“There Are No Shortcuts”
How do you recover from one of the worst trades in sports history? The hard way. But with Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson now at the helm, the Brooklyn Nets are turning agony into opportunity.“There Are No Shortcuts”
How do you recover from one of the worst trades in sports history? The hard way. But with Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson now at the helm, the Brooklyn Nets are turning agony into opportunity.
A black, glossy sign hangs on the wall outside of Sean Marks’s office at the Brooklyn Nets’ two-year-old practice facility on 39th Street in Brooklyn. An intricately designed maze, like the one in Westworld, lies in the middle. A light-blue line maps the correct path in and out of the puzzle. Above it, in white lettering, there’s text that reads, “There are no shortcuts.” Underneath, it reads, “Strategic thinking wins.”
“Strangely enough, I stole that from an airplane magazine and I had them design it the way I wanted,” says Marks with a laugh, now almost two years into his role as Nets general manager. “But it’s true. There’s not gonna be shortcuts along the way. We just got to do things that hopefully lead to something sustainable.”
Marks knows a thing or two about sustainability. After 11 seasons as an NBA reserve (and a stint playing in Poland), Marks spent five years on the Spurs’ staff, first in the front office, then as an assistant coach on Gregg Popovich’s bench, and finally as assistant general manager to R.C. Buford. He won two titles with San Antonio along the way—in 2005 as a player, and nearly a decade later as an assistant coach. In February 2016, Marks traded in a top position with the Spurs, one of the most meticulously crafted team cultures in the league, for the Nets, a … team.
The hiring of Marks—at the time 40 years old and in the early stages of his post-playing career—to clean up one of the biggest messes in sports history certainly raised some eyebrows. (Marks himself was “wrestling” with the decision, according to reports at the time.) But where others saw disaster, Marks saw opportunity. The Nets, despite not controlling their own first-round pick until 2019, were a blank canvas. And the unique problem required more than a paint-by-numbers approach. “We’ve got to break the mold and at least be as creative as we can without living outside of the box,” Marks says.
Joseph Tsai, cofounder and executive vice chairman of Alibaba, bought a 49 percent stake in the Nets from Mikhail Prokhorov in October and will likely take over full control in four years. But Marks’s path forward remains the same; indeed, Tsai reportedly “expressed enthusiasm” over the direction of the franchise.
“It’s like being with a startup; we’re in more of a search mode,” says Nets coach Kenny Atkinson. “We’re not the Spurs; they’re in a ‘we know’ mode. We’re searching. We’re very curious. We have a curious staff, diverse staff.
“We’re trying shit out.”
Gregg Popovich is one of the most revered coaches in the game. Marks says that the Spurs patriarch, who is now 68 years old, would sometimes get in line alongside his players and run sprints with them. “Sweat equity,” is how Marks describes it. “The players see that and go, ‘Hey, man, he’s in the foxhole with us,’” says Marks, who played under Pop in 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Atkinson takes the approach to another level. Many NBA coaches will outline, in meticulous detail, how to run a play; Atkinson will literally get in the play and show you. The Nets coach is also known to sit in the weight and locker rooms with players as they go about their routines. “I want to be in their skin,” he says. “I hate sitting in my office.”
Atkinson, now in his second season as head coach in Brooklyn, is a grinder. He played professionally for 14 years, mostly overseas, before pivoting to the management side, first in Paris, then with the NBA’s Rockets, Knicks, and Hawks (under another Spurs alumnus, Mike Budenholzer). The 50-year-old calls himself “kind of a jock,” and his youthful passion is evident when discussing the game. You can see the intensity in his eyes and hear it in his voice—his tempo and timbre change when discussing nitty-gritty hoops topics. Atkinson is just as likely to cuss as he is to go the extra mile to help a player. “You can just tell how passionate he is about the game,” Nets wing Allen Crabbe tells me. “He just has that relationship. He has that demeanor. He’s an easy guy to talk to, he’s an easy guy to get along with, and I think guys look at him as more than just a coach.”
The hands-on approach has become a major asset, especially for a team that has nearly three times as many losses as wins in Atkinson’s tenure. Marks says a player is likely to go further out of his comfort zone or be more open with a coach or executive when he feels like they’re all working toward something together. Atkinson certainly seems to have earned that level of trust from his players. “I’ll dive on the floor for that guy,” Nets forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson says. “I’ll take a charge for that guy. That’s the type of respect he’s gained from us.”
