Nets: This lone stat may prove James Harden trade wasn’t worth it

At this point in the season, the Brooklyn Nets continuing to play down to their competition can no longer be considered a fluke. It’s a scathing trend that shows zero signs of being rectified in the near future in light of their uninterrupted struggles on the defensive end of the floor.

The latest example of this came on Sunday night in a loss to a free-falling Wizards team (for the second time this year!), which entered the game on a four-game losing streak by an impossible margin of 18.2 points per.

In all honesty, Washington couldn’t have faced a better opponent to break out of their funk, and they proved that by lighting up Brooklyn for 149 points (!), all the while overcoming a five-point deficit in the closing seconds to win. The 48 points they scored in the fourth quarter was also the most any team in the league has managed this season.

The Nets predictably didn’t skip a beat without James Harden, who missed out due to a thigh contusion, and their continued historic efficiency in that department really makes you wonder if trading for him was worth unloading their best defensive playmakers. After all, they’re on pace to shatter the record for the worst defensive rating (119.9) in league history.

The Nets’ deplorable defensive numbers this season make the James Harden trade look not so great

You can’t even call this a reactionary take, either. We understand that the roster (for the most part) is still getting acclimated to each other’s tendencies, but anybody with a shred of basketball knowledge knows that defense boils down to effort more than anything else.

Any fans attesting the Nets’ failure to rotate and close out on shooters, as well as altering shots and giving up second-chance points, to a lack of chemistry has lost the plot. Before the blockbuster trade, Brooklyn had players like Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince (among others) that could do a serviceable job in terms of masking their defensive deficiencies.

Without them, however, their lack of size and versatility on the perimeter is being exposed to extremes we’ve literally never seen before in the NBA.

It’s obviously still early on in the big-three’s tenure, but we can only draw one takeaway from their first few weeks together: the Nets’ decision to add to an already-unstoppable (and balanced) offense is already paying massive dividends, but their newfound defensive incompetence as a result of the trade could very well end up being their downfall come playoff time.

Nets: Iman Shumpert is exactly what this roster needs right now

Knowing that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving needed some veterans on the perimeter, Iman Shumpert agreed to a deal with the Brooklyn Nets