The Brooklyn Nets are bad. With a pay roll reaching over $100 million, a 3-7 start just is not cutting it. The team is on a two-game losing streak after losing to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night. The Nets blew a double-digit lead in the first half to shoot just 22 percent in the second. They have dropped five of their last six games and after Monday's loss, the locker room doors remained closed for an extra 25 minutes as players discussed issues.
"Just talking about the game, and what we've got to figure out," Joe Johnson said, via The New York Post about the meeting. "We've just got to get some chemistry, because when we get stagnant to where we can't get a bucket, we have to have something we can go to and we've just got to figure it out."
While chemistry is an issues, shooting and injuries are also playing a factor. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett combined to go 10-for-31 in the game. Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Andrei Kirilenko were all sitting out. They failed to sustain effort for a full game, allowing Portland immediately back into the game in the third quarter. Six players on the team have 10 years of experience or more, leading Jason Terry to call for some reflection before this season carries on in a downward trend.
"Just guys reflecting, realizing that we just let another opportunity slip. But we'll figure this thing out," Terry said.
Despite the extremely slow start to the season, none of the Nets players are stressing panic. While everyone agrees that frustration is running high with the team at the moment, there is a tone of confidence that things turn around. Still, Brooklyn has a lot to go to get to above .500 and a stretch of the Bobcats, Timberwolves, Pistons, Raptors and Lakers will be tough.
"That's the thing," Johnson said. "We've got more plays than that. We didn't run no post-up for Paul. We didn't run a post-up play for me. We just stayed in pick-and-roll and shot jumpers. That hurt us when they're not falling. That was on us as players. We're the ones out there. We can call the plays and I just thought we got stagnant and we didn't really get a lot of flow offensively. We got some good looks, some wide open shots, and we didn't hit them."
It is hard to ignore the talk that Jason Kidd is on the hot seat. It is certainly too early to say the Nets are considering a change, but with the high payroll and even higher expectations, Mikhail Prokhorov is not likely to be a patient man. He wants results from his investments.
