You’ll notice that the subhead here says “a week of dreadful Nets basketball” and not “a dreadful week of Nets basketball.” Many, including myself, will argue that losing these basketball games as the 0-4
Brooklyn Nets have done so far benefits their long-term goals, which is to say, the tank is off to a terrific start. So I can’t exactly call Brooklyn’s opening week itself dreadful. Sure, these “day-to-day” injuries for Drake Powell and Danny Wolf are bummers, but unlike last season, the organization is accomplishing one of its main goals for 2025-26 (losing) right out of the gate.
However, the basketball itself has been horrific, only watchable if you consider Brooklyn’s defense a type of performance art. The Nets are allowing 131.8 points per 100 possessions, over a dozen points more than last year’s league-worst Utah Jazz. Even in just a four-game sample, they’ve managed to separate themselves from the pack; only one other team has a defensive rating above 120!
Opponents are shooting 46% from three against the Nets so far. Unsustainable! you might say. Technically, you are correct, but it feels like every 3-point attempt they’ve surrendered has been wide open; Brooklyn cannot make more than two successful rotations on a defensive possession before their shell disintegrates. In simpler terms: They deserve every bit of that 46% mark, and the horrid 59% mark opponents are shooting from two.
Right now, everything is a mess. Their season-opening loss to the Charlotte Hornets was the worst defensive game they’ve played since I started writing about this team six seasons ago; the effort/execution has only gotten marginally better since then. Firstly, nobody seems interested in stopping the ball in transition…
On the occasions they do stop the ball, there no communication as to how to matchup. With NBA teams emphasizing a faster pace than we’ve seen since the 1980s, Brooklyn’s defense has no chance to be functional until their desire and focus in transition improves.
In the half-court, Jordi Fernández has tried to increase the defensive intensity from last season, when Brooklyn was already blitzing/trapping ball-screens more often than any other team in the league. Barring the occasional turnover, this leaves any three of Brooklyn’s guards/wings to defend a four-on-three situation. One problem: the Nets have perhaps the least athletic guards and wings in the league, a recurring problem for this roster.
Guys like Tyrese Martin, Ziaire Williams, Jalen Wilson, Noah Clowney, Egor Dëmin, etc. often don’t have the burst/explosion to fly around the court and play effective 4-on-3 defense. And then there’s players like Cam Thomas and Michael Porter Jr. who — on top of athletic limitations — have spent much of the season visibly disinterested when the ball isn’t in their hands …
I cannot imagine what Jordi Fernández, not only as the head coach of this team but as a basketball nerd, is thinking while watching this defense.
“It’s just unacceptable to take an NBA game for granted,” he told the New York Post’s Brian Lewis after Monday night’s loss to the Houston Rockets. “And our guys are trying. They just don’t know how much harder and focused they can do things. And I believe they’ll keep taking those steps. A lot of it is just lack of experience.”
I don’t know what else Fernández, who built up plenty of goodwill last season, is supposed to say. But I can’t buy that when looking at someone like Terance Mann or Ziaire Williams or Michael Porter Jr., who elevated his defense immensely while winning a ring with the 2023 Denver Nuggets. Ben Saraf making a mistake while blitzing the pick-and-roll is one thing, but that’s not why Brooklyn is getting killed in their blitzing/trapping right now.
Alas, this is the way Jordi Fernández wants to play defense, and he’s decided to lean further into even with Brooklyn’s effort issues. (Until those improve, any coverage they play is going to get roasted.) After the home-opening loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, I asked Fernández what specifically he needs to see from his help defenders in this coverage, and he sent a message we’ve heard before: “The best teams in pick-and-roll [defense] are usually aggressive. You’re a numbers guy, so you can look at that at, at least according to last year, the two teams that were in the Finals, they were aggressive. Obviously, we have to be able to execute different coverages, but when we were up in the fourth [quarter] and we were disruptive, we had active hands, we got a lot of deflections, and that’s what makes you a good defensive team.”