Atkinson says he views the coach-player relationship more as a collaboration. The coaching staff might be able to help a player fix his footwork, while a player can help a coach who hasn’t held the head position very long work his way through some potential missteps. “Ultimately, as a staff, we have to make decisions that aren’t easy, but I think [players] have a voice in the process where they feel we’re together with them in the process,” Atkinson says. “Also I think they recognize there’s a humility. I think they understand this guy is not Rick Carlisle; he doesn't have a championship and 20 years. This guy is still learning. And I think they feel that.”
Point guard D’Angelo Russell, in his first season in Brooklyn, tells me, “There’s no ladder ranking who’s more important than anyone else. They take great pride in making everybody feel like that number-one [player]. It may sound cliché to say, but it’s the truth.”
When discussing how he manages his relationships with players, Atkinson paused, noting that he felt bad that he hadn’t sat down with Sean Kilpatrick (who has since been waived) for two or three days. “He just opened up a juice bar in Westchester [New York] and I haven’t even asked about that,” Atkinson lamented.
Player development has always been Atkinson’s strength, but Nets forward DeMarre Carroll, who spent time with Atkinson in Atlanta, says the coach has “grown tremendously” as a game manager. “Now he’s in the office drawing X’s and O’s on the board,” Carroll says.
Some of the designs being drawn up might be familiar to Carroll. Atkinson is installing a motion-based system that draws elements from his time under Rick Adelman, Mike D’Antoni, and Mike Budenholzer. “It’s a blend,” Atkinson says. “They’re three excellent systems with three excellent offensive minds, and I think pretty liberal minds. They weren’t conventional.”
The Nets play a relatively positionless brand of basketball, with read-and-react elements used by Adelman and Budenholzer, particularly the “motion strong” offense Budenholzer took from San Antonio to Atlanta. This style has supercharged Hollis-Jefferson, the team’s Swiss army knife who, in his third season, is also the longest-tenured player. Atkinson has Hollis-Jefferson bring the ball up, run the pick-and-roll, post up, and defend every position. When I asked about Hollis-Jefferson’s role, Atkinson chuckled. “I have no idea what his position is,” he says.
That’s OK, because unpredictability is the goal of a motion offense. The ball swings from one side of the court to the other before the play even takes shape. The initial ball reversal causes defenses to shift, and any time a defense is moving, weaknesses can open up that can be exploited with a pick-and-roll, dribble handoff, or another play.
Here, the Nets run their motion strong, swinging the ball from one side to the other, but this time Crabbe sprints through stagger screens set by Hollis-Jefferson and Caris LeVert, resulting in an open 3 at the top of the key. If it looks like the type of play the Hawks once ran for Kyle Korver, it’s because it is. Crabbe isn’t on Korver’s level as a sharpshooter, but the Nets are trying to ease him into that role.
There are other options on the play aside from having Crabbe launch from 3. In this example, Crabbe drives and Hollis-Jefferson rolls for the layup.
Atkinson crosses his motion system with D’Antoni’s philosophy of fast pacing, lots of pick-and-roll, and shooting. The Nets rank near the top of the league in pace and just about league average in time of possession, while attempting the third-highest frequency of 3-point attempts. Atkinson’s first NBA experience came in 2007, when he was hired as the Rockets’ director of player development. Atkinson says now that his time under Daryl Morey and Sam Hinkie “opened my eyes up” to the world of analytics. “Now we argue about it; the debates are intensive. But at the end of the day, I really believe in it. I trust it,” Atkinson says. “It’s shaped my coaching philosophy.”
The Rockets are currently breaking the NBA by launching 43.2 3-pointers per game, and it seems Atkinson would like to close the gap. The Nets currently take 34 a game, second most in the league, but Atkinson says his “perfect number” would be 40. For now, Brooklyn is happy with its strong shot profile, which also includes the second-fewest long midrange jumpers (behind the Rockets again), per Cleaning the Glass. But overall, the Nets rank just 21st in offensive rating. To be better, they need their starting point guard.
Without the high draft picks that come as a reward for three straight losing seasons, the Nets have had to get creative with how they acquire top-level talent. So while their own no. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft went to Boston (and later Philadelphia), the Nets had to settle for trading for the no. 2 overall pick from 2015.
The Nets sent pick no. 27 this year (Kyle Kuzma) and Brook Lopez to the Lakers for D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov’s albatross contract. And while Russell came with a lot of baggage after two up-and-down seasons (under two different head coaches) with the Lakers, he had shown progress in Atkinson’s hybrid system before undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in mid-November. Russell, who is out indefinitely, posted career highs in points (20.9), shots per game (17.1), and effective field goal percentage (50.7).
