Where do the Nets go from here? With Erik Slater of ClutchPoints

Where do the Nets go from here? With Erik Slater of ClutchPoints

What is happening with the Nets is there a way for them to turn the season around what will happen to the trade deadline what is the future and the short term of this team here with Eric Slater of clutch points and believe in Nets podcast we’re going to get into it all

But first the theme music you are locked on Nets your daily Brooklyn Nets podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day Brook yo all right welcome back to the lockon Nets podcast on the lockon podcast Network it’s your team the Brooklyn Nets every single day I am Doug Nory owner operator dfsr dcom if you need projections for FanDuel or DraftKings head on over to dfsr dcom got you cover

There every single night no Adam arm brick in the podcast today massive upgrade here talking with Eric Slater of clutch points of the believe in Nets podcast here to break down what is happening in this net season if there’s any hope around the corner what’s GNA

Come in the short term what’s GNA come in the long term Eric how’s it going brother it’s going well man appreciate you for having me on really appreciate the work you guys do I don’t know if you could say massive upgrade you guys you guys do a pretty good job over here but

Always always good to talk some Nets ball just to be clear only a massive upgrade on Adam it’s a it’s a it’s a it’s a neutral move if if if we swap Adam around it’s a neutral move um but uh for Adam not to be here for you to be

Here massive massive upgrade I know he always appreciate stuff like that okay netser in Paris here we are back we are still State Side talking about the team it’s been a very up and down season and that is a massive massive understatement it feels like around where this team

Started uh where they sort of were in the in the middle section of the season so far and where they are now let’s start just just like state of the team you’re with the team a lot you know you’re covering the team every single day what do you feel like is the general

Feeling around this team right now we’ll get into the nitty-gritty around like different players uh jacqu vaugh all this other stuff but like if you sort of how to summarize your feelings about the state of the Nets as they left to go to Europe into this Paris game like where

Would you put like sort of the general feeling around the team right now i’ say they’re a team that’s just struggling to find consistency I mean when you look at the Grand big picture of where they’re at I would say that they’re underperforming although I would say not

By as big amount as some people think and I think that the reason that it may seem that way is you know when they’ve been hot they were hot they won what was it six or seven or seven of eight and then since then they’ve lost what 12 of

Their last 16 so I feel like the lack of consistency makes it feel like the team is performing a lot lower than they are I do think that they’re underperforming but I do think if you came into this season the record of where they’re at they it’s it’s not too far off from

Where you could have expected them to be but I do think that during this recent stretch that they’re performing well below expectations and I think that all the the players on the team the coaches recognize it recognize the lack of consistency and I think that they really felt coming into this season were

Confident that they could be performing at a level higher than what they are right now and really Challenge and push into that playoff picture so I don’t think it’s a team that’s hopeless I do you know I’m around the guys in the locker room and it’s still a team that

Like the mood isn’t just completely like shocked by these recent struggles but they’re a team that I think holds themselves to a higher standard than where they’re at right now and believe that they should be performing higher than they are because if you remember they have a lot of guys on this team

That have played a lot of winning basketball you know for other organizations obviously but they’re not all used to this extent of struggles so I do think they’re you know they’re a group that’s not you know bere of Hope right now but they’re a group that recognizes is that they’re not

Performing where they should be yeah it’s a good point like typically the way people or really Sports is a good example of this the way you feel is sort of like expectation over reality right so if the expectation super low in you’re 16 and 21 you’re like oh my God

You’re doing you know might as well just run a parade down Flatbush half but if you are you know over 500 or if you have aspirations of the playoffs and now you find yourself in the same state it can feel like the sky is falling so I think

It’s a good it’s good for you the way you phrased it there to like kind of say like it’s probably not as Bleak as it seems and sometimes evaluating teams at their lowest points is not fair just like EV valuating teams to their highest points is not fair right and the Nets

Because the Nets right now if you look at their their projected win total they’re right around little north of 35 they came into the season right around 36 and a half 37 and a half so they’re not off too far with where the preseason expectation was it was just that that

Early season maybe said like do you feel like that like the early season yeah was that like a blip on the r was that like sort of like that was that was more noise than signal like how they performed early I I wouldn’t say that I

