UPSIDE: Can Julius Randle And Michael Porter Jr. ELEVATE Brooklyn Nets To Play-In Picture?

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1:03On today's show, can Julius Randall and Michael Porter, junior elevate the nets to respectability this season? And what will the rest of the forward rotation look like? I'll dive into that more on today's episode of Lockdown Nets. You are locked on nets. You're daily Brooklyn Nets podcast part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome into locked on nets on Eric Slater on today's episode. I'm continuing a series. I've been doing previewing each of the net's position groups. And today we're going to be doing the forwards. We're going to take a look at Julius Randall, a Michael Porter, junior, what that duo could do for this net's team. And who's going to play behind them? Who will get the minutes in the second unit? Got Lucas Kaplan coming on the show to talk about all that right now. Let's go. And back on the pod now, we got Lucas Kaplan of Nets daily. And we are here today to talk about the Nets Forward rotation.

2:03A group that is going to play a very significant role in carrying this offense and potentially sinking the defense or helping the defense swim. We'll get into all that. But if we're talking about the forward rotation, I'm going to include like wings and power forwards in this group. The two guys that are going to headline it are obviously Julius Randall and Michael Porter, junior. We have been the net's two big ticket, relatively big ticket acquisitions over the last two years. And our two guys are probably going to play the most significant role in this team out of anybody on the roster from day one. And I'm going to kick it over to you for your thoughts about them, Lucas. But the thing that I want to start talking off about is offensively. I'm excited to watch this duo offensively with Julius Randall and Michael Porter, junior because the Nets were the worst offense in the NBA this past season. And we saw how a player like Michael Porter, junior who, you know, while a really good shooter is definitely not an on ball player or a high level on ball threat. And even with just that,

3:04Jordy Fernandez was able to put together a decent offense early in the season. Now you add Randall skill set to that as kind of this on ball threat, this mid post scoring threat, a guy who can touch the paint and kind of bully his way down low. And with some of the players around him, I am excited to see that duo offensively out of the gate. And I want to get your opinion. How are you feeling about them on the offensive end of the floor? And what do you think the prospects of them kind of elevating this net's offense to respectability? What do you think those are? Well, it's really good that we're segmenting this into offense first, because I'm pretty. Excited feels a little strong, but I am definitely looking forward to it. I mean, the net's haven't had two guys that can like are proven to be able to carry legit offensive usage in a while, especially not veterans, right? I mean, unless there's anybody I'm missing since the clean sweep era.

4:05And they do it in different ways, which I think is why it could be interesting. As I wrote a lot last year, MPJ does not need the ball in his hands a lot, which doesn't sound very intuitive, but his touch time is always very low because of the catch and shoot volume, because of how active he is off the ball. It's one of the things that I really like appreciated about him last year. And, you know, I knew that he wasn't the greatest ball handler, and he wasn't going to like handle a ton. But I still appreciated his willingness to fight through screens, like as an offensive player, to backdoor, to use his size, right, when he gets top locked. And I trust Jority Fernandez to figure out the complimentary skill of Randall, who his touch time is usually pretty high, right? He's not going to be coming off screens if anything, he's going to be having the ball as a dribble handoff guy.

5:05And it's not always bad to have a high touch time. We've seen it go poorly sometimes for Randall, you know, and playoff moments and whatnot. But I do just very basically like the idea of a stronger mid post guy that can handle the ball and have it in his hands paired with MPJ. I'm excited to see how Jority kind of figures this out. Yeah, and it's not even just, you know, MPJ, I know we're talking about that duo, but from Randall's perspective of him being the sky who can handle the ball up top or come off these DHOs or get it in the mid post and operate out of there. Like you have that. And then you have Michael Porter Jr., who we know is a high volume, you know, 40 plus percent three point shooter, like elite in that regard. Yegor Jelman, I think has that same kind of shooting potential. And Michael Brown Jr. is going to be a rookie, but I think that he can be a relatively efficient spot up shooter. So you put those three guys around Julius Randall. And I'm pretty excited like to see what that can do for him.

