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INDIANAPOLIS — Right now, every time the young Nets hit adversity, they go awry like a rudderless ship.
That means their stars are going to have to do a better job steering them.
That means Julius Randle and Michael Porter Jr.
“[We’ve] just got to be mentally tougher, understand what’s going on in the game, understand what we’re trying to accomplish, what we can take advantage of, stuff like that,” Randle admitted.
“But we just have to have better recognition in-game of what’s going on and just be better from there. But we get adversity right now as a group, and it just deflates us as a team. So I have to find a way to keep the group together, and get us out of those ruts when we’re facing those types of situations.”
As the only winless team in the East coming into Sunday’s tilt at Indiana, the Nets have faced those types of situations every game. The result has been slumped shoulders, bad body language and the team coming unraveled.
Granted, they played well at Cleveland and Boston. But more often than not, they haven’t handled adversity well.
And while Randle and Porter are a 1-2 scoring punch, neither is a defender. But for the Nets to compete, they’ll have to be leaders. On a team this green, it’s not enough that they play well. They have to help their young teammates play well — or at least play together.
“It’s easier said than done,” Porter said after Friday’s loss to Detroit. “In the NBA when you lose five straight, it can be tough.
“But we’ve got to continue to watch film, and do our best to stay connected as a group, do our best to stay positive, to come out next game and do better than we did [the last] game. We took a step forward [in] the Boston game, a couple steps backwards [against Detroit]. We’ve just got to watch it and go from there.”
The Nets have glaring personnel issues that may limit their defensive ceiling, but they’ve underachieved offensively due to a lack of chemistry and cohesion. They’ll need better cutting and spacing.
Granted, Randle has done his job as a floor raiser. The Nets’ plus-22.9 net rating swing with him on and off the floor is the best of any Net that has logged over 30 minutes. But against Detroit, he shot 4-of-13 with three assists, five turnovers and too much ball-pounding. Porter finished a minus-25.
Randle admits it’s on the veterans like himself and Porter to help guide this young team through its growing pains. But how?
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“That’s a great question. I don’t know. We’ve just got to find ways to keep making improvements,” Randle said. “We did that, [though] we didn’t get the result we wanted in Boston, we did it. I felt like we were on the path to doing that to start the [Detroit] game, and then we took steps back. So, I won’t accept it, but I understand it.
“Taking bumps and bruises with the season, just gaining experience. But we’ve got to find a way collectively to be better and not let adversity affect us so much as a group. We keep talking about it, but we gotta find a way to come together. And yeah, it probably is on the vets. We gotta bring guys together in the moments of adversity and recognize those situations quicker than what we are right now.”
It’s a tough ask with Porter set for unrestricted free agency and expected by many around the league to be on the market at the trade deadline. Meanwhile, Randle — soon to be 32 — can opt out as well.
Head coach Jordi Fernández defended both, saying he can’t ask either to step outside their comfort zones leadership-wise.
“I always want them to lead and it’s got to come out of an honest place. I cannot force them to be out of character,” Fernández said. “I think they’re both good people and they both mean well, so whatever they’re comfortable doing I’m very happy they’re trying their best to help the group. And they’ve done it from the beginning, so I’m not concerned about that.”
