Shannon Sharpe was one of many to be disappointed with the way Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, and the Nets were blown out in their season opener.
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The Brooklyn Nets had a disastrous start to their 2022-2023 campaign. Kevin Durant and co. hosted a Brandon Ingram-led New Orleans Pelicans, and let the young team walk all over them. After the conclusion of 48 minutes of NOLA’s dominance, Steve Nash’s boys took a huge 130-108 loss in their season opener.
With the majority of the players being silent, KD carried most of the load on the offensive end. The Durantula managed to score 32 points on a 52.4/33.3/88.9 shooting split. Shockingly, the 6-foot-10 forward finished the contest with a horrific box plus-minus of -23.
While there were several analysts who appreciated Durant for going on a scoring rampage, Shannon Sharpe criticized the 12-time All-Star. On a recent episode of “UNDISPUTED”, Sharpe attacked Kevin for playing late in the game even when the NY-based franchise was getting blown out. Ripping apart the unicorn for chasing stats, the 54-year-old analyst said:
“(KD) had 32 meaningless points. They were getting blown out the entire game, I don’t know why he came back in the ball game. Played until 4 minutes and 30 seconds in the game and they were getting blown out,” Shannon Sharpe said.
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Ben Simmons picked up where he left off against the Hawks”: Shannon Sharpe
There is no denying that Ben Simmons had an underwhelming debut for the Nets. Playing meaningful basketball after nearly 500 days, the Aussie star had a horrific performance.
In the 23:10 minutes of action Simmons witnessed, he only managed to record 4 points, while turning the ball over 3 times, before getting fouled out in the fourth period.
In the same segment, Shannon went on to berate the 26-year-old. Stating that Simmons had an extremely subpar outing, the analyst further attacked the former #1 pick:
“Ben Simmons is looking exactly like he did last time we saw him. Skip, I’m gonna say the defensive end has a lot to do with him being tired. It’s been well over a year since he last played meaningful basketball. Last night, on the offensive end, he picked up where he left off against the Hawks.
All of his shots came from in the paint and it wasn’t a very good debut for him. That’s not what the Brooklyn Nets fans had anticipated or hoped for. I can assure you that’s not what his teammates was hoping that he would put up on paper.”
Shannon Sharpe calls the Nets a “defensively challenged team”
Sharpe was not done just yet. He went on to talk about the Nets’ offensive-centric style of play, and how it would fail even if one of the megastars had an off-night.
“It’s going to be tough for them. Look, it’s one game and I know Kyrie didn’t have it going last night but their offense is their defense. They try to put so much pressure on you by scoring the basketball but this is a defensively challenged team.
They don’t have anybody with size and girth, they’re thing is offensively, ‘let’s put the ball in the hoop at an elite level and see if someone can keep up with us’. But if they can’t, on a given night, one of those guys struggles scoring the basketball, they’re gonna be in a heap of trouble because the other team is gonna be able to get what they want, when they want, and how they want.”
Sure, this was only the first out of a long 82-game season. However, from the initial glimpses, the Nets really need their role players to support their leaders, both defensively and offensively, in order to compete for the championship.
Also Read: Ben Simmons Addresses Getting Fouled Out Amid Guarding Zion Williamson
