2022-23 Brooklyn Nets player grades: Royce O’Neale
The 2022-23 season was an interesting one for the Brooklyn Nets. In a season that started with championship expectations, the Nets’ season ended with just trying to hold on to a playoff spot after trading away Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to end the superstar experiment once and for all.
At one point, Brooklyn was regarded as one of the main contenders in the Eastern Conference with Durant and Irving leading the way. Once the trade deadline came and went, the Nets had a completely different team led by budding star wing Mikal Bridges.
Not to mention, Brooklyn went through a coaching change after Steve Nash was fired following a 2-5 start to this season. Jacque Vaughn is now the head man of a team that is currently in flux thanks to the trades of Durant and Irving. While the offseason is still fresh, it’s a good time to review all of the Nets who played this season starting with: forward Dorian Finney-Smith.
(All stats are courtesy of basketball-reference.com).
Traditional Stats:
8.8 PPG
5.1 RPG
3.7 APG
0.9 SPG
0.6 BPG
38.6 FG%
38.9 3P%
72.5 FT%
Advanced Stats:
9.2 PER
53.8 TS%
13.6 USG%
2.9 WS (0.4 OWS and 2.5 DWS)
-1.1 BPM (-1.7 OBPM and 0.6 DBPM)
0.5 VORP
Statistical Ranks:
166th in the NBA in PPG
76th in RPG
64th in APG
Contract:
2023-24: $9.5 million
Takeaways:
O’Neale came to the Nets via a trade last summer in which Brooklyn gave the Utah Jazz a 2023 first-round pick in exchange for the sharpshooting forward. The 6’4″, 226 LB forward from Killeen, Texas started every game for the Nets until the trade deadline brought in four new starters.
For the season, regardless of who was on the floor, O’Neale was a consistent source of shooting and brought some ball-handling to the floor as well. He had three games where he made five three-point shots and he had 11 games where he made four such shots.
As far as O’Neale’s passing ability is concerned, he brought that as the hidden element that made Brooklyn more of a dangerous offense, especially during the time when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were on the team. O’Neale had one game this past season where he passed for 11 assists and amassed eight assists on five other occasions.
O’Neale has one more year on his contract, but given his shooting and defensive versatility, he will most likely be around next season for the Nets. However, Brooklyn does have a surplus of wings on the team so he may be involved in a trade if the team is able to bring some guards back to Brooklyn.