Would say that you know early in the season I think even through those first few weeks like if you look at the opening games of the year against Cleveland against Dallas against some of those other teams they lost nail biters where you saw some of the concerns that

People had about the team entering the year kind of rear its head but they were performing and they were competing on a night in Night Out basis and they were competitive with teams and they really for the most part early on took care of the teams that you would

Expect them to so I think that that’s the biggest you know shift over these last 16 games and I’m by no means trying to say that these last 16 games haven’t been concerning they absolutely have when you’re losing to teams like you know the Wizards like the Trailblazers

When you’re getting blown out by other good teams like they’re performing under a level of where they should be right now and honestly in my opinion A lot of that falls on the defensive end because this is a team that came into the year with high defensive expectations

And while I think some of those May been overblown based on some of the Personnel that we’re going to be playing I do think that they are way underperforming on that end and honestly the effort on that end has been what is most concerning to me over these last 16

Games because in order to just have a high floor and be a team that we thought that maybe they could be you have to be much better on the defensive end than what they have been right now I mean over these last 16 games they’re 27th in defensive rating I don’t think their

Personel is as good as some people may allow to be entering the year but they’re much much better than 26th over 27th over the last 16 games and 24th for the season so really they have to improve on that end if they hope to have the consistency that they need to kind

Of meet some of the expectations they had entering the year I I want to talk about Jack vaugh so I want to like avoid this vaugh part for one second with this next question if this is even possible but around when it comes to the defense

Like you said right there do you think it’s more a by let’s just get let’s just assume that like the defensive players are what they are so like forget about the expectation just like these are the guys this is what it is where they rank right now would you say having watched

Them every game and talk to everybody about this would you say the problems are more effort or more scheme like do you think or or and you’re and you’re fine to had your bets here and just say they’re both but like where like because

I feel like that is a and a source of debate and consternation around the fan base here about like what is the bigger problem is it like that the players don’t care or is it the scheme just stinks or is it like some combo I I would lean more towards the

Players I don’t think that the scheme is maximizing the you know some of the skill sets that the guys have but I you know I wrote an article Rec the biggest problem that the Nets have had over these last 16 games is that they can’t defend the three-point line at all and

That has coincided with them not being able to shoot the ball well like they were earlier in the season so the defense defensive strategy of kind of being more in the drop coverage as opposed to switching kind of trying to funnel some teams into taking above the break threes being in position to

Rebound under the basket earlier in the year it was working great and nobody was complaining because opponents were missing and the Nets were shooting at literally the best three-point percentage in the NBA so they were gaining a huge Advantage there you know every night and over these last 16 games

I just wrote an article about it opponents are making the shots but I went through actually I think it was two days ago and I looked at nearly every three opponents had made over these last 16 games and wall there’s a lot of them where I think that the coverage is

Leaving a lot to desired in terms of really packing in the paint and protecting it and leaving Guys open on the perimeter there’s just as you know as many threes where it’s guys you know being late in transition the transition defense is just horrendous and that you’re giving up the sixth most fast

Break points in the NBA and obviously some of that is a product of them not being good offensively so OPP points are having having a lot of opportunities to run but there’s transition and there’s a lot where you know Defenders are just falling asleep navigating off false screens or relocations guys are just

Getting to spots where they’re open where they shouldn’t be and that has nothing to do with scheme that’s really just a product of focus and being locked in not falling sleep off the ball and then the third thing is the Nets just have some limitations defending at the

Point of attack right now with Ben Simmons sideline you know when you have Spencer diwy and cam Thomas out there defending at the point of attack there’s only so much that a coach can do if those guys aren’t going to be able to hold their own whatsoever in their

Individual matchups and cam Thomas is a guy that obviously a lot of fans feel very passionately about and they want him out there but if you’re going to complain about the defense if you look at the film over these last 16 games cam Thomas has been not good defensively

Neither as Spencer dewi and I think that’s why you saw in the last game the Nets really just trying to find something that works going to Dennis Smith Jr but even when they go to Dennis Smith Jr down the stretch of that Trailblazers game they’re doubling on the ball Anthony Sims is getting

Whatever he wants so there’s limitations of the scheme I do think that it’s a little bit soft and it’s a little bit letting defend let letting offenses come to you as opposed to attacking them but can you really attack that much when you have that those limitations defending at

