Nets' rebounding has gone from their biggest weakness to best in the NBA
Nets' Mikal Bridges, left and teammate Nic Claxton, center, grab a rebound away from Toronto Raptors' Scottie Barnes during an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023, in New York. Credit: AP/Bebeto Matthews
Lost in the furor of Tuesday’s In-Season Tournament madness was a Nets stat that impressed coach Jacque Vaughn.
All five starters in the Nets’ win over the Raptors had at least eight rebounds. Mikal Bridges had his third double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds, already the most he’s had in a season.
It’s part of the Nets’ biggest improvement this season. The Nets lead the league in rebounding after being second-to-last last season. A weakness exposed in last year’s first-round playoff loss has now been shored up.
Even more impressive is the Nets have done this missing Ben Simmons for 11 games and Nic Claxton for nine. The committee approach to rebounding that Vaughn and general manager Sean Marks called for this preseason has been a success.
“We’re not switching as much so me and Nic are on our matchups,” Day’Ron Sharpe said. “We’re actually keeping guys away from rebounding and I think we got guys like Royce (O’Neale), Dorian (Finney-Smith), Mikal, Cam (Johnson) and everybody buying in and coming back and rebounding.”
Sharpe and all but one of the players he mentioned are averaging career-highs in rebounding so far. The exception, Finney-Smith, has thrived as a small-ball center holding his own against bigger defenders. Through 17 games, it’s something Vaughn deserves credit for. The Nets (9-8) are 11th in offensive rebounding after being 29th last season. They’re also 14th in offensive rebounds allowed after ranking in the league’s bottom six of that category each of the last seven years.
All while Simmons, who’s averaging 10.8 rebounds in six games, is rehabbing from a second nerve impingement in his back. An update should be coming later this week but the Nets’ crashing the glass more wasn’t just spurred by Simmons’ strong start.
The Nets have been an average defensive team and a horrible one when it comes to steals and forcing turnovers. So if you can’t generate possessions by creating mistakes, do it by limiting second chance opportunities through rebounding.
It’s been a positive along with Cam Thomas’ hot scoring and Bridges’ all-around play. Rebounding and bench scoring were two weaknesses the Nets had to fix this offseason and so far, they’ve done that.
“More intentional effort on the offensive boards and also more intentional on the defensive boards,” Johnson said. “We switched everything a lot last year . . . and we’re doing a little bit less of that which is allowing our bigs to stay closer to the rim which is getting us out of positions where we spread out.”
It hasn’t fixed everything. As of Wednesday, the Nets are 3-7 against teams at or above .500 and one of those wins was against a Heat team down three starters. Whether healthy or not, they still need to prove they can defeat winning teams.
But by fixing up one of their weaknesses in rebounding, the Nets are making the necessary strides to benefit them now and later.
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
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