It only took Shabazz Napier 15 minutes of playing time to rack up 10 assists, a total that is way higher than any single-game total that D’Angelo Russell had this series. If Russell really wanted assists he could just ask to play with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (Napier’s last 7 dimes went to him), but it’s still some sort of indictment on how he played this series. He took tons of shots, just tons of them, most of them were pretty iffy in the “quality” department, and he didn’t run the offense well even when he wasn’t chucking. Just like Nikola Vucevic in Orlando (though not quite as bad, damn, Vooch got dominated by Marc Gasol), this All-Star with no playoff resume found out that defense in the playoffs actually does get significantly more intense.
Which is part of the reason Napier was able to put up such a nice statline in such a short amount of time; the 76ers had long since abandoned the idea of playing meaningful defense. This game entered garbage time almost as soon as it began, and if Brett Brown ever felt like things were getting out of hand (like if his team was no longer doubling up the Nets), he could just put in the starters again to rebuild the cushion. Napier came into the game in the second half, found that no one was going to stop him from running a successful pick-and-roll with RHJ, so he spammed the play and got some stats.
This is the kind of game that makes the Nets want to pick up his cheapo option next year, so this is good timing for him. He’s getting paid almost 2 million dollars a season if the Nets choose to keep him around, and I can’t even tell if that’s an overpay or an underpay. If he were a free agent, would some team give him more? Would they watch this video and decide that they want a guy like this for like 4 million a year?