The point of attack so that’s really kind of how I would summarize that yeah that’s all great points and like we’ve talked about this for for a while too about like those those didn’t wty and God forbid the dwy plus Thomas pairings my goodness like the defense on those once you get

I’ll never understand it because like you can’t look at a single number that shows that like there’s anything there with that it’s been a total train all right we got more to talk about here have to get into to everyone’s other favorite topic of conversation which is

Jock vaugh we’ll get into that here in a second first gonna tell you about our friends over at prize pick look prize picks is daily Fantasy Made so easy prize picks just took all the best parts of fantasy removed the more difficult and annoying Parts it made really the

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Up to $100 prize picks is daily fantasy sports Made Easy all right old friend good friend Jack Von let’s talk vau here because obviously there’s been you know you mentioned cam Thomas as like sort of like I would s call fan sticking points right things that we get hyper focused

On and once you see something as a fan I think this probably goes to all sports you cannot unsee it whether it’s true or not right so like it it no longer matters whether there’s reality behind it once you see something uh there’s like a fixation now I’m not saying that

This shouldn’t be the case here with vaugh but obviously jacqu vaugh whenever a team is underperforming you have to look at the coach right like I know you mentioned the players and the effort thing and I think that’s all really fair and actually frankly something you don’t

Hear too often from people but when it comes to vaugh there’s you know you can’t look at a at a losing streak and not sort of look at the coach let’s just high level thoughts on vaugh and job security we’ll get I want to get to the

Player side of this here in a second with like their some of their quotes and reactions but where do you see like Vaughn’s job security right now through this Swoon like do you think it’s Ultra safe tenuous I don’t know I don’t want to put the words in your mouth like

Where do you see vau right now like in terms of the job well you know you asked me about scheme and players and I said that you know a lot of it lies on the players and their effort but who’s respons responsible for getting the players to perform at their Max effort

And perform to their capabilities that’s the head coach so I’m by no means absolving jack vaugh of that responsibility because at the end of the day if guys are falling asleep navigating off ball screens and things along those Natures that’s the coach’s responsibility to get them to perform

And be locked in and be at that position now you can argue how much of it is on the coaches and how much of it is on the players and I think that that’s fair you can also say that when players have glaring limitations it makes it more

Difficult for a head coach but it’s still his job to try to cover those up to the best of his ability when it comes to job security I think that the Nets would have to go on a these struggles you know these they’re what 4 and 12 or

Their last 16 these would really have to extend I think for another extended period for Jock’s job to be in serious Jeopardy I’m not reporting that with any inside information I’m just saying my opinion and I think that you know this is a season where the Nets were really

Trying to see what they have I’ve been calling it somewhat of an audition period in terms of the Nets wanting to find players you know they have all these guys a lot of them are you know veterans or approaching veteran status and when they try to make that leap back

Into contention they’re trying to determine this year which ones do they want to have here for the long run and I think that that extends to Jack vaugh I think you know this is a guy that while I think they don’t want to fire him and they don’t want to continue this

Coaching Carousel I do think that he’s being evaluated as everybody else is you know as is the case every season but particularly in a year where you’re trying to determine how you’re going to pick into that next you know era so I think that early in the year I think a

Lot of people you know would have thought ja M was doing a very good job I think things have flipped on their head over these last 16 games you can argue whether that’s you know opponent shooting luck whether that’s a product of scheme whether that’s a product of roster limitations whatever but the

Bottom line is this team is underperforming where they are expected to if that is the case for another extended period I do think that the Nets can be evaluating things heading into you know the years coming into the pivoting into the new era and it’s funny

Too because I think like you know I’m not really I’m really never won the call for jobs I that’s just I don’t like it it feels weird to me um and so I I don’t do it and maybe I I know there’s people out there that get frustrated with that

For us as a podcast but I’m just we’re just not going to do it that being said I think that like there is really fair criticism here around scheme around effort I think you make a great Point like if if if you can’t get the players to play with Max effort especially when

The like the the writing is on the wall with with in terms of the standings and all this other stuff like that is a major problem I also think that if you were to relieve Jac vaugh of the of his duties you would have a lot of the same

