The Brooklyn Nets have had a number of random players lead them in scoring for a single season. Here are four that you wouldn’t believe.
Considering the dozens of superstars that have passed through the franchise, it’s wild to think that the Brooklyn Nets don’t have an NBA championship banner hanging from the rafters at the Barclays Center. From studs like Julius Erving, Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Buck Williams, the Nets haven’t struggled to produce in the talent department since their debut season in 1678-68.
The Nets might have two ABA titles under their belt, but, like any professional sports organization, their peaks are arranged alongside a healthy number of valleys. Rebuilding projects and rapid declines of players at the tail end of their respective careers have created windows for surprising names to lead the team in scoring. Believe it or not, household names like the players listed above didn’t always find themselves atop the list.
With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at four players that you never would’ve guessed led the Nets in scoring for a single season.
4. Joe Johnson
Joe Johnson was past the prime of his career during his tenure with the Brooklyn Nets, but surprisingly managed to lead them in scoring in 2013-14.
Remember when the Nets had the most expensive starting lineup in NBA history after agreeing to acquire Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry from the Boston Celtics back in 2013? Good times. That trade has since gone down as one of the worst ever (in all sports), as Brooklyn didn’t even come close to sniffing an appearance in the Finals.
Almost as bad, optics-wise? That the deal failed to produce a leading scorer in its first season on display, and no, it wasn’t because of Brook Lopez. Ironically enough, injuries limited the former No. 10 overall pick to just 17 games.
That left Joe Johnson and his 15.8 points per game tally as Brooklyn’s top scorer. His inclusion on this list is no disrespect to the seven-time All-Star, either. He was simply on the back nine of his career by the time he made his way to Brooklyn, and shouldn’t have been anywhere close to the team’s leading scorer. The shocker here is that 15.8 points is an alarmingly low tally to be tops for a campaign. That’s not up for debate.