6:07I mean, I some people rag on Julius Randall for his season last year, like obviously getting really down three point shooting season and that didn't offer the best compliment alongside Anthony Edwards. But still, like this is a guy who averaged 21, 6 and 5 on 48 percent shooting, got to the free throw line a lot and was over 80 percent from the free throw line. I mean, you look at it this past season, players to average 21, 6 and 5 on over 47 percent shooting. It was Yokech, Luca, Janis, Jalen Brown, Jalen Johnson, and Julius Randall. So like the playoff struggles are a separate conversation. But if we're talking about like regular season floor razors, I think he should be very effective in that regard. And I do think that it's going to have a positive impact on the development of guys like Yeg or Jome and Michael Brown Jr. Just from the sense of opening opportunities for them and taking some of the pressure off of them. You touched on it a little bit there, but obviously like MPJ can be the spot of shooter.

7:08We kind of know what his role was based off of last season. I think the usage will dip. And this is all also just a suit like we're just operating right now for this podcast purposes. MPJ is going to be on the team like let's say up to the trade deadline. So that's kind of the part of the season we're previewing. We've done the MPJ conversation. But his role was you know off all mover flying off of these off these zoom actions curling into threes, you know them running the split actions with him cutting back door. You know some backdoor cuts high low actions like we saw that with him. What are the spots that you envision Jorny Fernandez putting Julius Randall in? And how do you think he can kind of step in and be more of kind of the fulcrum of this net's offense and the guy who everything kind of orbits around? Well it's interesting that the nets are you know I should really watch some Minnesota tape. I don't think like I wonder if Dayron right or MoVogner? Well they'll probably have different you would expect like when MoVogner's on the floor to maybe be

8:08a spacer be in the corner or that kind of delay hub meaning that trailing five at the top of the key. So when the ball gets reversed from side to side that player is kind of entering into those dribble handoffs and whatnot. And that's when you see MPJ was so good at like when Nick Claxton would have the ball at the top of the key and then go try to get it to MPJ. If he's getting overplayed that little backdoor cut that I'm sure every net's fan can picture right now. I wonder what the split will see of Julius as like off ball spacer and like top of the key fulcrum like you said because it's funny like he can shoot the ball like on-catch and shoot jumpers. He had a pretty like mediocre shooting season last year but in his career he's been around like league average and we know he can I should say in the last like four or five years has been around league average and we know he can

9:12you know attack some closeouts like we know he can even come off some of those screens. I think we're going to see more of him maybe as like a guy that gets dribble handoffs. And the other thing is that he is like going to be by far the highest level isolation player on this team at least in terms of frequency. He's been in above average ISO player. I think I looked this up as well four of the last five years maybe three of the last four and not like in the upper desis of the league but on super high volume and we did see mpj kind of operate out of that long mid post area sometimes at the end of games last season. I think Randall takes that mantle this this season but yeah and that's big sorry to interrupt like like in terms of the clutch scoring last year like mpj's clutch numbers were pretty bad because they were leading on him to be like this on double guy and the limited clutch situations that they got into and he wasn't

10:17really up for that task. So now you take Julius and you bring him into that role and you have I I think three pretty effective spot up shooters or you know two at least really really effective in Yegor and mpj alongside him. I think the offense can be a lot better than it was last year. So what the other thing I really need to see from Randall is like the defensive rebounding that we know he can bring. I need him to get it like I want to see. Get it and go. Outlet passing hit ahead. I mean the nets were so bad in transition for most of early last season. There was no transition. There was not existed. And like you know I didn't love Nolan's season but like in all fairness what's his best attribute. Yeah. And he never yeah and he never got it. Scoring that he did in France was in transition by like nine miles and he didn't get to do that at all. And he never got like a hit ahead at half court and got to go one on one like I want to see my cattle in the open floor and Jordi by the way was right. He said like we can't focus on running

11:20and transition until we protect the defensive glass which they were terrible at early next year and until we stop turning it over in transition which they were also really bad at early last year. So I'm not blame for that but like you get this big you know defensive rebounding forward in who can also handle a little I hope it allows them to play a little faster. Sorry I think I cut you off. No no no agreed on that front and you know the offense I think I'm pretty excited about these two. There are two guys who I think are pretty high level offensive players like approaching star status. The defense that's another story and that's something that I think I'm fairly concerned about and I want to get your opinions on how some of that can play out within having both of these guys in the starting lineup. So we'll get into that and we can see you locked on nets after a quick break. Support for today's episode comes from Square the system powering so many of the places we already know and love whether you're running a packed game day spot a local restaurant or a growing business Square gives sellers the tools to run their business without making things look more

