The Brooklyn Nets finally begin the Mikal Bridges era in full. Jacque Vaughn will have hard decisions to make when building the rotation around his star wing.
The Brooklyn Nets finished last season as the No. 6 seed and were swept out of the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers. That final result doesn’t really encapsulate the wild ups and downs of Jacque Vaughn’s first (almost) full season as Brooklyn’s head coach.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were on the roster when the season began. Ben Simmons was expected to operate as the third star. The Nets faced higher expectations and more immediate pressure than arguably any team in the Eastern Conference.
Then, it all went south. There’s no need to rehash every detail about Kyrie Irving’s scandalous exit or Durant’s subsequent trade deadline move to Phoenix, but the Nets began the season with one set of goals and ended the season with a completely different set.
Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson were the centerpieces of a massive trade haul for Durant. Bridges immediately posted the best numbers of his career and looked the part of a burgeoning star. Meanwhile, Simmons’ return to form was, well, not a return to form. He looked completely lost and was perpetually unhealthy.
As the Nets look to build a future beyond the cursed ‘Big 3’ era, here is what Jacque Vaughn is working with rotationally.
Brooklyn Nets starting point guard: Ben Simmons
Are we back? Simmons’ first season with Brooklyn qualified as an abject disaster. He averaged 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 6.1 assists in 26.3 minutes per game, far removed from his All-Star heights in Philadelphia. He was coming off the bench by season’s end and he only managed to play 42 of 82 possible games due to various maladies.
It’s clear Simmons did not adjust well to the competitive environment around Durant and Irving early in the season. After citing mental health reasons for his holdout in Philly, Simmons went to the Nets with hopes of a fresh start. But the Nets and the broader NBA fandom weren’t particularly patient, with Jacque Vaughn often leading the chorus of hard realists who called a spade a spade. Simmons wasn’t up to snuff last season.
Of course, injuries were prevalent on top of the mental aspect. Simmons’ back has been giving him problems for a couple of years now. It was actually part of what kept him out of Sixers training camp at the very beginning of his long, arduous holdout affair with Philly. Brooklyn inherited a less-than-healthy player still gun-shy from a shoddy finale with the Sixers. How could anyone expect him to perform under those conditions?
Now the Nets enter the new season virtually without expectations. Nobody thinks the Nets will contend for a title, but Brooklyn’s also not tanking. The team is perfectly comfortable aiming for the middle and that could benefit Simmons mentally as he mounts another return to action.
All the reporting around Simmons right now suggests that he is healthier than he’s ever been since leaving Philly. There is also buzz around him resuming starting point guard duties. While the lineup gets a bit complicated with Simmons and another non-shooter like Nic Claxton, the Nets have a pretty clear financial motivation to get their max contract point guard back in the saddle. Hopefully, Simmons is in the right place mentally and physically and next season can function as a true resurgence.
Primary backup point guard: Spencer Dinwiddie
The Nets will presumably stagger lineups around Ben Simmons and Spencer Dinwiddie as primary ball-handlers, with both sharing the court plenty. Dinwiddie is a good complement to Simmons with his ability to spot up and attack off the catch, but he’s similarly valuable as Brooklyn’s lead playmaker. He puts constant pressure on the rim and he’s one of the few traditional ball-handlers on the roster.