The Brooklyn Nets are coming off a disappointing 2023-24 season in which they finished far below their expectations of a playoff appearance and possibly more. One of the reasons for Brooklyn’s underachieving performance was their defense not being suffocating and swarming like it was expected to be given the personnel that they came into the season with.
One of the ways that this showed itself this past season is the fact that the Nets took just nine charges over the entirety of the 2023-24 campaign. Not only was that the lowest amount of charges that a team took this season, the Denver Nuggets were second-to-last in the category with 16 charges drawn, but it was the lowest since the NBA began tracking charges beginning with the 2016-17 season.
To be clear, there are more ways to play defense than drawing charges and given that most teams have centers that can protect the rim by blocking shots, taking charges is more about effort and anticipation than anything else. The effort on the defensive end is what seemed to be lacking for a team that many expected to be one of the better defensive units in the NBA due to how many players on the roster with long arms, quick feet, and height.
After ending the 2022-23 season with the 13th best defensive rating in the league (114.1), the Nets finished the 2023-24 campaign ranked just 20th in defensive rating (116.1) despite having largely the same roster. If Brooklyn wants to get back to its winning ways, they have to play better defense and play with more effort to keep up with the better teams in the Eastern Conference.
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