Brooklyn Nets' Playoff Hopes Still Alive

Amidst a season with low expectations, high hopes and unbridled determination, a Brooklyn Nets team that started their season with seven straight losses now sits at 3-11 through four weeks of the regular season. They’ve been ranked in the bottom three in each of ESPN’s four weekly NBA Power Rankings. This includes a week in which they were placed dead last, behind Philadelphia who has lost 24 consecutive games dating back to last season. And the Nets can still make the playoffs.

After winning three of their previous seven, Brooklyn has shown undeniable signs of life, even in their losses. Most of which have been as close as a one-possession game with five minutes or less left to play. With the lone outlier being their 25-point loss to Boston, Nets fans hold the right to take solace in the fact that this particular loss was exactly that, an outlier.

Although the record thus far is certainly unfavorable, it is indeed justified. To date, Brooklyn’s schedule has ranked third most difficult amongst the entire NBA this season, with the combined record of their opponents being 101-89. Currently they sit just five games back in the loss column of teams that are impressing analysts league-wide, such as their rival New York team, the Knicks. More importantly, there are still 68 games left to play in this young NBA season.

The Nets have made the playoffs in every season since moving to Brooklyn. Through 14 games this season, they are 3-11. Through 14 games last season they were 6-8. Through 14 games two seasons ago, they were 4-10. With an easier schedule ahead, a good stretch of games could put them right in the playoff mix.

One of the trending stories at the start of the season was the underwhelming play of some of their core pieces, like Joe Johnson and Thaddeus Young. Johnson had hit just 5 of his first 53 attempts from the field to start the season, something we’re not used to seeing from ISO-Joe, a bonafide scorer. What we’ve seen more of in recent games though, is ISO-Joe turned Facilitator-Joe, who is averaging four assists over the last five games. He is repetitively finding guys for shots down the stretch of games where we would normally see create a shot for himself in isolation. After putting together several consecutive solid outings, Thaddeus Young is now averaging 15.3 PPG 8.4 RPG and 1.5 SPG on the season.

As the play of these two continue to trend upward, paired with the consistent solid play of Brook Lopez, the future looks, well, pretty good for Brooklyn.