Roster Construction Doomed The Brooklyn Nets
After opening the season as championship favorites, the Brooklyn Nets are instead gone fishing, the first actual playoff participants eliminated from the real postseason tournament after they were swept 4-0 by the Boston Celtics. Though they lost the four games by only a combined 18 points, the Nets often appeared outmanned, outclassed, outexecuted, out-just-about-everything-ed by their opponents on their way to going gentle into that good Brooklyn night.
The Nets' series loss showcased the shortcomings of their roster construction, including, specifically, just how short so many of their rotation players were. Boston's size advantage, particularly on the perimeter, was noticeable throughout the series.
The Nets gave just 146 total minutes to players listed between 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-8, with 139 of them going to Bruce Brown, who is 6-4. The Celtics gave more minutes to three individual players in that size range (6-8 Jayson Tatum, 6-6 Jaylen Brown and 6-4 Marcus Smart), and 669 total minutes to their five rotation players who met that criteria (that star trio, plus 6-4 Derrick White and 6-6 Grant Williams). Meanwhile, Brooklyn doled out 453 minutes to players listed at 6-foot-3 or shorter (Kyrie Irving, Seth Curry, Goran Dragic and Patty Mills), while Boston gave just 46 minutes to its only rotation player of that size (Payton Pritchard).
As a result, the average player on the floor for the Celtics was larger than the average...