The Nets’ offense has continued to sputter since the franchise traded Dennis Schröder to the Golden State Warriors earlier in the month.
The veteran guard averaged 18.4 points and 6.6 assists in 23 appearances for Brooklyn this season while shooting 45.2% from the field and 38.7% from deep. Turns out that level of production is difficult to replace, especially at point guard.
“I definitely still have to do more there,” Cam Johnson said. “It’s definitely by committee. Dennis got to have the ball a lot of the game. The ball, when it’s in Ben [Simmons’] hands a lot, figuring out how to cut and move and find open windows and create space on the floor is going to be really important for us. That’s the name of the game now. We have who we have, and I respect our group, and I know that we’ll take this one personally.”
From Oct. 23 to Dec. 13 — Schröder’s final stretch with the Nets in 2024-25 — the team won 40% of its games. It averaged 110.4 points, 26 assists and 14.8 turnovers a night while shooting 46.2% from the field and 38.4% from 3-point range.
However, Brooklyn has lost three of its first four since Schröder was dealt, starting with an embarrassing 130-101 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers at Barclays Center Dec. 16.
The Nets’ team offensive rankings have been abysmal over that span: 97.8 point per game (30th), 22.5 assists per game (28th), 18.3 turnovers per game (26th), 40.5% from the field (30th) and 29.3% from deep (30th).
“I think this is a team that’s trying to play together and play the right way,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said following Monday’s 110-95 loss to the Miami Heat. “I want to think positive. I want to see guys growing… Shooting 39% from the field is not good enough.
“We ran, but we missed a lot of opportunities to run, and there’s a lot of guys making decisions in those spots, and we don’t finish. We can just watch it, work it, get better. But at the end of the day, you just have to believe in the process and the way we competed out there.”
The Nets once had one of the better offenses in the league. They were fun to watch at the very least. Losing Cam Thomas for an extended stretch certainly hurts, but he will return to the court eventually. Losing Schröder for good has made this team difficult to watch.
“We got to play fast. If we get in half court, we’re going to struggle,” Nic Claxton said. “We got to hit shots. We got to play fast. We got to shoot open shots; we just got to play without thinking. And we’ll figure it out. Of course, if you lose a player like Dennis who everything’s pretty much running through, he’s playing 30 plus minus a game, so it’s going to be an adjustment for everybody.”