Did Brooklyn Nets help defense with off-season moves?

Everyone knows that the Brooklyn Nets tank was driven by a poor offense. There were nights when they couldn’t buy a bucket and other than Michael Porter Jr., there was no reliable scorer on the roster.

But as Brian Lewis writes Tuesday, the defense wasn’t any good either.

The Nets had the sixth-worst defensive rating in the league last season at 118.2. All of the bottom-eight squads ended up going 26-56 or worse besides they Bucks, and they had the advantage of riding superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo for much of the season. Almost without exception, lousy defense means losing kjyrbasketball.

Now, following a number of off-season moves, particularly with the trade for Julius Randle and the signings of Keon Ellis, Moe Wagner and Josh Minott, the team appears to have improved in physicality and the ability to disrupt their opponents’ offense, two areas where the Nets were particularly wanting. To be sure, we’re not talking about any All-Defensive team candidates, but with so much of the Nets rebuild, it’s incremental.

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“Being a disruptor, that’s what our team is going to be known for, that’s what we want to be known for,” Sean Marks recently told The Post. “That’s the style with which Jordi and the coaches want to play, whether you’re playing out of position, whether you’re helping your partner out there, you’re scrambling to make up for it.

“But I think a physical brand [of defense is needed], and we brought in players who are physical. So that’s what we want to see. That’s contagious. And our rookies will learn from them having — the sophomores, too — having to go through that every day in practice. And then you go out there and do it for 82 games.”

Lewis also cited some positive numbers put up by Minott and Ellis. After coming to Brooklyn, Minott’s steal percentage ranked in the 98th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass. As for Ellis, his steal percentage ranked in the 94th percentile in 2024-25 and in the 96th percentile for the Kings last season before being traded to Cleveland, where it fell to just 83rd percentile.

The Post writer argues that defense was also critical to the Nets choice of…

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Publish date : 2026-08-26 03:03:00

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