At 6-foot-5, Russell has the height to make passes that shorter guards can’t, as evidenced by these two lasers to Joe Harris. The next step is to improve his decision-making, take fewer risks, and adjust to the NBA’s speed and physicality. Russell tells me he’s learning how to play with pace through his on-court experience and film sessions with Atkinson, video coordinator Nate Babcock, and assistant coach Jacque Vaughn. “Russell is go, go, go. We want go, go, pause,” Atkinson says. “Mike D'Antoni used to say basketball is a rhythm; you can't go a thousand miles an hour. … We need him to change gears."
Russell says that Atkinson wants him shooting more 3s and fewer pull-up 2s, and that they’ve shown him analytics to underline the value of such a move. The upside is still there with Russell—we’ve witnessed multiple ice-water-in-his-veins moments over his young career. But the 21-year-old is still shooting only 32.3 percent on pull-up 3s for his career. To open up the rest of the floor for his dribble-drive game, he’ll need to shoot it better.
Perhaps more importantly, Russell needs to start playing defense. “It’s something that D'Angelo knows can get better. He's making strides,” Marks says. “To [play point guard], you're going to have to have some leadership qualities there. We're trying to assist him with those. Leadership isn't something that's just given to you. You've gotta earn it.”
To that end, Carroll has been invaluable for Atkinson. The 31-year-old, who was also traded to the Nets this past offseason (along with first- and second-round picks from Toronto to swallow the remaining $30 million on his deal), operates as a “middleman,” as Carroll puts it, between the coaching staff and the players. Carroll’s past experiences as a journeyman—clawing his way into the league, and then into a critical role for a 60-win Hawks team, and then into a $58 million contract—resonate with a team of outcasts looking for a chance in the league. “He's kind of like a guy that's bought himself up from nothing so these guys can identify with him,” Atkinson says. “He gives authentic leadership.”
Whether it’s Carroll’s influence or something else, Marks seemed encouraged by Russell’s personal growth, pointing to what happened after a win in Portland on November 10 as proof. “D'Angelo had a terrific game, really won the game for us in Portland, and then in the postgame interview he immediately deferred to DeMarre,” Marks says. “Just to see that level of humility and also a little maturity. Those things are important.”
Russell isn’t the only flier Brooklyn has taken under Marks’s watch. Entering this season, the Nets had six other young, high-upside players whom they signed as free agents, traded into the draft to acquire, or outright traded for: Crabbe, Hollis-Jefferson, LeVert, Harris, Isaiah Whitehead, and Spencer Dinwiddie. In December, they added two more, trading for Sixers castaways Jahlil Okafor and Nik Stauskas, the no. 3 pick in 2015 and no. 8 pick in 2014, respectively.
Their goal in doing so is simple: With increased opportunities, maybe they can develop a difference-maker from within like Atlanta did with Carroll just four years ago. Dinwiddie, more than any other Nets retread, has already shown signs of becoming an impact player.
After being drafted 38th overall in 2014 by Detroit, Dinwiddie was assigned to the D-League, traded to the Bulls, and then waived. He was back at the developmental level before the Nets signed him last December. The move was scrutinized at the time; Yogi Ferrell, the player Brooklyn released to make room, shined in his first season with the Mavericks.
But in Dinwiddie, the Nets saw a long, 6-foot-6 point guard who played with confidence and maturity beyond his years. Atkinson tells me the team had Dinwiddie first on their “get list,” and the 24-year-old began proving why they were so high on him before the 2017-18 season even started. Dinwiddie says he wanted to get into “impeccable shape,” while also improving his shooting range off the dribble and on spot-ups by using imaginary 4- and 5-point lines.
Dinwiddie, now starting in place of Russell, is shooting only 34.4 percent from 3. But after spending the summer pushing his game to its outer limits, Dinwiddie is doing the same in games by taking shots with a high degree of difficulty—ones that he otherwise might not be able to take in different situations. He’s done the same on the other end by defending multiple positions. “He's become a two-way player,” Atkinson says. “We're sticking him on Kyrie [Irving], and if there's a wing that's bothering [us], the assistants are like, 'Throw Spencer on him.' I'm like, 'Dinwiddie?'”
Necessity is the mother of invention, so this is what the Nets do at this stage of the rebuild: allow players the chance to be their best selves. Dinwiddie says he’s thankful for the opportunity. “Basketball is an art form. The NBA is its own dance. It's kind of a beautiful ballet out there, and if you never get to actually be in it, you just don't learn it,” he says. “Until you go through the situation on a consistent basis, you can't be expected to perform on a consistent basis.”
With Jeremy Lin out for the season, Caris LeVert, a nominal small forward, has become the de facto bench point guard. The role has allowed the 23-year-old to flash the sort of nifty handle and terrific vision that would have made him a lottery pick in 2016 had it not been for three foot injuries at Michigan.
