Iman Shumpert Brooklyn Nets Veterans President, Will Defend, But Can He Spread A Full Shield Circuit?

You won’t see many people around Brooklyn Nets last season complaining about Iman Shumpert’s 13-game cameo with the team last season, even though his stats weren’t as good.

General Manager Sean Marks, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving have to agree as the team reportedly agreed to sign the 30-year-old veterans shield to fill one of the Nets’ two open roster spots.

In 13 games this season with Brooklyn, Shumpert averaged just 4.2 points and 2.6 rebounds per game in 18.5 minutes per tournament. But the Nets were 9-4 when he played last season, partly helping them make the playoffs despite being released on December 12, 2019 to make way for Wilson Chandler who was return.

This may be obvious but I’ll say it anyway: The nets don’t need a Shumpert for a score. Brooklyn’s offensive rating was a whopping 99.8 when he was on the floor last season, according to Basketball-Reference, but if he’s on the court with a mix of Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving , scoring will not be a problem for this team. This is Brooklyn ‘s 108.9 defense level when Shumpert was on the court that seemed to be of interest to the Marks last quarter.

That’s an improvement from the Nets ’current 112.3 defense rating, which ranks 23rd which isn’t good enough in the NBA. But head coach Steve Nash has only played six more than 20 minutes per game so far this season, the big three previously announced alongside Joe Harris, DeAndre Jordan and Jeff Green. The other three are Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Landry Shamet and Bruce Brown with minutes per game in the senior teens. And Brown doesn’t even have large property numbers per 100 right now.

Maybe it’s this area where Shumpert can snatch a few minutes from Shamet, Brown and TLC or maybe the 10-year-old veteran is just there as another group. But I feel Shumpert gets his chances to prove his worth and help this Nets team on the defensive end, where they can certainly use the help.