Jacque Vaughn names 3 areas Nets must improve on after the All-Star break

One day after signing a multi-year contract extension with the Brooklyn Nets, head coach Jacque Vaughn opened up about what his team should improve ahead of the final part of the season.

Following the trades of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant at the deadline and the arrival of Mikal Bridges, Spencer Dinwiddie, Cam Johnson, and Dorian Finney-Smith, the Nets have shaped their roster, putting an end to their Big Three experiment.

All four newcomers immediately moved into Brooklyn’s starting lineup alongside Nic Claxton, therefore it remains to be seen how long it will take for this new group to build its identity and chemistry.

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The Nets ranked fifth in the NBA in offensive rating before Kevin Durant’s injury on January 8, while they were among the top teams in iso and mid-range scoring.

The addition of Bridges, Dinwiddie, Finney-Smith and Cam Johnson helps the team maintain its offensive power, but it is also a significant boost on the defensive end, as the average height of Brooklyn’s starting five is 6’8”.

With that in mind, Jacque Vaughn named three areas his team must improve on, as the second part of the season tips off on Thursday, February 23.

“I think the top priority is the defensive identity that we need to form as a team,” Vaughn said on a Zoom call with reporters Wednesday. “Our roster is situated where that starting five really can take advantage of doing different things defensively.

A bullet point under that defensive piece is, how can we turn teams over more? I think we can be a Top 10 defensive team if we take that step of turning teams over.”

To do so, the Nets will need to have different game plans in order to adapt to their opponents’ strengths and get the necessary stops. The veteran coach believes that way Brooklyn will build its identity defensively en route to the playoffs.

Offensively, Jacque Vaughn wants to see his team run in transition even more and play at a higher pace.

“The offensive piece is can we play with an extreme amount of pace and transition? That’s increasing our transition attempts and threes, that’s our kick-aheads, that’s our potential assists,” Jacque Vaughn said.

“So a lot of bullet points underneath that, just because we don’t have the shot creators like we used to. So we’ve got to be smart in the way we play on the offensive end.”

With 24 games left for Brooklyn and the lack of star power, Jacque Vaughn pointed at the players’ work ethic as a crucial factor for the team’s success moving forward.

“We have to be the hardest-playing team in the league,” he said. “When you look at us on film, when you look at us live, when you look at the first possession of the game, are the Brooklyn Nets the hardest-playing team in the NBA? And so those are our three areas that we’re really going to lean into in these last 24 games.”

Brooklyn is fifth in the East standings with a 34-24 record and they travel to Chicago to take on the Bulls (26-33) on Friday in their first game after the All-Star break.

Brooklyn Nets Jacque Vaughn
Photo: Kevin Jairaj – USA TODAY Sports

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