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13:25and signal today is locked on net's episode talking with Lucas Kaplan about the net's forward room and previewing that position group and we're staying on Julius Randall and Michael Porter Jr. And we can bring other guys into this conversation now but I want to talk now about the defense because as it's cited as I am to watch this duo offensively and as bullish as I am that they can elevate this net's offense to approaching respectability this season the defense I'm pretty damn concerned about and a lot of that has to do with who they have behind them and who they have in front of them in the back court you know for lack of better phrasing there but when you have Dayron Sharp and Mo Wagner's your center not a lot of room protection that's a big story line that's a big concern and then you look at in front of them they have two first and second year players in my kill brown junior and Yeg or joman who I think at potential defensively down the line but there's still young guys with like slider frame even slider frames even if Yeg or add a little bit of weight

14:27so that I think is going to put a fair amount of pressure on Julius Randall and Michael Porter Jr. defensively and those are not guys why would say their calling card has been their defensive engagement or their defensive hustle on a night in night out basis so that leaves me fairly concerned so what are your projections what are your opinions on how this is going to work out defensively you know as a whole and you know focusing in on how Julius and MPJ kind of fit into that equation because I am fairly concerned about that end of the floor yeah I don't know I straight up don't know I mean listen like you know I'm we've talked about being over on their 24 and a half wins right even especially when they opened at 18 and a half but then you really think about it and you do see the floor of like man like I don't really trust them to defend at least with this projected first unit and I I not to go back to the offense but I don't know how much I trust them to take care of the ball

15:32so if we're projecting like well they lose the possession game and they like give up easy shots there's no there's no real rim protection on this roster say what you will about Clax you know I said a lot about seven gay Ron in for him the where there's not rim deterrence now and I says a as I said like with a lot of these guys you know you you would like regrandal just came off of a defensive system in which you very clearly were funneling towards Rudy Gobert Iced a lot of screens like they didn't switch four five but you know a guy on the on the wing you cut off the middle it's played what icing a screen is just so the audience understood yeah if you you know if you got a ball screen on the wing right and the screener is facing the sideline so the ball handler theoretically is coming off of that screen towards the middle the guy guarding the ball handler jumps up the court and gives him the whole sideline right so we can't use the screen and you are if nothing else at

16:39least forcing the player towards that big in drop yeah on one side of the court so they're not in the middle and if that big is Rudy Gobert and if you're if you're generally like you know closing out even like cutting off middle but maybe that's a hard angle and you know the guys driving baseline this this sort of thing works with Rudy you know what I mean and and even even Nick to an extent right like you want guys to take tough floaters and layups day run that is no strength he does not has have yeah so it's gonna change the way they do those things what are they gonna do like switch everything like they're still like I guess I mean like if you're looking at like what are the advantages you would say theoretically that this team has defensively I guess you could say like in size from the perspective of yeah like you know I mean like yeah I mean MBJ or my my kill brown junior because I don't want to confuse is you know 6465 688 wingspan or whatever

17:42he has Yegor is 6 foot 9 610 wingspan Julius and MPJ are around 610 you know bigger guys day runs obviously shorter but stronger like they have a good amount of length out there so I would guess they're gonna switch a decent amount of stuff but because like what what else is really the calling card of what they're trying to do defensively like I don't really know and we know based off what they've done what Jordy Fernandez in the past that they want to be really aggressive guarding up at the point of attack like they want to be high on their pickup points at like when the guys are bringing the ball up they want to be at the level defensively with screens which you know puts the onus on the other guys to be really crisp with their back end rotations and that's just where I get worried because like Julius you know all the like Julius MPJ my kill Yegor that's guys who don't necessarily have the best track record with defensive engagement or hustle and then also young guys and you're asking them to do a lot so I have some good show for the 10 years the 10 seasons before Jordy arrived they're the net's best finish in forcing turnovers was

18:4914th and there were frequently some low 20s mixed in there in the last two years their top 10 in the league in forcing turnovers and as you said we've heard from Jordy about why he wants to implement aggressive defensive coverages out of the get go I would assume that like there's gonna be a lot of if not outright traps and stuff some high drop at the level you know trying to maybe bait a pocket pass day run if nothing else has really good hands you know kind of intercepting those pocket passes like the Nikola Yoke Yoke special and then you can ask enough I think out of the gates of like Randall Yegor MPJ of like hey as a low man like you got to at least be active you got to at least be big in the gaps and I could see them playing you know that sort of style where you're almost kind of hedging you're you're just high up on ball screens and you're trying to be super active in the in the in the passing lanes the downside of that is that

