Matthes Manifesto II: Where do the Indiana Pacers stack up in the East?
The Brooklyn Nets
Last year the Los Angeles Lakers win total rose by nine, and the franchise jumped from perennial doormat to an intriguing enough young team that LeBron James elected to join forces with them. If a team is going to pull off a similar feat this year, the Brooklyn Nets look like the prime candidate.
Brooklyn has intriguing players at every position, and they have a coach (Kenny Atkinson) who routinely gets the best out of his charges.
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At point guard, they have two complementary options, the flashy D’Angelo Russell and the versatile Spencer Dinwiddie. They have a young shot blocker in Jarrett Allen. They have two three-and-d wings in Joe Harris and Caris LeVert.
They have a long-range sniper in Allen Crabbe. DeMarre Carroll and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson both provide options as small-ball fours. Kenneth Faried and Ed Davis should sure up their horrendous rebounding deficit. That’s ten players who could all contribute on a playoff team.
That doesn’t mean that they will be a playoff team. To get the 12 or so more wins that they’ll need to make the playoffs this year will be a tall task, especially when they are in the same division as Boston, Toronto, and Philadelphia.
But if Brooklyn plays as hard this year as they did last year, they have the in-house talent to impress NBA observers and the soon-to-be free agents seeking out a team short of a star.