Brace Hemmelgarn – USA Today Sports Images
In case you’re oblivious to what’s been going on in the NBA over the past two or three months, the Brooklyn Nets have put themselves in position to be one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. The additions of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry and Andrei Kirilenko not only give their team a ton of talent, but also a great deal of solid depth.
Depth was one of the biggest issues that the Nets had last season, particularly in their frontcourt. Kris Humphries was never an impact player in this league and he had one of his worst seasons of his career last season. A lot of the onus at power forward ended up falling on the shoulders of veteran rebounding savant Reggie Evans.
Evans played in 80 games for Brooklyn last season, starting in 56. He averaged 4.5 points, 11.1 rebounds and 0.9 steals in 24.6 minutes per game while shooting only 47.9 percent from the floor.
Obviously Evans is a fantastic rebounder; it’s the reason that he’s been able to sustain a career in the NBA. However, the other parts of his game weren’t so great last season. Offensively, which has never been Evans’ strong-suit, he averaged just 0.78 points per possession, ranking just 392nd in the league, though he did average a solid 0.87 points per possession on post-ups.
One of the most surprising things about Evans’ performance last season for Brooklyn, though, was his poor defense. Evans has long been at least average defensively, but that wasn’t the case last season. He allowed 0.92 points per possession, the 322nd ranked rate in the NBA, even allowing an astonishing 1.06 points per possession when he was being posted up.
With the arrival of Garnett, Evans is obviously not going to be the starter, but he should still see a solid amount of playing time given Garnett’s age and minutes limitation. Because of that, Evans needs to be a better overall player this season outside of his rebounding. The Nets have a ton of talent and depth, but if their weaker areas don’t remain solid, they may fall short of expectations once again.
Cody Williams is a Senior Writer with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20, add him on Google and like his Facebook page.
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