19:56these close outs are gonna be hard like I don't know who is gonna be closing out real well in the first unit it might just be like I wonder if they just try to suppress rim volume make these kind of tags and sinking into the lanes really aggressive and and give up a bunch of threes that that could be something I see them doing but I don't know how I don't know how excited I am for their defense and I know I'll also say about like Joradi's philosophy of wanting them to play aggressive wanting them to do some of this stuff how do MPJ and Julius kind of fit into that I think it might be fair to say that like they're just gonna ask MPJ and Julius to do the best job that they can and try to you know get the most out of them that they can but that they might not really even care that much about like they'll care about the struggles but I think that it's been pretty clear that drilling in the philosophies and the staples and how they want to play to the young guys is the most important part of this so they might just be saying like look we want Yegor and my kill or whatever

21:00young guys are getting time to get used to playing this way and if we have some warts because MPJ and Julius Randall are top guys we live with those and we're just trying to kind of you know implement these philosophies I will say I think a decent enough segue here the second unit I think does have some more potential defensively you know you have a guy like Ian Ellis like not a forward guy but we spoke about him in the back court preview you have a guy like Josh Maynott who I think you know can do some stuff defensively that I think is pretty intriguing I do want to talk about now about the second unit and how this forward rotation is going to shake out and a lot of guys to you know continually the theme of a lot of guys who could have a case for minutes and non-aluminant minutes to go around how do we see that shaking out what guys are we most excited in this forward rotation in the second unit we'll get into all that when we close out locked on nets after a quick break support for today's episode comes from Indeed Sponsored Jobs when workplace chaos hits and you need the right hire Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps connect employers with candidates who match specific

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23:10Jobs. All right coming back from the break and continuing today is locked on that episode previewing the Nets forward room and forward rotation for the coming season and we just focused a bunch of time on MPJ and Julius Randall now talking about the second unit who is going to get minutes out of the gate in this forward rotation with the second unit because I've we've spoken about it in the past like I think it's fair to say like you look at Nolan Chorey Keon Ellis Terrence Man probably Mo Wagner I'd say those guys are pretty decent locks to get minutes you know to start the season in the second unit and that's nine guys so maybe we say that the Nets go 11 deep to start the year you got two more spots there you still have Noah Clowney Danny Wolf Josh Maynott Joshua Jefferson all at forward so there are going to be some odd men out I think Noah Clowney is probably a lock to be in this rotation to start the year the other forward spots I mean between

24:10wolf Maynott Jefferson you'd say no wolf and Maynott are probably in some competition there even though they're not exactly one to one player archetypes but I'd say both wings just what do you think like who do you think are the forwards in the second unit who are part of the day one rotation because there's going to be a fair amount of competition there I think who do I think are like are going to be cemented in the rotation early yeah like who's starting the year on opening night as the forwards in the second unit who are getting minutes right I think probably Noah and Maynott and then maybe we can include Danny if he's going to be playing more next to Moe Wagner right I think those are the three and listen we could see some three forward lineups we could see maybe Danny at the five you know I don't know they could go small and like Keon Ellis could be playing the three he's kind of a forward offensive profile type even if he's not forward sized but yeah those are the names that I'm expecting to see and I think a lot of who gets minutes and I was going to bring

25:15this up on the offensive segment the next trick the second most spotup jumpers in the league last year and they made the fewest of them the fewest points per shot and if you want to look at like why their offense was bad that is a huge huge statistical war so I think a lot of it's going to be like yo who's taking and making spot-up shots because they all are going to be asked to spot up and fire you know that might point to that might point to Clowny and Maynott because like Danny will full take those stories but he hasn't proven to be an efficient three point shooter yet at any either has rear and Noah's had stretches I guess you know what has any there but I'd say like I think it's fair to say that they're more confident and Noah's three point shooting right now than Danny right like would you agree there even if the numbers don't necessarily like back I would I would I would and I mean yeah Noah has also yes made more free throws and like we've seen longer stretches and yeah yeah I agree and then Maynott like last season across his entire season with the

