With news of the NBA season returning at Disney World, which three Brooklyn Nets players that can prove their worth for their championship window?
The Brooklyn Nets, who currently sit at the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference, were one of 22 NBA teams that were invited to continue playing out the rest of the 2019-20 season at Disney World.
Thankfully, the NBA was able to come up with a plan to continue the games in a single location and making sure that the players and staff are kept safe. Unfortunately, fans won’t be able to attend games, but hopefully, that causes the coronavirus to not spread around with this plan in place.
If all goes according to plan, this is a golden chance for the NBA to gain even more popularity among sports fans around the world. The owners and the players’ union in the MLB can’t seem to come to an agreement, so instead of spending hot summer days inside watching baseball, fans can turn to their regional sports networks to watch basketball instead.
As most of us know, this season for the Nets was all about staying as competitive as possible without Kevin Durant, who was most likely going to miss the entire season due to an Achilles injury suffered in the 2019 NBA Finals.
Having said that, the Nets still needed to evaluate the talent they currently have on their roster and hope that what they have is good enough to surround the elite duo of Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Taurean Prince
Taurean Prince has averaged 12.1 points per game this season, and is a 6’7″ forward that can play both the small and power forward positions and has been billed as your prototypical 3-and-D guy.
On the season, Prince has made 34 percent of his three-point attempts and is shooting at a respectable 35.8 clip on the catch-and-shoot from downtown.
On the surface of things, Prince looks like he’s having a pretty solid season. However, there are some pretty big concerns when you look deeper into his numbers.
Since the beginning of February, Prince only made 27.8 percent of his three-pointers, and on the catch-and-shoot, he only drilled 28.8 percent of those shot attempts. That was a 17-game stretch, so seeing those numbers paints a picture that he may not be able to handle the rigors of a full regular-season.
On defense, his numbers don’t paint a picture as a very effective defender either. When he’s guarding someone in isolation, he gives up 1.00 points per possession, which puts him at the 33rd percentile. That’s a mediocre mark at best, and given his frame, he’s definitely more than capable of becoming a lockdown defender in isolation.
In guarding the pick-and-roll, he’s basically no help at all, as he ranks in the 14th percentile when it comes to guarding the primary ball-handler, and in the 0.4th percentile when guarding the roll man. Yikes.
To be somewhat fair, he’s been playing out of position all year at the power forward spot, so it might not be fair to fully judge his defensive efforts, but he should definitely prove to be more than capable of knocking down his three-pointers at a higher clip.
Hopefully, some time off will rejuvenate Prince, and help him prove that he’s worth the contract the Nets gave him and ultimately becomes the two-way player the Nets will need next season.
Chris Chiozza
Chris Chiozza has stepped up admirably for the Nets as a backup point guard before the season shutdown, as he was averaging 10.0 points on 55.9 percent shooting from the floor in his last five games which included huge wins over the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers.
Chiozza only stands as a 5’11” guard, but he uses his quickness to his advantage out there. He has a nifty crossover and a quick dribble that can get defenders off balance, and then he can take that opportunity to drive to the hole for an easy layup or pull-up from three-point land.
In a small sample size, he certainly looks like he can play in the NBA, and has even drawn comparisons to J.J. Barea and Fred VanVleet!
Albeit a very small 10-game sample size and only 1.1 possessions per game to show for it, Chiozza generates 1.00 points per possession in transition, which puts him in about the 25th percentile.
When the Nets get Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant back, they’ll be sure to want the run the ball more in transition, so if Chiozza can continue to show his capabilities to score in transition in addition to creating his own offense, then he’ll be a very valuable part of this team moving forward.
In the meantime, he’ll have plenty of opportunities in Orlando to put up some very impressive stat lines!
Jarrett Allen
Jarrett Allen will almost certainly be coming off the bench behind DeAndre Jordan moving forward, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t still be a valuable guy to this team.
Allen has all the physical tools to be an effective center in this league, and can wow people with his highlight reel of dunks and blocks. However, there is still a lot about his game that needs to be improved in order for him to take that next step to be a valuable part of a championship-contending team.
As a pick-and-roll man, Allen generates 1.34 points per possession. He and Jordan are both pretty much on even footing there, as they’re both in the 85th percentile of that metric. Allen also generates 1.32 points per possession on cuts, which puts him near the 59th percentile, but Jordan is ranked better in that metric as well.
On defense, Allen allows 0.95 points per possession when guarding the pick-and-roll man, and 0.92 points per possession on post-ups, which puts him in the 59th and 53rd percentile, respectively.
Allen is a solid defender, but those metrics alone tell me that he needs to put on some muscle in order to be able to shut down some of the better centers in this league. He must particularly improve on his defense when it comes to guys posting up on him, as Joel Embiid will give him nightmares down there, as he already showed during last season’s playoffs.
Allen has all the makings to be a top-tier center in today’s NBA, but he’s going to need to bulk up and improve his defensive instincts to combine with his size and athleticism in order to get there.