B/R gives awards to Nets’ Mikal Bridges, Nic Claxton, and Cam Thomas
The Brooklyn Nets have had an interesting 2022-2023 NBA season to say the least. Despite the direction of the franchise changing seemingly in a matter of days at the trade deadline in February. Despite Brooklyn losing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks, respectively, the team still has some players worth recognizing, according to Bleacher Report.
B/R recently gave a shoutout to Mikal Bridges, Nic Claxton, and Cam Thomas for what they bring to the team. For Bridges, he has been everything that the Nets could’ve hoped for and more since he came to Brooklyn in the Kevin Durant trade.
Claxton has been a stud for the entire season even with all of the roster changes that came in February. He will most likely be a candidate for Most Improved Player and Defensive Player of the Year. Thomas has had an uneven season as his role has been ever-changing depending on injuries and things of that nature. However, it’s clear that Thomas is one of the more talented scorers on the team. Here’s what B/R had to say about each player:
MVP/Biggest Surprise: Mikal Bridges
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“Defensively, Bridges hasn’t been as dominant as he was in Phoenix when his offensive role was so much less taxing. The Nets will take the tradeoff because now they have a top-flight two-way wing averaging over 27.0 points per game while flirting with a 50/40/90 shooing split—a player so good they reportedly turned down offers of four first-round picks for him.”
Defensive Player of the Year: Nic Claxton
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“Claxton’s leap this season would have warranted much more attention if not for Bridges’ bigger jump. His plus-2.1 DEPM is sixth among full-time centers, and he ranks sixth in the NBA in ESPN’s DRPM. An elite rim-protector averaging 2.5 blocks per game who can also stay in front of the quickest ball-handlers in the league? Yeah, that’ll be good enough to win a team DPOY award.”
Instant Bucket: Cam Thomas
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“Thomas’ record-setting string of three straight 40-point games was easily the high point of his sophomore season. With Kyrie Irving dealt to Dallas and Kevin Durant nursing an injury, Thomas took it upon himself to pick up the scoring slack and succeeded to a greater degree than anyone could have expected. And that’s saying something because Thomas’ bucket-getting prowess has been obvious since he became the all-time leading scorer at Oak Hill Academy, where renowned scorers Carmelo Anthony and Jerry Stackhouse once played.”
