Two Brooklyn Nets players to watch as season restarts
As scrimmages kicked off the resumption to the NBA season in Orlando earlier this week one thing was painfully clear, the Brooklyn Nets are in for a rough ride. Entering the restart, the Nets are currently without Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Wilson Chandler, and rookie Nicolas Claxton.
Due to their absences, the Nets have been left to field a team of replacements to fill out their depth charts.
The early results haven’t been great. In their first scrimmage, the Nets lost to the New Orleans Pelicans 99-68, a 31-point loss. As I watched this game though, I looked for optimism for this poor Nets team and the good news for Nets fans is there might be some.
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Dzanan Musa and Rodions Kurucs can offer the Brooklyn Nets hope
As their first scrimmage unfolded, two Nets players really showed promise – Dzanan Musa and Rodions Kurucs. Both European born players were picked by the Nets in the 2018 NBA Draft, and the duo has flashed the ability to be excellent role players in the NBA. Those flashes were on display in the scrimmage game.
Starting with Musa, the one thing that really stuck out from the scrimmage, despite the rust, was his scoring ability. Coming out of the draft, Musa was viewed as a crafty scoring wing who could distribute the ball a little, shoot from deep, and get to the basket. Even though his tenure with the Nets has been up and down so far, he showed how good he can be against the Pelicans.
Though Musa only scored 11 points in the scrimmage, the thing that was most impressive was how he seemed to constantly be playing within the flow of the game which is something he’s struggled with so far in the NBA and the ability to get to the basket and draw fouls. Musa went 7-7 at the free-throw line, showing a willingness to drive and draw contact off of passes which is exactly the type of aggression a team wants to see out of a rotation scoring guard.
For Kurucs, he was arguably Brooklyn’s best player in their scrimmage. He showed impressive tools and lots of activity by getting a dunk off a turnover, putting effort into rebounding, hitting a deep three, and making smart passes. For Kurucs, this play bodes well for him being the combo-forward he was projected to be coming out of the draft. He is someone that can come in and provide a lit bit of everything to the game.
What does the duo mean for the Brooklyn Nets?
If both Kurucs and Musa continue to play and make a mark when actual games start in whats now only a matter of days, this could be a big development for the Brooklyn Nets organization. The Nets right now have their eyes on a championship run in 2021 with a healthy Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and they’re going to need a valuable rotation around them to do it.
Kurucs and Musa getting valuable reps in Orlando could be the boost of confidence they’ve need to turn around some of the ups-and-downs in their progression to being valuable role players on a contender who can be trusted as secondary options to their superstar teammates.
On the other hand, the duo’s development could turn out to net Brooklyn a lot of value even if they don’t do it on the actual Nets roster. During the time off, there’s been a lot of speculation about Brooklyn looking for a third star to really put them over the top next year but there have been questions about if the Nets have the firepower to make a trade to do that.
If Kurucs and Musa continue to flash strong talent for the rest of the team’s play in Orlando, then the Nets will have two more players under the age of 25 that they can offer teams in order to find the final piece they need for a title run in 2021.
What the future does hold for Dzanan Musa and Rodionis Kurucs is unclear right now, but what is clear is at least there are two compelling players on the Nets to keep an eye on as they try to keep themselves above water the rest of the way.