Brooklyn Nets Fare Poorly In League Pass Rankings

Are the Brooklyn Nets the least watchable team on NBA League Pass? Zach Lowe of ESPN thinks so.

The Brooklyn Nets are staring down the road at a long rebuild. The light at the end of the tunnel is far away, as the last regime left the franchise in a bad place. The Nets are without many assets currently on the roster, and owe draft picks to the Boston Celtics for another three years.

But, better times do look like they will be on the horizon. The team made a savvy move by hiring Sean Marks to replace Billy King as general manager. Naming Kenny Atkinson as head coach was another good move, as Atkinson knows what it takes to succeed in New York.

Those two represent a change in culture for the Nets, as they look to move away from the win-now mode and into a rebuilding process. There are some decent pieces on the roster, but the lack of draft picks hurts; the Nets are not a very attractive place for players to want to play.

More from Empire Writes Back

They found that out the hard way this offseason. They weren’t major players in free agency despite having a boatload of money to hand out. Outside of Brook Lopez, there were no All-Star caliber players in place. Jeremy Lin was a solid signing, as he thrived with the New York Knicks when Atkinson was an assistant coach and Linsanity was born.

But, there isn’t very much that would draw the attention of anyone that isn’t a Nets fan to watch them play. That is reflected in Zach Lowe’s NBA League Pass rankings.

Over at ESPN, Lowe created an NBA League Pass rankings list. Lowe grades each team from 1-to-10 in five categories; playoffs/zeitgeist, individual highlight production, style, league pass minutia, and unintentional comedy. For definitions of each, follow this link.

The Nets actually come in dead last in his rankings with a score of 20. Lowe admits that he fudged the scores to move the Nets down, but regardless they would have been near the bottom. Here is a little of what he has to say about the team.

"Ironically, Linsanity II: The Gentrification might produce appealing hoops — even to those beyond Boston fans rooting against the Nets. Kenny Atkinson, the team’s new head coach, worked with Lin in New York before spending four years in Atlanta under Budenholzer. Plop Lin back into a Mike D’Antoni-style pick-and-roll attack, mix in some Hawksy side-to-side action, and you might brew up something fun.The Nets just don’t have the personnel to make it potent. Brook Lopez is too slow to set a pick and dive inside for an alley-oop; he’s an ambler who prefers to pop for jumpers, loft floaters from the midrange, and post up on both blocks. The Nets have ranked 21st or lower in pace in each of the past five seasons, and it’s hard to run when Lopez is the fulcrum."

There is just not much talent on this Nets team for the upcoming season. The trade with the Celtics that sent Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry to Brooklyn literally set the franchise back years. It will take some time to climb out of that whole, and they are in the first steps of that process.

There will be a lot of losing in Brooklyn this season as a result. It will be interesting to see how Atkinson handles the losses piling up and if he can keep his team engaged. There are a lot of veterans on the squad that should help keep morale up, but eventually losing takes a toll.

Next: Brooklyn Nets: 5 Biggest Games On Schedule

If you find yourself watching a Nets game on NBA League Pass this season, it will probably be because of the opponent they are playing.

Home/Brooklyn Nets