Analyzing the Power Forward Conundrum

The Brooklyn Nets are entering this season stronger than last year in some people’s opinions. In every position there are multiple players that can handle the pressure put on them and despite losing Shaun Leavingston (pun intended) and Paul Pierce, both of them glue guys on the roster, the Nets added Jarrett Jack and Bojan Bogdanović. With increased depth in each position, the Nets can expect a good season, but for the ego of some players, this season could be worse than last one.  In this article I will tend to give my opinion on the possibly most important position battle- the starting power forward.

It is important to note, that Lionel Hollins has named Kevin Garnett the starting PF this season, but if Garnett continues to play poorly Hollins may have to

Now in this position Nets have the veteran, Garnett, the youngster Mason Plumlee and the three point specialist Mirza Teletović. All of those three have a realistic chance of starting in the season which is 82 games long and they will all get their chance.

If Hollins is choosing the starter by experience, no one on the entire Nets roster can be even close to Garnett, but that is really what a 39-year-old Garnett give, maybe with a little bit of explosiveness and leadership.

Mason Plumlee has the athleticism and the explosiveness of a young player, but he does not have the shot and floor stretching that was the main weapon of the Nets last year but it needs to be understood- Lionel Hollins is not Jason Kidd. Lionel Hollins may not need some players as much as Kidd needed them last year, and that is where Teletovic comes in.

Teletovic could fall out of the rotation this year due to his poor defense, an aspect of the game which is essential to Hollins’ system. Defensively, Lionel Hollins is one of the best coaches in the NBA and Teletovic struggles in that department, so he might not be used by Hollins as much as Kidd used him last year, which could deny him the chance of that 12+ ppg season that we all saw coming in 2014/15 season.

All in all, as coach Hollins already said Garnett will be the first choice but as for the minutes on the floor…it cannot be said right away. We just need to wait and see which game does Brooklyn have to offer and which players suit which roles in the team/rotation.

The European Connection

Brooklyn Nets have a good European connection this year with four European players, them being Mirza Teletović, Andrei Kirilenko, Sergey Karasev and Bojan Bogdanović. They are all (except Karasev) good, internationally proven players.

We all saw Bogdanovic lead the Croatian national team to almost an upset against the French in the quarterfinals of the FIBA World Cup, but his 27 points were not enough. From that, we can see that he is primarily a scorer so we cannot expect a lot of assists, and due to his position he will never be an outstanding rebounder. He also has an abundance of Euroleague experience so in Bogdanović, you will get similar player to Teletovic, and since the Bosnian has had a lot of luck in Brooklyn, we surely hope that Bogdanovic will as well.

Talking about Teletovic, he had a good summer. He was the best scorer of the European qualification for the Bosnian national team as he improved in many aspects of his game, primarily defending and rebounding. The domination he showed against Iceland and Great Britain proves that he slowly becomes a pretty decent NBA player all around. No one knows how Lionel Hollins will set up the Nets rotation but we can certainly see that Teletović has his spot in the starting line up.

Andrei Kirilenko is the most proven player of the bunch, as he has the most experience in the NBA. The former Jazz player is the best defensive player on the Nets roster so he will have a significant spot in the rotation, as Hollins is a coach that prefers good defence. However, he is not a good scorer and that could hurt the Nets, unless he is on the floor with players like Deron Williams and Joe Johnson who are proven scorers.

As for his fellow countryman Sergey Karasev, a lot of good things have been said about him during the summer, most famous being that he would be the lottery pick of this year’s draft, which was described as the best draft since 2003. But, in truth, we don’t know a lot about Karasev since he did not receive significant minutes on the Cavaliers. All we know is that he is young, something the Nets desperatly needed and that he has a lot of potential and that potential will be shown only if he gets his amount of playing time.

All in all, Nets do have the best Europe connection in the NBA right now, and it just a matter of time and form of the players before we can see starting line-ups led by Teletovic, Bogdanovic, Karasev and Kirilenko. We, as Nets fan, can only hope in the next few years, this connection brings us the long awaited ring.

Nets’ Best Case Scenario This Season

Brooklyn Nets come into this season realistically weakened from the last one, where they made a good playoff run. Some important players like Paul Pierce and Shaun Livingston who made a huge part of the Net’s rotation are now gone, but no one is irreplaceable.

The Nets now have the very versatile Bojan Bogdanović coming in from Europe and they have the veteran Jarrett Jack along with the young Russian Sergey Karasev. And with them, the rest of the team is very much improved. First off, the big stars of the team are now fit and very eager to start. Most of all of them, Brook Lopez is eager to start his season, after missing almost the whole of last season due to a broken foot. Also, Deron Williams is now back from his recurring ankles injury and he says “he is better than ever”.

Joe Johnson is also there and fit, since he had no problems with any injuries or such. As for the rest of the team, we can positively say that their improvement can be seen throughout games with their national teams, most recent being Mason Plumlee making the US team and Mirza Teletović being the best scorer in the European FIBA qualification that occurred in August.

There are multiple reasons why this season could be even better than the last, and one of them is that the Eastern Conference can be regarded as weaker than last season, due to the fact that some teams lost key players and some teams gained some very good players, so there will be a huge divide between teams that should fight for the top and guys scraping the bottom of the barrel known as the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn should be right in the middle of the playoff-making teams, maybe around third or fourth seed which is pretty good for a team that lost two major players.

All in all, it is my opinion and certainly hope that this season we can see a healthy Lopez, a healthy Williams, a standard Johnson, a streaky Teletovic, and all in all a very good Brooklyn Nets team. Team is the most important word and as long as they play like the post-31^st game Nets, after that cold streak of 10-21, as long as they continue that form, hopes could be riding high for Nets fans from Bosnia to Russia.

