Brooklyn Nets: The next Run TMC 3-guard offense?

The lowly Brooklyn Nets may be one of the more exciting teams to watch in 2017-18 for NBA fans who love fast scoring offenses

During the 90s, the Golden State Warriors showcased a team with Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin as their primary scoring punch. They were called Run TMC and even though they only played two seasons together, they were awesome as a hard-to-defend scoring machine in midrange out to the three-point line and had both Tim Hardaway and Mitch Rich constantly going to the rim for highlight finishes or getting to the foul line.

This year’s Brooklyn Nets looks a lot like that Warriors team with core players promising a similar small-ball three-guard lineup, under-the-radar lights-out shooting.

It usually takes any college standout two to three years to immediately make an impact on an NBA team. If they play all 82 games with at least 20 plus minutes, so expect the Nets young backcourt to finally break out this season and even be All-Star contenders if they can play like Run TMC.

Jeremy Lin is one player who can turn games around off hustle plays and has literally willed his teams to win, from New York to Charlotte and now, with Brooklyn.  He benefited from his stint with New York as an aggressive scoring playmaker because he was given playing minutes then.

As the Nets’ starting PG, it’s his job to help the new frontcourt get up to speed and help the team find a new winning game that is built on both veteran smarts and young standouts on the verge of breaking out. Timothy Mozgov should develop greatly with a pick-and-dive game that the Russian NBA champion is deadly at with his underrated length and power.

Rookie Jarrett Allen has all the raw talent in the world, and could develop into a possible starting power forward by the end of the season.

D’Angelo Russell is the Mitch Richmond baller of the group, but he is built as a bigger truck than Richmond.

That should give him better scoring opportunities driving to the hoop and overpowering smaller defenders. Russell promises to carry a big part of the offense for his new team, scoring in the paint and from Steph Curry range while also helping the new Nets frontcourt develop their rim rattling game.

Mitch Richmond was even deemed as an undersized Jordan, being a scoring machine all by himself, and the video below should convince everyone that in a free-wheeling shootout, the Nets had the better of the trade for Brook Lopez.

The team does not have any real counterpart to Chris Mullin, one of the NBA’s best scoring small forwards of his era, but they may have better with their pair of tall and long Doberman types in Caris LeVert and Spencer Dinwiddie.

Both have proven to be sparkplugs on offense, when they turn on their outside shooting during the fourth quarter and Levert is the better playmaker while Dinwiddie is the more aggressive rim slasher among the two.  Levert should have a field day backstopping Lin as the third guard or playing in the second unit. He and Jarrett Allen or Mozgov should put in plenty of highlight reels on pick-and-dive offense.

Dinwiddie is more of a read-the-defense attacker and someone who also generates plenty of his points off his own passing lane coverage and defensive rebounds. The eye test should prove that if these guys get another full season with better frontcourt teammates, they should be able to haul the Nets back into the playoffs next year and deny the Boston Celtics another lottery pick jackpot.

The key for the Brooklyn Nets to even come close to that two year, 81-83 win-loss Run TMC version of the Warriors is support from their other two teammates in the frontcourt. Mozgov promises to be a beast in the paint to force opposing big men to camp at the rim allowing the Nets own shooters to get their midrange to long range game humming.

Brooklyn Nets fans should be particularly interested in seeing LeVert and Dinwiddie develop a 3-guard combo with D’Angelo Russell because they would be bigger and also athletic as freak than most NBA backcourts out there right now. And if they can sync well enough with Allen and Mozgov or any other veteran the team can still sign off the free agent market, these guys will be tough to beat.

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Expect a faster game from the Brooklyn Nets in 2017-18, better defense from their main six guys and tougher defense with both Mozgov and Jarrett Allen as the team’s defensive twin towers.  Don’t expect the Boston Celtics to get a freebie again in the lottery this season.