’ll just call “breaks” for certain players.
With those assist numbers, the Nets have now dropped 30+ in four straight games, tying a franchise record for a stretch of that sort in a season. Brooklyn’s and New Jersey’s other assist streaks happened in March 2024, November 2022, and March 1987, when legends like Jason Kidd, Kyrie Irving, and Pearl Washington roamed courts with a Nets logo. It’s also the most they’ve had in any two games all year.
This generosity has made it satisfying basketball to watch and coach of late, as Jordi Fernández called Brooklyn’s 33 dimes the other night the thing he liked “most” from the game, touting his team’s energy and willingness to help one another.
Cam Thomas non-believers might take this as an opportunity to rag on the shot-maker, who missed the last two games and will sit the remainder of the year after straining his left hamstring vs Chicago. But the ball was hopping before he left the rotation as well, made evident by their historic four game stretch, not two.
In a season that’s been short on positives, let’s chalk it up to the team just being well-acquainted each other by now and call it day.
Brooklyn’s ‘T-Word’ Approach is Alternative
I understand it was hard for the tank commanders to watch Brooklyn swipe one vs Atlanta while the Toronto Raptors simultaneously pulled their starters in the fourth to an invite a comeback from the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. In a close race vs an old rival on a new front, feelings of frustration are well warranted.
But at this point, it’s still not like the Nets aren’t trying to boost their pick’s value, they’re just taking a less aggressive approach to it.
Brooklyn indeed let Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton rock vs the Hawks, but they also out held D’Angelo Russell, who they have a significantly higher win percentage with (.391) than without (.311). Keep in mind, they also kept Claxton out of the lineup vs Boston, only citing “rest” as the issue. Look into that as much as you’d like...
So what’s the deal? Why pull your punches only half the time? Well, Brooklyn’s doing something they’ve perfected on defense this year — hedging. However, in this instance, they’re not doing it against opposing players on doubles, but against pressure from the league and their public image.
Let me be clear, I don’t think the Nets should let a fine from Adam Silver stop them from doing what they need to do to attain a higher draft pick. If there’s a million dollar prize waiting for at certain location, you can’t let fear over getting a thousand dollar speeding ticket stop you. Sore ankle or not, Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper are that prize.
With that said, rebuilding your team is a far more complicated journey than that and Brooklyn seems to be weighing all the factors.
Not only would the Nets probably prefer to avoid any heat form the league where they can, but they also want to continue building a winning culture under Jordi Fernández, even if that term has become a punchline of late. They want to make it clear they’re a franchise committed to winning regardless of the circumstances at hand, which could pay dividends when pitching to free agents down the line.
When Sean Marks told Brian Lewis they would make “systematic decisions” that don’t always involve “putting the most talent out there” or always in line with “winning the next game” it was for a reason. As a front man for a professional sports organization, you don’t just say PR eye-brown raisers like things like that unless you mean it.
The Atlanta win stings from a draft-centric view and any else of a close nature will do the same as we close out the season. But at this point, it’s clear the Nets seem comfortable putting a handful of their chips to the center of this table while others go all-in. We’ll just have to see what the cards show us on May 12.