Problems right like you would like I don’t think that would is that is that a fair criticism here like that you would you’d be left with a roster that doesn’t have tons of high-end Talent like you know you there’s other organizational issues here Beyond vaugh that’s not absolving vaugh I’m just saying that

Like You’ be for a harsh reality that I don’t think that would change every all that much there’s there’s a lot of harsh realities with this team that you know I I follow Net’s Twitter and I see what fans post and fans seem to think that you know everything is always greener

Like fans are frustrated with Cam Thomas not playing point guard and Spencer diwy being in there and I look at the numbers and I look at the games and I’m like if you throw you know cam Thomas out there on an island maybe it’s good for his development and that’s another

Conversation things aren’t going to look pretty in the short term if you’re throwing him out there on an island that point guard so and the same thing extends to Jack vaugh where I think that there’s Fair criticisms of of him I think that you know one that I’ve seen

Over this you know over the beginning of this season and it was it could have been expected entering the year because this is a team that doesn’t have a star player everybody knows that depending on how you view a guy like Mel Bridges but what they do have is a lot of capable

Players a lot of guys who are good you know rotation players in the NBA they’re eight nine 10 Deep in that regard and the thing that has really struck me during this period is that there’s really no established pecking order of this team of who is the go-to guy you

Know obviously Mel Bridges isn’t a normally a high usage ball handler he’s not that type of player then you have guys like you obviously Spencer diwy and cam Thomas Lonnie Walker Off the Bench early in the year but it’s like when you don’t have that established pecking

Order and you’re just shuffling guys in and out of roles whether it be a Spencer diwy early in the year with when Ben Simmons was healthy to what he did you know in that Midway point from cam Thomas being on the bench then back in leading the offense getting hurt now

He’s taking a little bit more of a back seat it’s like when these roles are continuously Chang in it’s going to be develop it’s going to be tough to develop consistency so while it’s really difficult I do think that that’s something the Nets could look to improve

But I think that that Improvement might be seen after the trade deadline when a lot of things are sorted out and there’s a lot more clarity around this roster in the short to Mid to long term all right great I you brought up the trade deadline which is where we were going to

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Offer code locked on $20 off your order J medical.com all right trade deadline um we are coming up on it here less than a month away February 8th is the trade deadline Nets stand in um a very interesting position in terms of sort of like the pieces they have how they might be

Viewed uh across the league and sort of like what their ultimate goals are which uh for me leave me generally confused about like how they view how they view sort of the rest of the season there is a scary um there’s a scary sort of outcome here that I wonder if you you’ll

Touch on for the scary not real life scary but like basketball scary where do you see the Nets going into the trade deadline like or as a better question maybe what do you think the team will look like after the trade deadline like where do you like sort of what do you

Think their goals are going in here and do you see what kind of changes do you see possibly coming uh as we roll into February 8th as I said I think that this year is being used as somewhat of an audition period for lack of a better term trying

To determine which guys are going to be here for the long term when they do try to make a step towards being more competitive I’ve seen some things you know on that’s Twitter about people wanting the fire sale people people wanting to rebuild I do not see that

Happening whatsoever just based off of knowing how a lot of you know how things operate and also seeing some of the moves that they’re making which are signaling a team that is trying to stay competitive at all costs as opposed to maybe putting a premium on Player

Development so when you know you come into this trade deadline for me I think it all centers around Brooklyn’s veterans and impending free agents the free agents that’s Nick Claxton Spencer diwy Royce O’Neal even Lonnie Walker the fourth and then obviously Dorian finny Smith is a veteran who’s a trade

Candidate as well and when you look at those guys it’s it could go in a lot of different directions you know Nick claxon is guy who’s going to be unrestricted free agent obviously we know that there there’s been a lot of talk about where his Market could be at

Whether the Nets want to pay him they already have Cam Johnson and male Bridges under contract you know in the mid2 million doll per year range so if you have him and you’re trying to sign Nick claxon at a similar number and then you’re trying to you know bring in a

Star somewhere down the line you know it’s not it doesn’t mean that they have to trade him I wrote about this earlier in the year they could you know extend him give him his contract as they did Cam Johnson and figure it out later I think that’s a real possibility but

