“I believe in this group. I have to do better. Everyone has to do better in this locker room if we want to win in Minnesota. » If he already shows his desire to bounce back on Saturday evening, Kevin Ollie could hardly do worse than this first match on the Nets bench.
The new Brooklyn coach actually lost to Toronto by almost thirty points (121-93) and nothing of his speech was implemented. Already, he started with a strong choice: removing Cam Johnson from the major five. So Cam Thomas, Mikal Bridges, Dorian Finney-Smith, Nic Claxton and Ben Simmons started.
Cam Johnson and Dennis Schroder on the bench
Dennis Schroder was also not a starter, but he hadn't been since his arrival in Brooklyn (only in the 50-point slap against Boston) and his last days were eventful. “He missed one training session, only did two, for personal reasons”, explain Kevin Ollie as the German returned to Canada to see his family, as well as to Germany to see his mother. “And he has to adapt too, with Jacque Vaughn at the beginning, then me. »
The risk of a strong choice is that if things don't work out afterwards, it quickly becomes a liability. The new Nets coach wanted to give the keys to Ben Simmons, asking him to be sharp with the ball in hand.
“He has to look at the circle and the spaces, be aggressive. I told him that and I think he's going to do it and that he's going to perform well as a playmaker.”, he announced before the match. Finally, the former Sixers finished with two points at 1/2 on the shoot…
A non-existent defense
Kevin Ollie and Sean Marks wanted to wake up the Nets by emphasizing defense. “The efforts, the dragging balls, the contested shots, diving on the floor”, the Nets GM had listed. With 46 points conceded on the counter-attack, we cannot say that the Brooklyn players reacted or responded much…
“We didn't make the shots, but the effort, the energy, the offensive rebounds killed us. Giving up 46 points, not limiting them on half court, with 19 lost balls, it was deadly”concedes the coach. “We lost the ball too much and we didn’t come back on defense”laments Ben Simmons. “We have to be more proud defensively. Yes, there are changes of coach, of schemes, but ultimately, it is too much, even with the changes. No matter the coach or the systems, we have to come back to defense. »
Rather than shaking up the Nets, would the arrival of Kevin Ollie have mainly shaken up habits? Mikal Bridges rejects this hypothesis. “Giving up 46 points like that, it’s hard to win. We have to do better in transition,” confirms the winger. ” No excuse. We all play basketball and we know what we need to do in transition, come back and communicate. We were bad. We cannot make excuses. »