It is true that, during Brooklyn’s strong play against Cleveland, they got deflections at the level. Nic Claxton came alive for a second, and even Saraf had a nice steal. While this scheme may not maximize players like Jalen Wilson, for example, Fernández is trying to implement some of the defensive culture we saw at points last season, particularly for the rookies and foundational pieces of this team. That’s understandable, but sometimes, the Nets will end up blitzing Lonzo Ball and leaving Evan Mobley open on the roll, or doubling off of a Victor Wembanyama screen…
That’s the first play of the half!! If Brooklyn was seriously trying to win this season, I would’ve had an aneurysm by now. There are other issues too, of course. Brooklyn’s most common point-of-attack defenders this season have been Saraf, Ziaire Williams, and Terance Mann; none of them have stood a chance against legit driving threats. For Mann (who fell out of Atlanta’s rotation last season) and the 19-year-old Saraf, this isn’t surprising.
For Ziaire Williams, it’s a real problem. All of his length and spirit don’t mean much if you can’t put him on a talented offensive player.
The Brooklyn Nets are clearly the frontrunner to finish with the NBA’s worst defense in the 2025-26 season. Perhaps this is necessary to cement pristine NBA Draft Lottery odds; the Philadelphia 76ers proved last season that taking the moral high ground will get you nowhere. But I can’t help but feel a little uneasy at Brooklyn’s lack of competitive spirit on defense. GM Sean Marks might have to start trading the veterans and playing the kids sooner than expected; at least they’ll try.
To that end, it feels like Cam Thomas’ time in Brooklyn is up. This pairing just doesn’t make sense for either side anymore, despite Thomas’ improvements as a Net. Even as a scorer, his 3-point rate and his free-throw rate are up this season, and as early as it is, potential future employers will love those developments.
But I don’t think it serves either Thomas or the Nets to have him rock a 34% usage rate on a team devoid of offensive talent. Teams know that he can drop 40 on any given night if he gets hot, as he did against the San Antonio Spurs. However, teams are certainly more interested in seeing what CT can do in a scaled back role with more talent around him, if he can thrive as an off-ball shooter who gives more effort than we’ve seen on defense thus far, and can thrive in some pick-and-roll actions when necessary.
The Nets, however, cannot provide that environment for him. Brooklyn experience in general. In talking with Erik Slater on the Locked On Nets podcast, I outlined one salient possession against the Houston Rockets…
I do not know if the Brooklyn Nets will try to trade Cam Thomas before the end of this season; I do not know if he would waive his no-trade clause for the right team. But I do know that this situation is counterproductive for both sides; Thomas running 30 pick-and-rolls a game while his teammates nervously pass him the ball at the end of the shot clock is not helping anybody, not to mention CT’s visible disinterest for much of the first four games.
The fact that he can snap out of that disinterest and score 40 against the Spurs or 33 — in bunches — against the Cavaliers only speaks to his ridiculous shot-making talent. Do not be surprised if he thrives somewhere else.
It is nice that Noah Clowney is trying to do more with the ball this season. He’s using his added muscle to bully defenders on his way to the rim, but the very early results have been the same…
We are, again, just four games into the season, but a lack of strength never really seemed like Clowney’s main problem to me. Rather, it was an utter lack of explosion that kept him from being effective inside the arc, and so far, it’s been the same story in 2025-26. He’s better at handling contact on drives, which is great, but so far they are not leading to different results.
It’s worrisome for Clowney, who has also shot just 4-of-17 from three so far. This season, the Brooklyn Nets need to figure out what else he is on offense besides an average spot-up 3-point shooter. So far, the most likely answer appears to be ‘nothing.’
However, Clowney has shown some real processing ability on offense, and Fernández has played him as the lone big more often already than I can remember for the entirety of last season. Here, he’s made a couple nice passes in the short-roll, as well as a couple nice drive-and-kick passes; clearly, Clowney can read the game. (Doesn’t all this sound a tad like what we’ve heard about Egor Dëmin?)
I just don’t know if Clowney’s drives and/or rolls to the basket will ever be enough to leverage his passing ability. Hopefully, some of these two-point attempts start going down.
On the bright side, this season has already been more intriguing than the 2024-25 campaign, simply because of the rookies. Every time Egor Dëmin checks into the game, my eyes perk up and I lean forward in my chair. Unfortunately, given Dëmin’s plantar fascia management as well as injuries to Powell and Wolf, there have been fewer rookie minutes to analyze, but rest assured we will get to all of them in a recurring Rookie Report column that focuses solely on the Flatbush Five.
The first installment of that will come sometime after the Brooklyn Nets take on the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. ET.