With claxon if they are to extend him that impacts their ability to retain those other guys that I talked about Spencer dewy Royce O’Neal Lonnie Walker the fourth so it really gets to a point where a lot of it is money involved you know I think that the Nets aren’t trying

To you know completely turn over their roster right now I think that you know they are trying to see where the trade value is for guys and if the value is at where they think it’s going to be a peak they’re going to try to capitalize but

I’ve wrote about this several times also the Nets are going to try to stay out of the luxury tax next season I would pretty much say they’re going to because there’s a CBA Clause called the repeater tax that they want to reset basically that is teams ex seeding the luxury tax

Line three times in 40 years are taxed just at this insane um you know continuous rate based on how much further you go over their luxury tax line and right now they have around 117 million committed to eight players for next season the luxury tax is set for

172 million so if you do the math there that’s bad at math off the top of my head that’s like 54 million so you have guys you have Clon you have Den Woody you have O’Neal you have Walker it’s going to be difficult to bring all of

Those guys back so basically out of those four you could throw Dorian and Finny Smith in that conversation I do expect them to be active and some assortment of those guys to be moved whether that’s Clon allowing them to retain some other guys whether that’s Clon and some guys giving them some

Ability to bring in some other guys using some exceptions in the off season that’s the question but I do expect them to be active at the trade deadline all right I want to talk Ben Simmons but I’m gonna put you on the spot here real

Quick I’m just going to say a guy you’re gonna say either still on the team or traded at the trade deadline ready Dorian fin Smith still on the team I’d say Royce O’Neal still on the team oh no Spencer Spencer D witty um this is tough

Um I’d say still on the team honestly it’s crazy I was worried you were going to say that because this is the other the I want to I want we’re going to run out of time and I want to talk about Simmons but the um this is my scary

Version was that right which is like you’re you’re still you’re incentivized to keep winning at the cost of like being able to like actually just recoup and get worse in the short term um and uncomfortably worse right like because you you watch that pick go out to

Houston and ends up being a good pick and you’re like uh you know it looks brutal but it’s also feels possibly like throwing good money after bad if you are and just to clarify I don’t even I think that’s definitely playing a role like they do not want to go backwards you

Know I think they would incrementally if they were able to capitalize on value for some of these guys but you know it’s tough to say honestly like claxon is a guy who I think teams would have interest in I I don’t know if you were

Gonna get to him but he’s a guy that I think is realistic to be moved does this dayon sharp injury throw a wrench into that you know that’s something that you could talk about it shouldn’t well I didn’t throw him in there because I felt

Like you probably I felt yeah I was he was part of that group but then I felt like you’ve like kind of spelled out the two sides of it I’ll say there right now Claxton on the team or no yeah honestly I I think that there is a decent chance

That they trade Clon interesting for all of these guys like I don’t think that it’s the necessarily them trying to stay competitive at all costs like everybody says that you know everybody thinks in a perfect world like you’re GNA trade O’Neal you’re gonna tra get a a good

First round pick you’re gonna trade finny Smith you’re gonna get two first round picks the market might not be there and if it’s not you know they could be in a position where they want to extends some of these guys and maybe try to trade them at a later point where

That value could be a little bit higher now you could argue they’re getting older is that value going to be higher basically my point you know of what I said before is between claxon you know dim Woody O’Neal like out of these guys it’s going to be tough to retain all of

Them and just keep kicking the can down the road so some assortment of those guys I do expect to be on the mood move and I do think it’s really coming down to part trade value and then part also how do they evaluate these guys during

This season and do they expect them to be in it for the long haul so you know difficult exercise you put me on the spot there but no I know I know I I do think that there’s a realistic possibility that one of these one or

More of these guys could be on the Move okay yeah and I think that’s a fair thing I I think I’m mostly with you it’s that I don’t think it’s realistic I think the two things are unrealistic one for them all to get traded and two for

Them to have like this crazy market value where the Nets are you know reaping multiple first round picks I I I agree with that part where it’s like or if they were first round picks I was saying this the other day like you have to tear these picks like if they were

First- round picks they’d be so late in the first round because they’re going to good teams and they’re just not all first round picks aren’t uh aren’t created equally okay final thought here Ben Simmons last thing like I I do like I’m not saying they can’t get that for

