Nets Quickly Reminded of Glaring Hole and Deficiencies in Season Opener

The Brooklyn Nets concluded their regular season opener bruised, battered, and with a realization that this year won't be a cakewalk to an NBA championship.

© Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Kevin Durant hoped for the Brooklyn Nets to 'beat the snot' out of the New Orleans Pelicans at Barclays Center Wednesday night. That didn't go as planned and forecasted struggles down the road.  

The Pelicans delivered a wire-to-wire beatdown reminding the Eastern Conference contender that it won't be all sunshine and rainbows this year. There's quite a lot you can unpack from the blowout, even when it's only takeaways from Game 1 of an 82-game slate. 

The Nets General Manager, Sean Marks loaded up on depth in the offseason, adding versatility and experience. It's an appealing roster on paper but the glaring hole in the offseason acquisitions was put under the bright lights Wednesday night.

The team decided not to add a bruising big man to join fourth-year big, Nic Claxton, and second-year big, Day'Ron Sharpe. Instead, Brooklyn saw Andre Drummond ink a deal with the Chicago Bulls and decided not to re-sign Blake Griffin or LaMarcus Aldridge. 

“We’re never going to be the biggest team," said Nash postgame. "We’re not gonna lead the team in rebounds, but there’s still a level of understanding that that’s a weakness for us. We talked about it every day. We have to come back double-team on the glass and flood it. That’s a part of just being competitive and being aware and understanding where our weaknesses are and trying to combat them from the start.”

It didn't take long at all for New Orleans to spot that weakness and it was visibly apparent the team game planned for it. The Western Conference sleeper commanded a whopping 22-rebound advantage (61-39) in the board category and an eye-popping 36-4 disparity in second-chance points. Those dominant numbers were forged by the brute force of the Pelicans frontcourt duo, Zion Williamson and Jonas Valanciunas.

"[Nets got to] box out, put a body on people, not let them get in our paint on defense," Durant said. "You let a team get in your paint, you leave your guys on the perimeter, now they're crashing for the glass, so we've got to keep the ball out of the paint. If they're shooting over us, then their team's got no choice but to get back on defense instead of crashing, so we've just got to keep teams out of the paint." 

That's easier said than done against bigger competition, especially in an Eastern Conference packed with identical profiles and neighboring championship aspirations - Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Milwaukee Bucks, and Philadelphia 76ers. Irving, in a response talking about the physicality advantage in matchups, snuck in Brooklyn's disadvantage in that avenue.

"This is a grown man's league and the most physical team wins, and New Orleans came in with the intent to show is why they're going to be in the hunt for championships in the next few years," Irving said in his postgame remarks. "They have a good foundation with Brandon Ingram and Zion and then add in a defensive-minded player like Herbert [Jones] and CJ McCollum and they all were clicking tonight. You see just the spread out of the scoreboard. They did everything." 

Tying into the rebounding and second-chance points disparity, Brooklyn was simply outworked by New Orleans throughout Wednesday night - a flaw the Nets dealt with commonly last season. Their lackluster effort was displayed all over the box score in every category. 

“I think you look at a number of things. Clearly, I think they beat us in every category tonight," Nash said postgame. "I think clearly we started the game a little hectic, A little bit rattled to start, and sometimes that’s normal. First night out, excitement. New group. Obviously, it was a little clunky at times, but my message to the guys was just raising our standards, and the competition. We gave up 21 offensive rebounds, we turned the ball over, we let them in our paint way too often. Just things that we’ve been preparing for. We’ve been working at. We just didn’t execute and it’s a process. It’s a process for our group, but at the same time there’s competitive standards and there’s an opportunity for us to grow every night here, but we gotta compete every night here at a high level.”

There's no secret a major Nets weakness that only time can patch is cohesion and continuity - factors many other championship contender pride themselves on. 

On the other side of things, Brooklyn was without quite an extra load of scoring on opening night: Joe Harris (left foot soreness), Seth Curry (left ankle - injury recovery), and TJ Warren (left foot - injury recovery). That, of course, does not assist Ben Simmons - who is continuing to gather comfort on the hardwood with his new team. Simmons fouled out for the second-straight game Wednesday night, seeing only 23 minutes of playing time. 

In a regular season slate that has the Nets battling a majority of playoff-caliber teams roughly in the first quarter, it'll certainly be interesting to see how Brooklyn combats their woes. 

The Nets will host the Toronto Raptors on Friday, October 22 at Barclays Center.