Brooklyn Nets: Player grades from Manhattan misstep

Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Brooklyn Nets
Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) /

D. 18 MIN, 0 PTS, 0-for-4 (0-for-4), 2 REB, 3 AST, 2 PF, 1 TO, 1 BLK, -5. PF. Brooklyn Nets. JARED DUDLEY

Jared Dudley has brought a lot of veteran know-how to the Brooklyn Nets. He was also bringing some nice floor spacing for the first unit when he was striping his shots from 3-point range.

But as we saw Monday, when Dudley isn’t hitting those shots, it can get ugly fast. When Dudley is off, he tends to be significantly off, to the point that defenders can afford to sag and dare him to let it fly.

That negates his ability to drive and kick. Given his size, he’s going to be — at best — a net-neutral guy on the glass and his veteran savvy doesn’t always make up for his physical deficiencies on defense.

C. Brooklyn Nets. ED DAVIS. C+. 12 MIN, 6 PTS, 2-for-4, 6 REB (4 ORB), 3 PG, -1

This one was the head-scratcher of the night. Your team has one guy with even a prayer of matching up physically with Enes Kanter, who is in the process of dismantling you on the boards. So you give the guy his lowest number of minutes of the season?

Davis was good while he was out there, with six rebounds — four offensive — in just 12 minutes while also scoring six points.

These are the situations where sometimes there are concerns that coach Kenny Atkinson is a little too locked in on spacing and pace. When a traditional big man is embarrassing you under the basket, sometimes the answer has to be to counter with the one traditional big you have.

Because going even smaller? That was emphatically not the answer.