NBA Nets’ Mikal Bridges on makeup of the roster: ‘a lot of depth out there’
The roster of the Brooklyn Nets has changed a lot over the past year as the team has moved on to a different kind of team after the trades of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant ended the superstar era. Players like guard Mikal Bridges have flourished in the meantime because of the amount of responsibility that is being placed on him and some of the more talented players on the squad.
One thing that Bridges pointed out after Wednesday’s 109-105 win over the Miami Heat was that the Nets have a lot of depth on the roster. For more context, even though the starters eventually brought home the comeback from a 16-point deficit, four of the five players that came off the bench for Brooklyn had a plus/minus of +15 or higher.
Lonnie Walker IV (17 points) and Day’Ron Sharpe (five points and seven rebounds in 13 minutes) came off the bench as usual and both of them had solid performances. What made the comeback possible was the contributions of Trendon Watford and Armoni Brooks, two players who were making their debuts for the Nets this season.
Watford had 11 points, four rebounds, and four assists in 14 minutes while Brooks scored 17 points 16 minutes to combine for a +49 in the plus/minus metric, showing how important both of those players were in the win. Here’s what Bridges had to say about the overall depth of the team:
“Just got a lot of lineups. Put Doe (Dorian Finney-Smith) at the five… Doe being in a drop like I think that stuff goes unnoticed with him, especially in that Charlotte game. He’s guarding Mark Williams and he’s in a drop. He plays the drop better than most bigs in the league and he don’t play the drop. So, just having guys be able to guard all different positions helps us with just a lot of depth out there.”
