Lichtenstein: Promising Hollis-Jefferson Taking Step Back This Season

By Steve Lichtenstein
» More Columns

'Tis the season where Nets fans have to fabricate reasons to watch this team.

Everyone knew this was going to be a lost cause going in. Even general manager Sean Marks didn't bother to sugarcoat his predicament when speaking with WFAN's Evan Roberts on Tuesday.

The Nets have not disappointed the prognosticators, losing 20 of their first 27 games, including their last three in a row. No one would notice if the league already posted their next two contests -- a back-to-back featuring visiting Golden State on Thursday and at Cleveland on Friday -- in Brooklyn's "L" column as well.

If any promises were made by Nets management in advance of this debacle, it was that we would see improvement from the development of young players under rookie coach Kenny Atkinson.

One such player is Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, the energetic 21-year-old who is in his second season in Brooklyn following his 2015 draft day acquisition from Portland in exchange for center Mason Plumlee.

Hollis-Jefferson almost immediately became a fan favorite with his game-changing efforts on the defensive end (only because it took former coach Lionel Hollins some time to realize what he had).

Though he couldn't shoot straight, Hollis-Jefferson seemed to be everywhere, a deflection here, a close-out there. He filled the stat sheet with steals, blocked shots, and rebounds.

Originally, I thought maybe he stood out only because the rest of the team was so rotten defensively. However, he passed both the advanced metrics and the eye tests. The Nets yielded 98.9 points per 100 possessions when Hollis-Jefferson was on the floor in his first 19 games through Dec. 4 and a ghastly 106.2 points when he sat.

Unfortunately, Hollis-Jefferson fractured a bone in his right ankle in a subsequent practice and missed the next 50 games.

He hasn't been the same since.

I give Hollis-Jefferson a mulligan for those final 10 games last season, when virtually the entire team was just going through the motions.

Going into this season, however, I expected a bit of a leap. Reportedly healthy all summer, Hollis-Jefferson allegedly refined his perimeter shooting.

Instead, the hitch in his jumper is still conspicuous, like a next-level version of Charlotte's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Hollis-Jefferson's shooting numbers have dropped precipitously -- 38.5 percent (including 25 percent from 3-point range) in his 24 games this season versus 45.7 percent (28.6 percent from downtown) in 2015-16.

I'm not sure if Hollis-Jefferson will ever fit in with Atkinson's pace-and-space schemes. Hollis-Jefferson is a slasher, but he is now receiving the ball more often behind the 3-point line, where his inefficiency allows defenders to lay off him. That also makes his drives to the hoop about 10 feet longer than they used to be, which in turn gives help defenders extra time to step up and contest his shots.

As a result, we've witnessed Hollis-Jefferson make a plethora of wild forays to the rim that concluded with some of the ugliest hurls towards the basket you'll ever see. He has made some, of course, due to his abundant athleticism, but overall Hollis-Jefferson is shooting just 41.5 percent in the restricted area this season as compared to 53.7 percent last season.

Some will point to Hollis-Jefferson's 19 points in 20 minutes of the Nets' 116-104 defeat in Toronto on Tuesday as a positive sign. As I've noted previously, the first rule in evaluating players is to be wary of big stats on bad teams.

When he lets the game come to him, Hollis-Jefferson can be effective. Six of his eight field goals on Tuesday were assisted. However, he too often tried to force the issue. Hence, he was only 2-for-5 on layups.

Even worse, Hollis-Jefferson's moneymaker -- his defense -- has also been much less impactful this season. Again, I will point an accusatory finger toward Atkinson, who has seemed to go out of his way to present Hollis-Jefferson with the worst of matchups.

Atkinson of late has been trying Hollis-Jefferson out as a "stretch-four" to both minimize the spacing issue that stemmed from having a poor-shooting wing on the floor and simultaneously solve the team's current glut at the position with rookie Caris LeVert now healthy. The problem is Hollis-Jefferson, who is listed at 6-foot-7 and 214 pounds, does not have the size to deal with bulkier opponents inside, nor to act as a deterrent at the rim.

Earlier in the season, Atkinson put Hollis-Jefferson on All Star point guards Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. Granted, with the point guard category in the Nets' depth chart blank at the time, anyone Atkinson chose would have struggled. Still, having Hollis-Jefferson waste his energy chasing point guards who zoomed past him presented the Nets with extra and unnecessary mismatches.

Against the Raptors, there were sequences where Hollis-Jefferson took on Kyle Lowry, another All-Star point guard, while others such as 6-6 Joe Harris were left to attend to 7-foot center Jonas Valanciunas. The outcomes were predictable.

The Nets are surrendering 109.1 points per 100 possessions with and without Hollis-Jefferson on the court this season. His offensive rating is 2.3 points per 100 possessions worse than the team's as a whole. In a little over a minute more per game in court time compared to last season, none of his defensive per-game statistics have seen an uptick.

Where is the improvement?

I know they were small moments, but I miss the anticipation from the beginning of last season when I could only imagine what Hollis-Jefferson would do next. We've seen glimpses, such as when he hounded Knicks star Carmelo Anthony into a horrid shooting night (before Anthony went off when Hollis-Jefferson was replaced by Bojan Bogdanovic).

Unfortunately, I've spent most of the games this season wondering what on Earth Hollis-Jefferson is doing. Or, more to the point, what are the Nets doing to Hollis-Jefferson?

For a FAN's perspective of the Nets, Jets and the NHL, follow Steve on Twitter @SteveLichtenst1