One night after receiving his first DNP-CD of the season, Napier played a season-high 20 minutes and was aggressive at the offensive end.
Napier took the same iso bait the other Nets guards did, but he did a nice job of drawing contact and getting to the line, attempting nine free throws.
But Napier may remain the odd man out with DeMarre Carroll back and playing now, because it’s more palatable for the front office to sit Napier’s $1.9 million pay check than sitting down Allen Crabbe’s $18.5 million.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson has had a rough go of it the last two games after what we thought was a “OK, RHJ’s back” performance against the Philadelphia 76ers a week ago.
In an era where the term “two-way player” is thrown around freely, Hollis-Jefferson for the second straight night looked very much like a one-way player. His defense continues to be very solid.
His offense, on the other hand, is all sorts of out of sorts.
He’s a slasher-penetrator without a discernible jump shot trying to figure out how he fits into a 5-out set that needs spacing and shooting to succeed.
It seems more and more as if the combination of RHJ’s offseason injury and coach Kenny Atkinson’s offensive change to the 5-out most of the time has left Hollis-Jefferson a man without a country … or at least without a comfortable place at the offensive end of the floor.