In the final quarter of Sunday afternoon’s game, it was clear that the Nets have a glaring hole on their roster.
It first appeared when Dennis Schroder was traded to the Warriors on Dec. 14 and it only grew when Dorian Finney-Smith was dealt to the Lakers mere hours before tipoff Sunday, along with Shake Milton.
In exchange, the Nets received D’Angelo Russell, Maxwell Lewis and three second-round picks (2027, 2030, and 2031).
Nonetheless, the Nets lost their second veteran leader in just 15 days, and the aftermath was a giveaway 102-101 loss to the Magic after blowing a 21-point lead — including a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Without the two veterans, the Nets have a leadership issue.
They need someone to step up and mentor the young group through what will be an up-and-down rebuild season.
“Yeah, it was a clear sign of not being mature and obviously the consistency, the focus. But it’s basically, you do so many good things for the first half and then you put the worst performance you can put and you act like you don’t care,” coach Jordi Fernandez said after Sunday’s loss. “Today we just needed one more grown-up to bring the guys together and calm everybody down and execute on the defensive end and win the game. And it didn’t happen. So I put that on all the guys on our team that are over 23 years old, that those are our grown-ups. And if you cannot do that, then it’s just going to be tough.
“I just care about being responsible for your job. … We were not able to show that we cared to win games. And obviously as you guys know, we’re in a process here where we are going to build something special. And to be part of it, it’s got to come with consistency and it’s got to come with fight and competitiveness and togetherness. And we didn’t show it. So congrats to them and very disappointed in my guys. Extremely disappointed.”
Both 31, Schroder and Finney-Smith were the oldest active players on the roster by three years — excluding Bojan Bogdanovic (35), who is recovering from foot surgery.
They were tasked to lead the young team in a rebuilding year, but given their trade appeal, it was expected that neither would likely last through the Feb. 6 deadline for a team tanking for a top draft pick.
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Following the trades, it’s unknown who will prove to be the next leader.
Currently, the senior active players on the roster are Cameron Johnson, Ben Simmons and Russell, who are all 28.
Simmons has been forced to step up as the point guard, taking on more minutes (30.3 average) to hold an average of 9.2 points and 8.3 assists across his past six games since Dec. 16.
Heads will likely turn to Nic Claxton, 25, as well, as he is expected to be a franchise leader after signing a four-year, $100 million contract extension in June.
The six-year veteran said that the team “didn’t have time to process” the trade before Sunday’s road game, however, the fallout was inexcusable.
“We miss him [Finney-Smith], but it was on everybody out there,” Claxton said when asked about Fernandez’s leadership concerns. “It wasn’t like we stopped talking to each other or turned against each other. No, we just smoked the game and we can’t let that happen.
“He brought a lot to us. Being a leader for us. Being vocal. Always just having the energy, having a good vibe about him. We just gotta keep rolling. Keep rolling.”
Second-year forward Noah Clowney started in Finney-Smith’s spot Sunday.
Clowney finished with 13 points, including going 3-for-5 from beyond the arc, but the lack of team leadership and responsibility was more than enough to cloud the 20-year-old’s effort.
“This is a tough one. It hurts,” Fernandez said. “It hurts me because I just don’t ever want my team to look like this. You’re going to lose some in the last second, I’m OK with it. But, right here, I’m just very disappointed with the effort and the focus.”