The Nets trailed for the final 28 minutes of Thursday night’s loss to the Rockets.
But that doesn’t mean those minutes were meaningless.
Coach Jordi Fernández gave rookie Nolan Traore some tough love coming off the court after some ill-advised 3-point heaves made that clear.
The French teen is a good penetrator and downhill player but had just two assists to two turnovers, and shot just 1-for-8 overall, 1-for-5 from deep on shots he was mostly lured into.
“I need him to use his superpowers and touch the paint. And it felt like he got caught shooting the unders. And a lot of times it didn’t go … because that’s what they want you to do,” Fernández said. “And if you keep shooting and missing, then sometimes, if you keep doing the same thing and seeing the same results, that’s the definition of insanity. And I know how good he is.
“He can play pick-and-roll; he can touch the paint; he can reject pick-and-rolls; he can play with a pass. Two assists and two turnovers is just not good enough. That’s why I needed him to understand: that I need more. I’m OK with a pull-up 3; I don’t love it because he hasn’t shown that he can make it consistently. He can shoot as many catch-and-shoot 3s as he wants, but I didn’t think he played the game the way I wanted to play the game. If he gets 1 percent better [Friday] that’s what I want to see.”
The Nets were missing three-fifths of their starting lineup.
Michael Porter Jr. was out with an illness, Terance Mann was out with a right hip contusion, and lottery pick Egor Dëmin had lower back soreness.
“It’s been throughout the games, and obviously me playing him more minutes and making sure that he can continue to play. So, that’s something that popped up, but we believe he’ll be fine soon,” Fernández said. “He’ll be supporting his teammates and ready for the next one.”
The next one is Friday in Washington.
The Nets moved up to fifth in the lottery standings, percentage points ahead of the Hornets. They’re 2 ½ games behind the Wizards.
The Nets have played the fewest games in the league so far, but now enters into a stretch where they’ll have four games a week for five consecutive weeks. It remains to be seen how the team will handle Porter (and Dëmin) on back-to-backs during that stretch.
