The Brooklyn Nets have not been a physically imposing team in a long time. That lack of phsyicality has been a common criticism of Sean Marks’ rosters in his decade-long tenure as GM, though there have been a couple notable exceptions. Andre Drummond and Day’Ron Sharpe aren’t just strong on paper; they’re two of the best offensive rebounders of the 21st century.
Those two are more exception than rule. Jarrett Allen, Nic Claxton, and Noah Clowney all have their individual strengths, but they are also
prone to getting pushed around in the paint. This has irritated Nets fans to no end because the cycle repeats every couple years, feeling more like a stain on the front office rather than the individual players.
It’s not just big men, and it’s not just physicality. David Nwaba tore his achilles during the 2019-20 season, and Brooklyn did not then roster a wing with nearly as much burst until Drake Powell, whose quick-twitch ability is exciting partly because we have not seen it in so long.
Some of this is inherent in watching a bad team lose a bad game. Where they are long, they are not strong; where they are strong, they lack burst. If the Nets were full of plus-athletes, they’d probably be better.
But for all the panic over the Flatbush Five’s relative lack of athleticism and size, the tide is shifting, ever so slightly. Clowney has continually scaled down positions, playing the 5 for much of his rookie year with the Long Island Nets but manning the wings of late, where his lack of strength and vertical explosion is a bit less of an issue. I think the a-ha moment was a couple of Long Island matchups against the Mexico City Capitanes in Clowney’s rookie year, when a 34-year-old Kenneth Faried put him in a hydraulic press.
Brooklyn’s signing of Chaney Johnson to a two-way contract drew some surprise, but he has had a fun stint with the big league club despite a lack of traditional offensive skills. Johnson is a thick 6’8”, and has put that frame to good use, grabbing offensive boards, blocking shots, and dunking the ball seven times already while getting fouled on a couple other attempts…
But that seems to be all a preface to Friday’s game (which didn’t finish till after midnight back on the East Coast) wherein Ziaire Williams and Josh Minott combined for 34 points. Those two have brought a new dynamic to Brooklyn’s wings. Their play and toughness over the last month has been a revelation.
Of the two, it’s tougher to make that argument for Williams, a skinny guy who doesn’t initiate a ton of contact on either end. Williams is listed at 6’9” and can jump, but has he dunked on anybody as a Net? These limitations will sometimes flare up when the 24-year-old puts the ball on the floor, which he’s done frequently in March.
That said, Williams has been a menace on the perimeter this season, particularly over the past month. Among the 313 NBA players who have appeared in 40+ games this season, he ranks 10th in deflections per minute. Opponents turn the ball over on 4.4% more of their possessions when Williams is on the court, a 98th percentile swing, per Cleaning the Glass. Certainly, the Nets have encouraged him to be aggressive in the passing lanes, particularly in the middle of the floor…
“Sometimes we gotta let Ziaire be Ziaire, right?” explains Jordi Fernández. “His energy is contagious, and a lot of times it’s not going to be perfect, but he just makes up with — you know, sometimes they’ll make mistakes, but he makes up with that extreme energy. But the guys know it; like, if you gamble, you better get it. That’s what I always tell them.”
Williams’ offense is uneasy, but it’s trending in the right direction — threes comprise over 60% of his shot diet, and he’s shooting 34.3% on 9.9 attempts per 100 possessions this season, all career-highs. He’s also cut most of the fat out of his two-point diet (notwithstanding this stretch of late-season experimentation) as a strong cutter with just a couple finishing tricks in the bag.
A couple years ago, the Nets and other teams might have imagined Williams as a stretch-4 of sorts. Not anymore. Williams played many minutes next to a Clowney/MPJ/center trio this season, both guarding the opponent’s lead ball-handler and being an attack dog in the passing lanes. For an off-guard, his length and energy is a plus, hardly a questionable athlete in this role.
This was a good find from NetsFilm on Twitter…
Williams has been a chaotic defender who makes enough of his shots to be a net positive and in March, he’s put up big numbers averaging 13.3 points on 52/51/90 shooting splits. That’s 13 games of very hot shooting, and Williams has been known to be inconsistent over his Nets tenure, but he is putting together a strong season by any definition.
So is Josh Minott. Minott is a sturdy 6’8” with a plus-wingspan, throwing down some big dunks since getting traded to the Nets midseason, but there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of self-creation.
Despite a couple nice drives here and there, he’s recorded nearly twice as many turnovers as assists in Brooklyn. You see in the first clip below that he misses a open corner pass on a drive. However, in that second clip, you see yet another impressive 3-pointer from the former Celtic…
Across the season, with both Brooklyn and Boston, Minott is shooting an absurd 44.1% from deep on nearly nine attempts per 100 possessions. Across four NBA and G League seasons, Minott is shooting 38.2% from deep on just under 400 total attempts as a pro. The shot looks a little funky, and he hasn’t really let it fly until this season, but that ball is going in.
If it continues, Minott is a bonafide NBA player who will bring more force to Brooklyn’s wings. This season, he ranks 17th in the league in deflections per minute, averaging nearly four stocks (steals + blocks) per 36. Jordi Fernández has openly challenged his mediocre rebounding numbers, but Minott plays with a clear blend of athleticism and calculated risk-tasking on D. This steal (initially called a foul but overturned via challenge) against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday really showed off his hands…
You figure Fernández is going to love playing Williams and Minott next season (assuming Brooklyn picks up the team option they have on each guy — $6.3 million on Williams, $2.3 million on Minott). Brooklyn has forced turnovers at just above a league-average rate over Fernández’s stint as head coach, but it’s taken a concerted effort from the staff to get them there. The Nets trapped ball-screens relentlessly in ‘25, and though they’ve toned that down a bit in ‘26, they play aggressively in the gaps, demonstrated above by Williams.
Next season, can Brooklyn force even more turnovers and will that factor into their offseason decision-making? Furthermore, can they both force turnovers and shut off the rim ever so slightly? After all, Brooklyn’s opponents have taken 36.1% of their attempts directly at the rim, the highest mark in the league, per Cleaning the Glass.
Sean Marks and the Nets might be turning over a new leaf. Egor Dëmin isn’t going to win a dunk contest anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean the team isn’t getting more athletic, particularly when Ziaire Williams or Josh Minott is playing the 2.
Neither Williams nor Minott is a perfect player. On a competitive team, neither can handle the ball much, and for 3-and-D players, both have questions about their outside shot. But for a Nets team that has too often been bullied by their opponents, it’s been fun to watch Williams and Minott fly around on the wing.