26:20Celtics and the Nets was above 40% from three and then like Danny like we'll see like he has those struggles you know as a three point shooter we'll see if he can improve upon that like the advantage creation and some of that stuff we've spoken about that Joshua Jefferson like I think is going to have a little bit of an uphill battle to reaching league wide you know league average efficiency as a three point shooter so you know maybe Clowny and Maynott are the guys out of the gate well if we're talking about who are the most excited to see out of this group my answer would probably be Maynott because I feel like there might be the most room for growth there and potential and I just like think he plays a little bit of a brand of basketball and has a little bit of an attitude that this net's team has been severely lacking in recent seasons and it would just be also like a fun story like a guy that they got as a tax dump from the Celtics was a minimum contract the guy who hasn't really gotten too much of a look prior in his career and he can emerge and be like a really good margin find for the Nets that's something that they haven't had a lot of in recent

27:23years so I'm excited to see him you can talk about Maynott if you want and then also like maybe a maker break year for Noah Clowny like Danny Wolf maybe he falls in that same bucket as an older second year player like the net sir I think they'll pick up all the third year options on the sophomores but like there's no guarantees beyond the season of who's going to play so just what are you the most excited to see amongst these secondary guys at forward? Yeah I think you hit the nail on the head I'm excited for Maynott for obvious reasons pretty much everything that you said he's been a spreadsheet favorite of many of my fellow nerds online and he boyded he deliver you know in his first couple months that was pretty exciting and from the Celtics no less and then Noah it's like listen it's funny to be so hard on the sophomores it's like Danny and them and and extending such grace to Noah though I don't know if I've been that

28:23positive about him but he is 20 this is his age 22 season we're coming up on and he's had enough stretches of being a positive basketball player including like you know two months in the not garbage time of last NBA season to where I don't think it's out of the question that he can be a deflection's free throw shooting enough three points shooting ancillary player who's really long on the wing in his fourth year in the league like he needs to stay healthy he needs to make threes I don't feel great about the prospect of him becoming like this this great player this this positive rotation player I don't know if I trust the shooting enough to sample size is getting bigger to where it might just be mediocre but I guess I'm eager to see him and excited to see mine out because you know it could be it could be a career not resuscitating but like cementing

29:28your for Noah and that hey like this is a real player in this league that wouldn't shock me yeah and Noah came into he came into the league that's so young that it's like I feel like just because he's played several seasons now and it's been kind of up and down maybe at times more downs you kind of like get a little it's that you get a little frustrated and tired of it maybe from a fans perspective like he was like nine barely nineteen years old when he came to the league it's like he's younger than Joshua Jefferson he's you know him and Danny Wolfe around the same age so off the top of your head can you think of another net that's so so exceedingly thrived in Mickey Mouse March and April as he did in his riggy year and create created perhaps undue expectations maybe Jaylen Wilson I know I know Jaylen Wilson's Jaylen Wilson's net's tanking you know breakout efforts that just completely screwed them in some of those games like I don't know maybe I my mind goes there.

30:29Cheney Johnson I hope doesn't fall into this bucket I like it I saw from here I like what I saw from him in those spring months hopefully not but we will see Lucas appreciate you taking the time as always you guys don't already go follow all Lucas the stuff on net's daily go follow him on Twitter we are now probably three weeks out from net's training camp it's approaching we're going to be back at eight incess soon looking forward to it and I'm also looking forward to having you back on the show to talk more nets but appreciate it taking the time then that does it for today's episode of locked on net so be guys enjoyed the talk with Lucas if you do not already make sure to subscribe to lock down nets on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts with their Apple podcasts or Spotify if you enjoy my content take a second right now smash that like button leave a comment leave a five star review anything you could do to engage as much appreciated we got less than three weeks now until nets media day nets training camp so I've coverage about a lot of different subjects surrounding the team coming up when I'm back tomorrow talking more Brooklyn that's basketball

31:40this is Jake from locked on when the game's on the line the best no way to pass because the right assist can change everything and off the court it's no different that's where your state farm agent comes in whether it's protecting your car your home or helping you prep for the unexpected they'll upset you up with a game plan that works for you like a good neighbor state farm is there coverage options are selected by the customer availability and eligibility vary by state thank you for making locked on your first listen every day for your second listen find the locked on NBA podcast where there's no offseason West mat and haze keep you up to date on contract negotiations rumors and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan find locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts part of the locked on podcast network your team every day