The Nets’ decision to trend toward what they were expected to be — the worst team in the league — and to put more focus on their long-term rebuild by trading away their star point guard Dennis Schroder on Sunday has left the team floundering.
It showed on the court on Monday in a brutal 130-101 gut-punch loss to the Cavaliers and former Nets coach Kenny Atkinson.
“I definitely still have to do more there. It’s definitely by committee. Dennis got to have the ball a lot of the game,” Cam Johnson said Monday of how to make up for the loss of Schroder. “The ball, when it’s in [Ben Simmons’] hands a lot, figuring out how to cut and move and find open windows and create space on the floor is going to be really important for us.
“That’s the name of the game now. We have who we have, and I respect our group, and I know that we’ll take this one personally.”
Instead of their identity as being a surprising rebuilding team, the Nets have been given a new identity as a tanking misfit group with no intentional direction other than down until the 2025-26 season.
“I trust them. I trust the team. I trust the coaches,” Nic Claxton said of whether the Nets can right the ship following the Schroder trade. “It was just a weird vibe. Like in practice it was weird, I’m just being honest. So we all got to regroup and come together and we got to control what we can control.”
“Just when you lose a player like that, it’s tough,” Claxton added. “He was like, he did a lot for us. Like, he brought a lot on and off the court. He brought energy, toughness. He brought a lot for us. Like you got to really give him a lot of credit. So now everybody else has to fill in for the areas that he really was helping us.”
Schroder was sent to the Warriors along with a second-round draft pick in exchange for seven-year veteran guard De’Anthony Melton, rookie Reece Beekman, and three second-round picks (Atlanta’s in 2026 and 2028, and the Warriors’ in 2029).
Schroder played himself out of Brooklyn, averaging a near career-best 18.4 points, and he led the Nets to a 10-15 record to put them within striking distance of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Without Schroder handling the ball on Monday, the Nets were flustered and committed 20 turnovers to give Cleveland 34 points.
They also allowed an alarming 32-5 run in the first quarter.
“It was a combination of things. It was definitely that [new playing style without Schroder], obviously that played a role,” Claxton said. “But also we just didn’t play hard enough. We just didn’t fight. We didn’t take care of the ball, we just did everything wrong honestly.”
“I’m fighting with my guys, and the ones that are here, they’ll have to fight. And they don’t fight, there’s gonna be consequences,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said Monday.
Before Schroder’s trade, the Nets were sitting in the 15th draft position with no chances at a pick in the top four.
After Monday, the Nets are ranked eighth and the odds of a pick in the top four will only increase as the team continues to lose.
The chaos of moving pieces also may not be over, as veterans Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith remain on the trade market.
Johnson is having the best season of his Nets career, averaging 18.6 points per game while shooting 48 percent from the field — and has two years remaining on his contract.
Finney-Smith would fit in for most teams with his elite defensive play, along with his 3-point shooting ability — hitting 45 percent on 5.6 attempts per game.
Trades or no trades, the identity struggle will likely only grow for the Nets.
