Leadership comes in many forms and, for Brooklyn Nets rising star Mikal Bridges, it took the form of public support this time. The NBA released its selections for the 2023 KIA NBA All-Defensive Teams on May 9.
Unfortunately, it did not include any Nets including big man Nic Claxton who is coming off a career year leading the league in field goal percentage and, more importantly, second in blocks during the regular season. Still, he finished third in the voting behind Brook Lopez of the Milwaukee Bucks and Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat much to the chagrin of Bridges.
“No Clax and [Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden] Mcdaniels is crazy,” Bridges tweeted.
He also protested the absence of New Orleans Pelicans swingman Herb Jones and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort.
Voting results for the 2022-23 Kia NBA All-Defensive Team ⬇️
Complete voting results available here: t.co/GC585WosCJ
Bridges did not just lay out the issues or look to take anyone off. Instead, he offered the potential solution of adding a third team like the league has for All-NBA selections. Both All-Defense and All-Rookie honors run two teams deep.
There is some positional flexibility in All-NBA voting – allowing for players to be classified as frontcourt players rather than as a center or forward – that All-Defensive voting does not.
It will soon be positionless under the new CBA.
Players are awarded two points for every first-place vote they receive and one point for every second-place vote. Claxton finished with 25 second-place votes while Adebayo had 27 plus 13 first-place votes. Lopez racked up a whopping 85 first-place votes and bolstered that advantage with 11 second-place votes.
Bridges garnered six first-place votes and 21 second-place votes but also failed to make either team despite being widely regarded as one of the best perimeter defenders in the game. His reaction to Claxton’s snub lines up with sentiments expressed by general manager Sean Marks.
Claxton also received seven third-place votes for Defensive Player of the Year adding 12.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game to his 2.5 blocks.
“I think this year I kind of kicked the door down,” Claxton said during his exit interview on April 23 via the Nets’ YouTube channel. “Just showed everybody that I’m here. Kind of put my name on the map. But now it’s just about consistency and just taking it to another level…I mean my expectations they do go up and you know I’m expecting a lot out of myself. But at the end of the day, that’s when you just get in the gym and just put the work in and all that stuff. It always takes care of itself.”
Despite Claxton’s gains in the stat sheet, the Nets still ranked 29th in rebounding and he was no match for MVP Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers during their first-round showdown.
Mikal Bridges Reacts to Noise Surrounding NBA Playoffs
Bridges, who is fairly active on Twitter normally, was no different on Tuesday first calling into question a theory from ESPN’s Mike Greenberg explaining why the higher-seeded New York Knicks are struggling with the eight-seeded Miami Heat in their Eastern Conference Semi-Finals matchup.
Miami is up 3-1 in the series, making an improbable run after winning two games in the Play-In Tournament to get there. After that, Bridges turned to the recent push to remove charge calls from the NBA rules.
“When did ppl start crying about charges ?? Just wondering,” he tweeted.
Of course, it was a rhetorical question as evidenced by Bridges’ response to a fan who answered his question.
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Nets’ Mikal Bridges Sends Message About Nic Claxton: ‘Crazy’