Brooklyn Nets: Bench is One of the Few Bright Spots

In a game that ended up being closer than many anticipated, the Brooklyn Nets lost to the Boston Celtics in Brooklyn’s season-opener. While it isn’t expected that the Nets walk away from the loss happy with the result, the bench should give the team hope.

The Brooklyn Nets’ starters outscored the bench 59-58. While we can certainly criticize the starters for outscoring the bench by just a single point, let’s discuss the positive that is the high-level play from the bench instead.

The first player that you have to talk about when addressing the play of the bench against the Celtics is Justin Hamilton. Prior to signing with the Nets, Hamilton was a member of Valencia, a European basketball team. It goes without saying that the Nets didn’t expect Hamilton to post 19 points and 10 rebounds in the season-opener. After all, this was his first regular season game in over a year. Hamilton outplayed every big man on the roster, including All-Star center Brook Lopez. It looks like the Nets have found a diamond in the rough here with Hamilton.

Joe Harris, who has received high expectations after a fantastic preseason, had a phenomenal game as well. Harris’ main attribute is his elite perimeter shooting. The shooting guard knocked down four out of the nine three-pointers he took. In addition to his shooting, Harris racked up a great all-around stat line: four rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and two steals. With this level of play, Harris should continue to receive heavy playing time off the bench. And who knows, based on these stats, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Harris beat out Caris LeVert and Sean Kilpatrick for the permanent backup shooting guard role.

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Harris wasn’t the only shooting guard who had a good game off the bench. Kilpatrick had a very solid stat line as well. In a 13-point effort, Kilpatrick added four rebounds and two assists. Kilpatrick made a name for himself after his dominant second half of last year’s season. The guard should be happy with his play, especially considering the depth the Nets have at shooting guard. With Bojan Bogdanovic occupying the starting shooting guard role, there will be a ton of competition for the backup shooting guard role once LeVert enters the lineup.

While Hamilton, Harris, and Kilpatrick were the “stars” of the bench, Luis Scola gave a great effort as well. The veteran posted eight points, three assists, and a rebound. These four players comprised 57 out of the 58 points scored by the bench.

The theme of the NBA offseason was the amount of money teams were dishing out to free agents. With Hamilton, Harris, and Kilpatrick making less than $5 million total, the Nets are getting a bang for their buck.

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With LeVert returning from injury and the majority of the bench being eased into action, this bench will only get better. The Nets’ starting lineup is clearly not one of the best starting lineups in the NBA. However, having a bench that can score 58 points could be a factor in the Nets winning games this season.