The Brooklyn Nets are in a bad way. They’ve lost five games in a row and would be tanking for a lottery pick if they didn’t already owe it (and pretty much their whole draft for the next few years) to the Boston Celtics. They’ve fired their coach, Lionel Hollins, and demoted their GM, Billy King, but owner Mikhail Prokhorov is still talking titles and looking like a serious challenger to James Dolan for the worst basketball owner in New York. (When’s the last time someone complained about Jimmy? Not since the Knicks drafted Porzingis, that’s for sure.)
When things are going this poorly, the last team you want coming into town is the San Antonio Spurs, the model of success on and around the court. In everything but money (ironically), they are the haves and the Nets are the have-nots. The Spurs spend so much effort on building things organically and with the right relationships and philosophies that it’s easy to consider the two foes’ relative plights as poetic. With that in mind, look at this derpy-as-hell Nets play.
Thaddeus Young is out here trying to be Pete Maravich, but nobody’s calling him Pistol Thad — or even Musket Thad — anytime soon. The best part — worst, if you’re a Nets fan — is Young blaming Lopez for not drifting baseline. He was standing still and wide open, Thad. This one’s on you.
