Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn has been trying to figure out his rotation as the season nears its end and the team has to get ready for the postseason. While Vaughn’s tinkering with the rotation has led to some interesting lineups and some players being left out for the time being, like Cam Thomas for example.
Thomas did not play in Tuesday’s 118-96 win over the Houston Rockets and since Brooklyn’s loss to the New York Knicks on Mar. 1, he has only played 13 minutes over the three games played since then. However, Vaughn’s experiments with the rotation have coincided with the Nets’ three-game winning streak so it’s hard to find fault with the strategy.
That’s not to say that players like Thomas or Yuta Watanabe should be permanently out of the rotation. Vaughn has said recently that he will be shortening the rotation in preparation for the postseason so some players will inevitably be left out. With that being said, Brooklyn’s second unit of Royce O’Neale, Seth Curry, Joe Harris, and Nerlens Noel had a combined plus/minus of +50 as they gave the Nets big minutes against the Rockets. Vaughn spoke about the bench unit after the decisive win:
“Yeah, you saw that second quarter was a big difference maker for us. That group, CJ (Cameron Johnson) Seth Curry was out there, Joe (Harris) was out there they really shifted the momentum (in) our direction, especially going into halftime. Their ability to get stops and get out in transition and create pace was huge. But, a big part of that was the guys that were out there playing so the depth definitely pay dividends tonight.”
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