The Brooklyn Nets recently added Iman Shumpert back into the mix and he’s expected to officially join the team this weekend.
The Nets brought the veteran guard back this season in hopes to shore up some of their defensive woes this season, as they currently rank 25th in the league on the defensive rating metric.
A deeper look into the number shows that the Nets are giving up the fourth-most shot attempts within 5-9 feet with 11.3 at a 43.5 percent shooting clip and third-most shot attempts within 10-14 feet with 8.9 at a 48.5 percent shooting clip.
When you’re watching the games, it’s very easy to see how those numbers add up, as the Nets have a strong tendency to trade baskets with the other team.
That’s where Shump can come into play and help give the Nets the defensive boost they desperately need. The Georgia Tech product only played 13 games last season for Brooklyn, but in those games, the Nets were 1.3 points better on the defensive rating metric with him on the floor than off, and on shot attempts he defended, he allowed opposing shooters to shoot 39.1 percent from the field, which was 3.3 percent less than what the Nets gave up as a team on average. Overall, the Nets defensive rating as a team dropped from 111.3 before Shumpert came to 108.7 right until the 6’5″ guard was released.
That’s the type of effect Shumpert can give a team on the defensive side of the ball, and when you watch him play, you can see a guy that can defend multiple positions and guard the opposing team’s best player. He can stay in a stance, move laterally and stick with the opposing player to either force them into a bad shot or turnover. When he’s guarding a player off the ball, he can also stick with them and deny a pass going in their direction—the Nets need that type of versatile defender.
Kevin Durant is the only Net that currently allows less than 40 percent of the shots he defends to go in, and if the Nets want to help Durant manage his recovery efforts and save more of his energy for the offensive side of the ball, then they’re going to need reinforcements on defense.
Shumpert also has a tendency to stay active in the passing lanes, as he averaged 1.6 deflections per game last season in just 18.5 minutes per game. If his minutes were in the 30s, he would’ve more than likely been towards the top of the league in that category at the rate he was going.
Still, if he can bring that same intensity in a lineup featuring KD, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, then the Nets can quickly start to force more turnovers, as they’re currently in the bottom three in the league in steals per game as a team. It also helps that Irving has shown a willingness to play the passing lanes defensively and hustle for loose balls.
Shumpert is not going to bring much offensively, but he did show that he can shoot the 3-pointer at a solid 34.8 percent from the field during his last full season in the league, which was during the 2018-19 season in Houston. More specifically, he drilled 37.3 percent of his catch-and-shoot attempts from downtown, where most of his overall 3-point attempts came from. If he can bring that type of shooting with the floor spacing he’ll be provided, then that’s about all the Nets would need from him on offense.
Shumpert’s main concern will be to help the Nets find their identity on defense and bring some much-needed hustle and energy on that side, and if he can provide that spark, then he should be able to carve out a significant role on this championship-caliber team.
