Nets incredible roster record vs Warriors proves they should be favorites
By Jerry Trotta
The Nets need to be championship favorites after their dominant season-opening win over Golden State.
After the Brooklyn Nets finalized their roster ahead of the 2020-21 regular season, fans were skittish about how head coach Steve Nash would deal with having an abundance of mouths to feed in his first year at the helm.
When you consider that they have a platoon of substitutes and can deploy a handful of different lineups that can go out and dominate their opposition, those reservations were warranted. We honestly had the same concerns heading into the campaign.
However, if we learned anything from Brooklyn’s season-opening blowout win over Golden State on Tuesday night, their loaded roster shouldn’t be much of a problem for Nash to navigate around, as they became the first team in NBA history to play 15 (!) different players in a regular season or playoff game.
A pretty wild stat from @EliasSports: Tonight, the Nets became the first team in NBA history to play 15 different players in a regular season or playoff game.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) December 23, 2020
Let’s be honest: if there was any team in the NBA capable of breaking this long-standing record, it’s obviously Brooklyn. However, not in a million years did we think it would happen in the first game of the season, especially considering that they have a starting five that could’ve benefitted playing extra minutes together. Blowouts gonna blowout, though.
We’re not sure if this record is more of a testament to the Nets’ depth or how lopsided their victory over the Warriors was — the game was really over by halftime — so we’ll settle for a mixture of both.
For added context, all 10 of Brooklyn’s bench players got in the game. Each of them logged at least six minutes of action, three logged more than 20 minutes, and five spent more than 16 minutes on the floor.
Some added context to this statistic: The League of Governors increased the number of active players this year (from 13 to 15) to combat any potential unexpected COVID absences. The previous high was 14, last occurring during the 1998-99 lockout-shortened season.
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) December 23, 2020
The unsurprising standout of the bunch was bubble standout Caris LeVert, who picked up right where he left off during the restart, registering 20 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals (to go with a +17), while shooting 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.
We’ve been trying to warn rival fans that the Nets should be the consensus title favorites — yes, that includes the Lakers, Clippers and Bucks — and this record proves that they should come to their senses and jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late. This team is simply too star-studded and too deep.