Teletovic or Bogdanovic

The newest addition to the Nets team is the Bosnian-born Croat Bojan Bogdanović, 25-year-old small forward who previously played for Fenerbahce in Turkey. He is a sharpshooting, tall forward who Nets waited for since the 2011 Draft, as he was the so called draft’n’stash. But, the Nets believe he is ready to somewhat replace the void Paul Pierce left in his position, although that place will be very hard to fill. Also, Bogdanović adds to the European colony in the Brooklyn rotation, along with Mirza Teletovic, Andrei Kirilenko and newly added Sergey Karasev, making the most of Brooklyn bench mob. But how does Bogdanovic rank up to Teletovic?

Well first he is younger, which is a plus to a semi-old Nets roster. Last year average age on the roster was around 32 years, which was among the oldest in the league. Now it is around mid-twenties due to three rookies coming and Paul Pierce leaving, and one of those rookies is Bogdanović himself. Another positive is the versatility of Bogdanovic, because he can play almost all positions on the court, something that Teletovic does not possess.

He has excellent court vision, he has a shot on him but he is lacking some important things. But where Mirza goes above Bojan is experience, defensive ability, strength and consistency. He earned all that in two years in which he had to guard guys like Kevin Love and Chris Bosh, and although he was not particularly good at it, his defensive ability can really only go up now that he got hang of things in this league. Consistency is a big one, and Mirza is again not particularly consistent, but is working on it heavily.

@MikeKIng00

 

This summer was not a vacation for the Jablanica-born power forward as he worked hard on his shot, his strength and defensive ability. Bogdanovic has got to learn a lot about things I mentioned but he will be an awesome edition to the team and under coach Hollins, he will become a good defender in no-time, as will Teletovic.

All in all, the Bosnian-Croat duo we have on our roster could be a deadly three-point weapon, and for them I predict a shared percentage of around 40% just in the first season from downtown. Bogdanovic’s three point shot fell a little in the last season but nothing a little offseason work cannot fix, and we all know by now, Teletovic can really be only better. I expect great things from the Balkan duo, although the first season will be adapting for Bojan and possible breakout for Teletovic.

If Bogdanovic plays around 25 minutes per game and does not average 15 ppg or more, then he has nothing to look for in this league because if those two hands cannot put up 5 threes per match especially with the possible three point squad on the field (as was discussed in my last article) then he is maybe just not cut for this league.

Possible Lineups for the Nets

Brooklyn is coming in very different next season, with a “reconstructed“ Lopez and Williams and in a little weaker East Nets look for a better result than last year’s second round loss.

In all that mess of an offseason, losing players such as Paul Pierce and Shaun Livingston who were very important last season Brooklyn could emerge even better, because the main core of the team is still here. Lopez as a franchise player and Deron Williams as a star on the current roster. Along with valuable experience in Jarrett Jack, Alan Anderson and Kevin Garnett, plus the youth in Mason Plumlee, Cory Jefferson and Marel Brown. The Nets still have two Europeans in Mirza Teletovic and Andrei Kirilenko, now joined by the Croatian Bogdanović and the Russian Sergey Karasev.

On paper this team looks very good, combining the experience with youth perfectly, along with two players who are or have been franchise players. But the new coach Hollins must fit all these players in the rotation, plus worry about things like Bogdanovic defense issues, Lopez’s foot that has caused trouble along with now surgered William’s ankles, and fitting rookies Jefferson and Brown into the team. I will present a couple of lineups we could see on the court next year:

*Note these are not starting units, just possible lineups to be used in games*

	Three-point shooters (version 1)	Three-point shooters (version 2)	Defensive
Point guard	Deron Williams	Deron Williams	Jorge Gutierrez
Shooting guard	Joe Johnson	Jarret Jack	Alan Anderson
Small forward	Bojan Bogdanović	Joe Johnson	Andrei Kirilenko
Power forward	Mirza Teletović	Bojan Bogdanović	Kevin Garnett
Center	Brook Lopez	Mirza Teletović	Brook Lopez

 

Analysis

In the first lineup we see a standard Brooklyn line-up used for the majority of last season, just done with this roster that is available to coach Hollins as we speak. The first variant of the three-point shooting five looks amazing, at least to me.

You have a presence under the offensive glass in the sense of Lopez, and you have four excellent shooters outside, which basically means that double teaming anyone is not an option, because it leaves the shooters outside. Also, Joe Johnson will finally play in his natural position of shooting guard, due to the fact that the newcomer Bogdanović can play small forward. Bogdanovic is also a good shooter, and we all know how good Teletović is.

As for the second variant, we saw it used last year and I think against low rebounding teams it could be used because you have five threats on the floor who can shoot basically from anywhere. If coach Hollins decides to play like Kidd, Nets could be a threat even to star studded teams such as the Cavaliers are at this instance.

But the downside is the defensive and rebounding skills. Bogdanović and Teletović are not a presence under the hoop both offensively and defensively. Nets can only hope that when this, and if this lineup is on the floor the three-point shooting is up to the challenge.

The third is something that Livingston leaving opened up- more space for the defensively oriented Jorge Gutierrez (if he does not get cut from the roster). But this lineup is unlikely since it has almost zero offensive power other than Lopez and Alan Anderson’s three-point shooting that is either really good or not going at all.

Although these three lineups are likely (except the third one) they will probably not start, but are very good options if the shooting is like it was last season- very good. But whatever the rotation is, we all have to believe in the experience of Hollins and players that made the comeback from 10-21 last season to become one of best teams in the East, meanwhile beating the reigning champs four times during the regular season.