Help Wanted: Load Managers, Saturday in Milwaukee and Sunday in Indianapolis. Contact: Brooklyn Nets.
Those two sites will host the sinking Nets over the weekend in about as brutal a back-to-back as there is in the NBA's Eastern Conference. Without some accommodations from their opponents, Brooklyn is in grave danger of choking away a playoff berth.
Losers of seven of their last 10 games after Wednesday's 115-105 defeat to Toronto at a sold-out Barclays Center, the Nets (39-40) could actually fall out of playoff seeding for the first time since January 4 with a Miami victory in Minnesota on Friday.
Thanks to the NBA's convoluted tiebreaker criteria, three-way ties give preference to division winners. Since Orlando (39-40) has a 3-1 series lead over Miami (38-40), they would be deemed the Southeast Division champs in a three-way tie on Friday, thereby negating Brooklyn's head-to-head edge over the Magic. Orlando would then be seeded seventh in the East. The Heat have won two of their three games to date versus the Nets, so they would be placed eighth with a win on Friday. Further complicating matters is sixth-seeded Detroit (39-39), a team that is also slumping without injured All-Star Blake Griffin. They need to win on Friday in Oklahoma City to avoid falling into the 39-40 cluster.
All is not lost for Brooklyn since Miami comes to town next Wednesday in the season finale.
But first, the Nets have to get that to be a meaningful game. Given how they've fared against the tougher competition in the last three weeks, they're going to need quite a bit of help.
In this stretch that I've been warning folks about since the team altered this season's mission months ago, Brooklyn has been plagued by problems old and new: turnovers, defensive rebounding, and now free throw shooting. But there is an even simpler explanation for the Nets' recent woes: They're just not as good as the teams they're playing. Their opponents are bigger, more athletic and just better.
As Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said following Wednesday's loss, "You've got to be almost perfect. We weren't. I'd say we were average and that's not getting it done against a really good team like (Toronto)."
The first-place Bucks have toyed with Brooklyn in each of their first three meetings, including Monday's 131-121 Nets loss at Barclays Center. The Nets have had no answers for Milwaukee's MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo, not that any NBA team has.
The only solution for Saturday is if the problem is eliminated in the form of "load management", the new euphemism for when teams want to rest key players.
Milwaukee can clinch home-court advantage throughout the playoffs with one victory (or Raptors loss) in their last four games, starting in Philadelphia on Thursday. The odds that Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer lightens the load on Antetokounmpo and some of his merry band of three-point marksmen are far greater if Saturday's affair has no consequences for his team.
It's less likely, although still possible, that Indiana will sit players of significance on Sunday. The Pacers, who are also unbeaten in two games versus Brooklyn, are locked into the 4/5 first-round series with Boston. The only undecided matter is home-court advantage. The two teams boast the same record with three games remaining, with Friday's meeting set to break the tie. A Pacers loss might spur a change in their priorities. How hard will they be willing to extend themselves to make up two games on Boston with only two subsequent games remaining? Again, it's a long shot that Brooklyn will see any benefit.
So, if the Nets aren't going to get help from their opponents, how about their competitions' opponents? Here are their remaining games:
Detroit: at Oklahoma City, Charlotte, Memphis, at New York
Orlando: Atlanta, at Boston, at Charlotte
Miami: at Minnesota, at Toronto, Philadelphia, at Brooklyn
As you can gather, each of these teams has at least one slumpbuster on their schedule. To punch their first playoff ticket in four years, the Nets probably won't be able to back in. They may have to win at least two of their last three games, including the Heat contest.
I can't see this team stealing one on the road this weekend, not unless one of their opponents lends them a hand.
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The Nets took care of a potential roadblock to their rebuild by reportedly taking care of their builders. General manager Sean Marks had his contract extended, according to an article by Brian Lewis of the New York Post on Wednesday, just two days after ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that coach Kenny Atkinson and his staff were also on the verge of having their contracts extended.
This is not a franchise known for continuity. The last Nets coach to have his contract extended was Lawrence Frank in 2007.
I've had issues with some of Marks' and Atkinson's specific strategies in their three seasons together, but there's no doubt that they both deserve credit for their roles in lifting the Nets out of the rubble left behind by the previous regime. Some experts had told me that this was a seven-year project. They aren't even halfway through that project, yet this team is competing for a playoff spot.
They certainly deserved to be extended.
Having both figures on board without distractions this summer will obviously have an impact on the Nets' pitches to free agents, both external and internal. The culture of player development is real. With the extensions, it can be hailed as sustainable. As former Nets center Luis Scola said to ESPN's Zach Lowe back in 2017, "Once they win, they will get everyone they want."
That's why making the playoffs this season while extending Marks and Atkinson would go a long way towards showing the NBA community that this organization is getting ready to win.
For a FAN's perspective of the Nets, Devils and Jets, follow Steve on Twitter @SteveLichtenst1.
