Brooklyn Nets need early bounce back weekend

They lose 110-103.

But more than that, it was whether or not it felt like systematically they were in a position to go out and have an effective approach to winning that basketball game, playing a lot of backups.

You know who you're not going to play a lot of backups for? It's going to be the Cleveland Cavaliers.

And if we're thinking about what it's going to look like from a matchup standpoint, it's a little bit interesting because...

The first thing that you obviously jump to, especially when we talk about what has been a decade-long journey for the Brooklyn Nets in terms of skill positions, the power forward and center spot is going to be hard for the Brooklyn Nets, right? Jared Allen and Evan Mobley obviously present problems for them.

Frankly, I don't even know what to expect from Thomas Bryan at this point of his career, but just having another big body and some weight is going to present challenges.

Remember, a game ago in the debut here for the Brooklyn Nets at home, there was a real problem in terms of fouls, and it was kind of twofold.

Oddly enough, when we talk about someone like De'Ron Sharp, who's moving into that more prominent role, he got those two early fouls, which were like... you know, very used to seeing him run into those issues with, but then he managed to make his way through the game and avoid getting into real issues.

I think he finished with four, uh, by the end of this one.

But the other side of it is that when you looked at someone like Noah Clowney, who fouled out in 22 minutes and, uh, Eric Slater the other day on, on the lockdown post game show accurately pointed out, not a great game for him, even though you could look back and say, Oh, 22 minutes, you know, three rebounds and assist a steal, uh, six, what are you, nine points in this game? Yeah, and it's a different role for him, but we know that obviously that's more of a four than a five, and when it comes to big physical matchups, it's going to be harder.

He was willing to get chippy with Nas Reed, but it didn't necessarily work out in terms of possession over possession, and not only defensively, because that's the one side of it, but then offensively, it's not like we're looking for Noah Kalani to impose his will.

Now, He had some good sequences where he went and attacked the closeout and got towards the basket and got into the lane.

Can he produce more of that? De'Aaron Sharp, while overall his line ends up looking okay, 30 minutes, 8 points, 4 of 5, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, right? Like did all the usual things, had 3 blocks in this game as well.

It's great.

But again, he is not the same type of imposing figure at the five.

Yes, he's 6'10", he's 265, but he doesn't necessarily have the defensive versatility to be able to extend his defense out towards the perimeter.

So it's different in terms of the matchups you're going to see here, but I think it's still going to present a lot of the same problems.

Now, I don't mind as much the Jared Allen matchup in this game if we're talking about the bigs and saying, do we think that De'Aaron Sharp can hold his own? Yes.

Do I think that a Noah Clowney can hold his own in that? Yes, I do, actually.

In terms of perimeter looks, where the defense needs to be, rotating defensive assignments, yes.

I think they can hold up in that regard, but...

but it's the physicality, and it's going towards the basket, and it's whether or not you think that that size is going to end up stacking up some fouls quickly, and then you extend it out to the rest of the team, and we think about what are the other weapons that they're going to be able to bring to you.

So I start with that because the Nets defensively against the Hornets were a disaster, and I don't think anyone expected coming into this game that we were going to talk about, sorry, this season, I should say, the Brooklyn Nets being a defensive stalwart.

The idea is that offensively they're going to create problems for you and that because you have a lot of length, not necessarily size, but a lot of length across a lot of your positions, it's going to create matchup problems.

Yegor Dolman struggled, right? Nolan Traore struggled.

They lose 110-103.

But more than that, it was whether or not it felt like systematically they were in a position to go out and have an effective approach to winning that basketball game, playing a lot of backups.

You know who you're not going to play a lot of backups for? It's going to be the Cleveland Cavaliers.

And if we're thinking about what it's going to look like from a matchup standpoint, it's a little bit interesting because...

The first thing that you obviously jump to, especially when we talk about what has been a decade-long journey for the Brooklyn Nets in terms of skill positions, the power forward and center spot is going to be hard for the Brooklyn Nets, right? Jared Allen and Evan Mobley obviously present problems for them.

Frankly, I don't even know what to expect from Thomas Bryan at this point of his career, but just having another big body and some weight is going to present challenges.

Remember, a game ago in the debut here for the Brooklyn Nets at home, there was a real problem in terms of fouls, and it was kind of twofold.

Oddly enough, when we talk about someone like De'Ron Sharp, who's moving into that more prominent role, he got those two early fouls, which were like... you know, very used to seeing him run into those issues with, but then he managed to make his way through the game and avoid getting into real issues.

I think he finished with four, uh, by the end of this one.

But the other side of it is that when you looked at someone like Noah Clowney, who fouled out in 22 minutes and, uh, Eric Slater the other day on, on the lockdown post game show accurately pointed out, not a great game for him, even though you could look back and say, Oh, 22 minutes, you know, three rebounds and assist a steal, uh, six, what are you, nine points in this game? Yeah, and it's a different role for him, but we know that obviously that's more of a four than a five, and when it comes to big physical matchups, it's going to be harder.

He was willing to get chippy with Nas Reed, but it didn't necessarily work out in terms of possession over possession, and not only defensively, because that's the one side of it, but then offensively, it's not like we're looking for Noah Kalani to impose his will.

Now, He had some good sequences where he went and attacked the closeout and got towards the basket and got into the lane.

Can he produce more of that? De'Aaron Sharp, while overall his line ends up looking okay, 30 minutes, 8 points, 4 of 5, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, right? Like did all the usual things, had 3 blocks in this game as well.

It's great.

But again, he is not the same type of imposing figure at the five.

Yes, he's 6'10", he's 265, but he doesn't necessarily have the defensive versatility to be able to extend his defense out towards the perimeter.

So it's different in terms of the matchups you're going to see here, but I think it's still going to present a lot of the same problems.

Now, I don't mind as much the Jared Allen matchup in this game if we're talking about the bigs and saying, do we think that De'Aaron Sharp can hold his own? Yes.

Do I think that a Noah Clowney can hold his own in that? Yes, I do, actually.

In terms of perimeter looks, where the defense needs to be, rotating defensive assignments, yes.

I think they can hold up in that regard, but...

but it's the physicality, and it's going towards the basket, and it's whether or not you think that that size is going to end up stacking up some fouls quickly, and then you extend it out to the rest of the team, and we think about what are the other weapons that they're going to be able to bring to you.

So I start with that because the Nets defensively against the Hornets were a disaster, and I don't think anyone expected coming into this game that we were going to talk about, sorry, this season, I should say, the Brooklyn Nets being a defensive stalwart.

The idea is that offensively they're going to create problems for you and that because you have a lot of length, not necessarily size, but a lot of length across a lot of your positions, it's going to create matchup problems.

Yegor Dolman struggled, right? Nolan Traore struggled.