Those guys like I do think a guy like Dorian infiny Smith will have a lot of value I think that Royce O’Neal should have good value also I said no to dimwitty because I’m not sure where his trade value is right now and you know while he’s not playing well and he’s

He’s a lightning rod for Nets fans it seems like they a lot of people don’t like him but he’s really the team’s only point guard right now with Ben Simmons out so if the value is not there for him and they’re maybe looking at you know a

Couple second round picks for him and salary fillers are they GNA do that and then not have a point guard for the rest of the season that’s kind of where my thought process was there so you know I and I said that early in the year with

Ben Simmons out dim Woody is not really a guy that I saw them trading and especially with him not really performing well as of late and that trade value probably not being where they thought it might be at so yeah if you run the exercise of we did this on a

Couple of podcasts ago if you run the exercise of possible D dwy Landing spots there just like weren’t any right there were like you just run down the teams that could use him or that would be incentivized to trade for the kind of archetype that he is and they just

Didn’t really exist okay final thoughts here Ben Simmons um in some ways it feels like he’s not in the team anymore and there’s other versions of it where he’s coming back kind of soon so I don’t know where do you I’m not even going to preface this with anything besides that

Where do you stand with Ben Ben Simmons like right now in terms of timeline for returning slash ability to contribute over honestly I’ll just throw this the these two things the rest of this season and next season because they still have them under contract at 40 plus million so starting with timeline you

Know they said that you know we got a report from Brian Lewis the net said pretty much I tweeted about this yesterday and it was a little bit of a mini controversy but the net said I think it today it’s three weeks ago that he was you know beginning to see some

Strength Improvement that he was you know ramping up on court work and that they were going to provide another update in approximately two weeks now they hadn’t done that and on Friday Jo Von was asked about it and gave an update so not or lack thereof an update

Not really an update he said he was on the court doing work he said it was with coaches and stuff along those lines you know today we actually there was actually some video posted on Twitter of Ben doing some stuff on court but he’s moving at like half speed in every drill

So it’s kind of tough to tell when it comes there some shoot around stuff there was some shootaround stuff with him that went up too where he was like on the court yeah that’s what I’m talking yeah yeah just just to clarify for the for people listening like that

Was it was really it’s not it wasn’t like training stuff it was like it was shootaround right I mean we’re talking about the same thing when it comes to timeline literally anything you say right now is going to be speculative because we talked to Ben I think it’s a little bit less than

Three weeks ago now and he literally said I don’t have a timeline I don’t know with this type of injury you just don’t know now he’s on the court doing some stuff so that would lead you to believe that he’s progressing but it could be you know two three weeks it

Could be a month it could be two months like we just don’t know because this is an injury that obviously is very unpredictable so that’s when it comes to timeline he seems to be trending in a Direction but we just don’t know he’s ramping up all the Nets are always

Ramping up that’s that’s the term that we always but um when it comes to confidence and him being able to contribute we’re going on three years now of Ben frankly not playing basketball and not being available and we literally just had last season him missed three extended stints in the

First half of the year then he’s forced out of the All-Star break and he’s shut down for the entire second half of the season with a nerve impingement in his back he spent about seven eight months months through going through what was called an intense rehab to try to get to

A point where he was comfortable you know playing again being at a good physical state he said that he was and then we got six games into this season and he went out with while for some reason his agent said it’s nothing similar and it’s different he went out

With what is being called the same injury although in a different spot so if you have a player that got injured at last year’s you know going into the All-Star break was out for seven to eight months really working hard at this rehab Prospect process and saying that

He felt great and then you get six games into the year and he’s out for two three months with the same injury I don’t know how you could have any level of confidence that the guy is going to come back and be able to be on the floor and

Contributing for a extended period without injury so that’s kind of where I stand with Ben you know I’ll believe it when I see it uh Brian Lewis who does great work for the New York Post did a piece right after I think Ben got the diagnosis he talked to doctors and they

Said this is their words that the type of injury that he has can be reoccurring and unpredictable and then they said that the bulging disc that he had surgery on in the 2022 off season the micro disectomy is the name of the procedure he had the analogy that they

