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Sean Kilpatrick is the Brooklyn Nets‘ best wing scorer, but a midseason shooting slump is making life even harder for both him and the team.
Life in the NBA can change in the blink of an eye. The pace of the game is so quick, the coaches are so knowledgeable, all it can take is a slight adjustment to slow a player. Two-week hot streaks can turn into a months-long slumps, just like that.
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One player learning that lesson the hard way this season is Sean Kilpatrick. The Nets’ dynamic shooting guard is having, by far, the best season of his career. Still, he has struggled mightily in recent weeks. He has yet to record a 20-point game in the new year, and is shooting a disappointing 36 percent on the month.
The extended shooting slump has made life difficult for head coach Kenny Atkinson. Kilpatrick, who has made 50 percent of his shots in a game just twice in January, brings so little defensively that Atkinson has had a tough time giving him minutes when he isn’t scoring. His -2.33 Defensive Real Plus Minus ranks near the bottom of the league’s shooting guards, according to ESPN.com. He played just 15 minutes in the Nets’ disastrous loss to Miami on Wednesday night.
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A recent uptick in turnovers is further compounding those shooting struggles. Kilpatrick has turned the ball over 21 times in the team’s first 12 games of 2017. This Nets team, which struggles to score to begin with, must limit turnovers at all costs.
To be fair, this kind of regression from Kilpatrick should have been expected all along. His 20-point quarter in a November game against the Clippers remains one of the more memorable highlights of this Nets season, but there are only so many times you can do that against a team.
Teams have started to shade their defenses closer to Kilpatrick now, taking an extra half step towards him on the catch and collapsing harder to his drives to the goal. Multi-turnover games, like the five against Philadelphia and four against New Orleans become even more likely when that happens.
The defense is a more pressing issue. Kilpatrick must work to improve in that area if he wants to get to the next level as a player, and the Nets have challenged him to do so. He’s likely too undersized to ever become a lockdown defender, but an increased effort and attention to detail might be enough to improve and earn more minutes.
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Through the first half of the season, Kilpatrick has emerged as an interesting bellwether for the Nets. He’s averaging 22.5 points per game in the team’s eight wins, but just 12 points in the team’s 36 losses. There is probably some noise in those numbers, perhaps more than usual given the Nets’ dreadful record, but no other player on the roster fluctuates as heavily.
For Kilpatrick, just like the rest of the roster, resilience will be incredibly important in the second half of the season. He has to refrain from pressing too much and instead simply take what the defense gives him. Focus on the little things defensively, spot up on easier, momentum-swinging corner threes and remain patient.
This is a player who went un-drafted and has already overcome tremendous adversity to earn a spot in the NBA. He’s already proven many of his doubters wrong. Nets fans should be excited to watch him try to do it again.