As he adjusts to the speed of the game, LeVert has gotten better at improvising outside of set plays and calculating decisions within a split second against defenses. LeVert needs to improve his 3-point shooting (29.4 percent)—a trend across the roster—but he’s already developed nice chemistry with rookie center Jarrett Allen, the no. 22 overall pick in 2017.
Allen is a raw, 19-year-old center, and was widely considered by scouts as one of the premier athletes in the draft. “A big man that can move like that,” Marks says, his thought trailing off. “It's intriguing.”
The Nets run so much pick-and-roll, and play at such a fast pace, that it’s critical for their big men to set strong screens, finish at the rim, and run the floor. “They want me to be the fastest guy and the most athletic guy on the court,” Allen says. Atkinson says he doesn’t want to expect too much from Allen, but he sees the young center filling the role Clint Capela and Amar’e Stoudemire have for D’Antoni. “He's gonna be a threat at the rim,” Atkinson says. “We were all on the same page. Like Sean and I said, ‘This is the type of player we need for this system. He's a perfect fit.’”
Allen still has a long way to go, though. He needs to get stronger, learn how to read plays on defense, and expand his offensive game. Eventually, the Nets would like Allen to do what any of their other frontcourt players do: shoot 3s. Brook Lopez started shooting 3s last season. Mozgov, Tyler Zeller, and Quincy Acy frequently space to the line. Okafor was even spotted hoisting from the corners at a recent practice. Allen could take longer to develop (though he did drain his only corner 3 attempt of the season), but he’s putting in the work, as you can see at a recent practice:
Atkinson says the front office and coaching staff use analytics to guide their players through the developmental process. If they’re trying to get a big man to shoot more 3s, they’ll show the player his points per possession on a deep pull-up 2-pointer, and compare it to what it’d be as a spot-up 3-pointer. “We want to take high-value shots,” Atkinson says. “That's the goal of all coaches, pretty simplistic. I don't want to make it like we're reinventing the wheel here.”
For now, Allen’s primary focus is on improving his interior finishing and defense. With a 7-foot-5 wingspan and a wide frame, Allen will improve defensively as he fills out as the years pass. And the hope is that, through experience and coaching, his fundamentals and positioning will get better.
The Nets defense needs to get better than 22nd overall. But the team is executing how it wants to. The Nets force the most midrange field goals, while allowing a low frequency of layups and 3s. From a philosophical perspective, they’re doing exactly what they want. But a good process doesn’t always lead to good results. “It sucks sometimes,” Atkinson says. “You can be doing stuff analytically and you're getting killed.”
But the coaching staff trusts the data, and they make sure the players do too. Atkinson says that after seeing three low-efficiency floaters go in, the players’ impulses may lead them to an extreme overcorrection, like blitzing or trapping. “That's the immediate solution,” Atkinson says with a laugh. “It's our job to educate them. It's not easy.”
There is a pile of 40 to 60 books in four different stacks on a table in Marks’s office. In late November, I asked Marks if he had any favorites. Marks reached over and grabbed Legacy by James Kerr, which tells the story of the New Zealand national rugby team, known as the All Blacks, and the secrets to their unprecedented success.
The book discusses how to develop leaders and accountability, how to sustain success, the importance of character, and the search for knowledge. On Page 23, Kerr writes, “A winning organization is an environment of personal and professional development, in which each individual takes responsibility and shares ownership.” It echoed something Marks said earlier: “The only way we're gonna get better is if we're all inclusive. This is all together. And if there's one thing we preach here, it's collaboration.”
The Nets use Slack, a chat platform used in newsrooms and businesses, to share thoughts or articles. And their all-inclusive approach trickles down to the court. Allen says that when he struggled with a post move at a recent practice, the other Nets frontcourt players (i.e., his direct competition) were quick to offer some advice. “One person chimed in, then another person gave me another tip, and then someone else,” he says. Allen then smiled and imitated Mozgov’s deep voice and Russian accent, “He’s like, ‘You need to do this.’”
Things will get a lot easier for Brooklyn in the near future. The Nets will have at least two picks in the 20-45 range in the 2018 draft (the Raptors’ first and the less favorable of the Magic or Lakers’ second). In 2019, when high school graduates may once again become draft-eligible, the Nets will finally own their own first-round draft pick. As cap space becomes a tight squeeze for most organizations, they could have the room to become major players in the free-agent market.
Marks says they’ve thrown out dates internally regarding when the right time will be to go after an elite player. And the team, as it has since Marks arrived nearly two years ago, needs to stay fluid.
“You never know how different teams are evolving and what's going to happen,” Marks says. “A lot of it is knowing the temperature of the NBA landscape, making sure that you have flexibility.
“For us, it's patience.”