Brooklyn Nets won’t win many games this season as they look to rebuild after trying in vain to find the right balance between competing and rebuilding after the implosion of the Big Three era. Although the team has compiled a collection of intriguing young playersA big question looms over their hopes of playing competitive basketball in the 2024-25 season. Who will be scoring the baskets?
Following the Mikal Bridges exchangeThe Nets have a hole in their roster, as they will miss out on scoring 19.6 points per game. While there doesn’t appear to be another player on the roster ready to increase their scoring load to that level, there are a few options that could prove capable of taking their offensive game to the next level with more opportunities.
Even with bridges, nets ranked only 25th in points per game last season at 110.4. In terms of offensive efficiency, they weren’t much better, ranked 23rd at 113.2. Either way, it won’t be a high-powered offensive in 2024-25, but we’ll see who can step up and provide offensive firepower beyond expectations.
Can Cam Thomas continue to improve as a scorer with the Nets?
If Bridges was the biggest name on the Nets, it was Cam Thomas who led the team in scoring with 22.5 points per game last season. Thomas was described as a walking bucket coming out of LSU and while the first two years of his career saw his opportunities come and go, last season he proved he could score at a high level in the NBA.
Thomas has other areas in which he must develop your gameBut does he have another level to unlock as a scorer? At times last year, it seemed like the only person who could stop Thomas from scoring was former head coach Jacque Vaughn. Thomas agreed, frustrated at times by his role constantly shifting from starter to backup, and felt that Coming off the bench limited his scoring abilityThere is some truth to that statement, as even though he was the primary scoring option off the bench, his scoring went from 23.6 points per game as a starter to just 18.5 points per game as a backup.
The most pressing question is whether he can score more or not. Thomas was 10th last season in usage rate At 30.5%, he doesn’t have much room for improvement in terms of his play with the ball in his hands. While he might see a few percent improvement, it won’t be enough to make a huge difference. As a shooter last season, he was relatively efficient, converting 44.2% of his field goal attempts, 36.4% of his three-point attempts on six attempts per game, and 85.6% of his free throw attempts on 5.1 attempts per game.
If he can improve his efficiency a bit more, he’ll reach the 25+ points per game threshold, but overall, it won’t do much to improve the team’s overall production. He’s a fantastic offensive player on his own, but he’ll need help.
Dennis Schroder’s role could allow him to take on additional goal-scoring load
Dennis Schroder has just released a dazzling performances He won the Brooklyn Olympic scoring title in his home country of Paris. The 6-foot-1, 170-pound point guard may not be the strongest on the court, but he has the speed, quickness and craftiness to get to the basket and score. Plus, throughout his career, he’s proven to be a capable shooter once the ball gets to him on the perimeter, shooting 34.2 percent from beyond the arc in his career and 37.5 percent last season.
For Schroder, the amount of shooting he provides will depend largely on his role. His career high in points per game is 19.4, which came in the 2017-18 season, when he was one of the Atlanta Hawks’ leading scorers, averaging 17.1 field goal attempts per game.
More recently, Schroder has settled into a primary facilitator role since joining the Nets. Last season, Schroder recorded a passer rating of 7.8 which puts him in the 93rd percentile of the league, according to craftednba.com. This ability and willingness to put other players in position to score has allowed him to average just 14.0 points per game, which is also his career average.
The question for Schroder will be whether the Nets will stagger the minutes of he and Cam Thomas, or play them together more often as a backcourt duo. If they are staggered, Schroder will have the space to be the primary scorer on the floor for the majority of his minutes, while if he often shares lineups with Thomas, he will be more often tasked with initiating the offense and setting Thomas up for scoring opportunities.
Don’t overlook Trendon Watford
Trendon Watford is one of the the most unique players While he looks like the prototype 4-inch player who will stand out on the three-point line and occasionally function as a scorer and rebounder in the low post, the 6-foot-1, 260-pound power forward actually plays the game very differently.
Watford can create shots for himself and others with the ball in his hands and act as a power forward. He doesn’t always maintain control, but his combination of ball handling, size, strength, length and shooting touch can prove difficult to stop. On top of that, he’s proven to be a dangerous three-point shooter, shooting 39.7 percent from beyond the arc last season and 35.9 percent over his career.
The question for Watford isn’t whether he can score or not, but whether he’ll get the chance or not. Last season, Watford averaged just 13.6 minutes per game while scoring 6.9 points per game. His career-high in minutes per game in a single season over his three-year career is just 19.1. The Nets have a very crowded forward line, so it remains to be seen what their plans are for Watford and whether he’ll be given more scoring responsibility.
The Nets will need to define clear roles for everyone
Cam Thomas will undoubtedly score his baskets. The question is, who else will score? For Schroder, it all comes down to the responsibility he has to make plays for others. With only him and the oft-injured Ben Simmons as experienced point guards, it seems unlikely he will be a primary scorer, but if he is, then who sets the table for the rest of the roster? Either way, there is a limit to how effective he can be.
Watford is the X-factor. Given enough playing time, he can alleviate some of those playmaking responsibilities from Simmons and especially Schroder, while also serving as a dynamic scorer anywhere on the court. The question, though, is whether he can break through a crowded forward rotation to make that a reality, and whether or not he can maintain his effectiveness despite an increased workload.