Use is that it’s like patching up a a hole in a tire and that they said word for word it’ll never be the same so given all that based on a three-year sample size of this I don’t know how you could expect anything else at this point

It’s kind of uh when then’s on the floor when he’s playing for an extended period you’ll believe it but right now to expect that is kind of you know it’s it’s not logical based on what we’ve seen I’ll take it one step further I’ll never believe it like and I’m not trying

To be harsh here but it’s just like I I know you’re you’re doing a good job of sort of like taking your stance is realistic I I’ll just take it one step further I at this point based on the number of games he’s played and I’ll go

Even back to Philly where you know he sat out the whole season and the push back on that as well it’s not basketball related to me it’s all related like once you sit out it all counts it doesn’t matter it counted with Kyrie it count like it count you know it counts when

You sit out for any reason because because once you sit out for any reason it means you can sit up for any reason I I think he’s hurt right now by the way so it’s not that I think this is like legit injury I’m just saying it all

Factors in and when you’ve played something like 20% of the games or less over the you know the available games over the last three years you just can’t like I I I think it’s just complet to me it’s completely cooked and um it’s all found money even though it’s incredibly

Expensive that was the that was pretty much the wording that I used I wrote an article about this right after Ben got diagnosed or his agent Bernie Lee came out and gave the prognosis of that nerve and pinch him because I thought I’ve said this but I thought the reporting of

The situation was so not strange because we’ve seen reporting of his injuries be weird but you know first it’s it’s hip soreness then it’s a hip contusion and then his agent comes out and says that it’s a back impingement a nerve impingement in his back and I just said

That while the injury that forced him out at last year’s All-Star break was a nerve impingement the agent said that it’s nothing similar to what then experienced last season and this is a short-term thing and a day-to-day evaluation is what he said we’re two two plus months in and he hasn’t played so

You know that’s that’s kind of where I’m at with it and it’s it’s getting to a point where if he’s you know if he’s back on the floor that’s great but like you said it’s all kind of gravy and you the Nets I this was the focus of the

Article I wrote he they can’t be banking on him to you know to plan anything around this and it seems to some extent like they were entering the year which is a little concerning you know they can’t it can’t be when Ben gets back this defensive scheme is going to look

Better when Ben gets back the transition offense is going to be there and things are going to look better we’re gonna be jacking up threes at the rate we want to when Ben gets back this it can’t be that because Ben’s never back he’s never on

The court for an extended period so to plan and expect for him to be that and plan things around him is literally Insanity it’s expecting you know a different result when you’re doing the same thing over and over again so you know Ben if he comes back that’s great

It could be a bonus for the Nets but the Nets team coaches fans nobody should be planning and expecting things to all be fixed you know based on Ben getting back because as we’ve seen history says that he’s not going to be on the court for an extended period

Yeah no I think it’s I think like you know I I think it’s cooked I think it’s I think it’s over um I think it’s you know couple game stretches here and there and I think that’s I actually don’t even think that’s the expectation to me it’s just the reality maybe I’m

Being totally unfair but I just think if you’re looking at it probabilistically like if you’re basy in this thing like you just can’t go any other way you’d be insane you’d be insane if you if you were super in any way even on the right side of bullish I just don’t even know

How you can do it okay we’re going to get Eric out of here much appreciated Eric jumping in uh for this extended talk talk on the Nets always great Insider information bring in because ER covering the team every single day over there on clutch points over on believe

In Nets podcast Eric thank you so much for coming on today appreciate it man hope to talk to you soon all right in the meantime make sure you subscribe over on YouTube make sure you subscribe wherever you’re listening the podcast we get to the end of the podcast when Adam

Is not here he always brings the quotes from The Great American poets no quote today we’ll just say Eric Slater over there one of the Great American poets we’ll be back again tomorrow talking more Brooklyn Nets basketball

With the Nets traveling to Paris, Doug Norrie sits down with Erik Slater of Clutch Points and Bleav in Nets Podcast to talk about Brooklyn’s season.

They talk about the Nets’ issues and if there are solutions on the offensive and defensive end. They also talk about Jacque Vaughn’s performance and whether his job is secure.

There’s trade deadline speculation around Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and even Nic Claxton.

And finally, there is some Ben Simmons talk as well.

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