Who deserves the most blame for the Brooklyn Nets’ disastrous season?
The Brooklyn Nets season mercifully ended on a Monday night in April, in a sweep against a conference rival the team had demolished last year. After Games 1 and 2 were decided in the final seconds, 3 and 4 never felt winnable for the Nets, and—had the series been best of 9, or 11, instead of 7, the subsequent games would’ve likely been even uglier.
It was the inevitable end of a truly awful year. This team attempted to “flip the switch” in the most dramatic way. That arrogance lurked behind every loss and every way-too-close win. It was a black cloud, and there’s plenty of blame to go around.
If I wanted to be malicious, I could fault Patty Mills, who shot just 33.3% from the field after the All-Star break, including 33.1 percent from three in that span, but ultimately, he was supposed to be a 6th or 7th man, not primarily a starter.
This is a more fair breakdown of blame (in New Jersey, we cut our pies in eight slices).