Nets Are Scorching

Kelly Dwyer over at Ball Don’t Lie has put together a  Top 10 list regarding the biggest draft busts of the past decade. The good news is, no one the Nets drafted made the cut unless you count the “entire 2000 draft” entry at #2 (though it doesn’t seem like Dwyer is lumping Nets #1 pick Kenyon Martin in that entry). The bad news is a player who is expected to play a key role in the upcoming Nets season made the cut – Yi Jianlian who was taken sixth overall by the Bucks in 2007 and was ranked #10 in Dwyer’s list.

Naturally, now that Yi is a Net, I’m going to get a bit defensive about his inclusion. While the list includes a number of players who have had adequate time to prove themselves as busts, including three top three picks in Adam Morrison (3^rd pick, 2006), Darko Milicic (2^nd pick, 2003) and Kwame Brown (1^st pick, 2001), I find it difficult to believe that Yi should be considered a bust after two seasons in which he battled injuries throughout.

Dwyer writes of Yi:

He makes the fringe of this list merely because he’s still in the league, but after two full seasons in Milwaukee and New Jersey, it’s pretty clear what Yi is all about. And it ain’t unrealized potential.

Again, it’s been two seasons. The guy was averaging 10 and 6 and shooting about 39% from behind the arc before injuring his pinky finger last season. No, those are not “the next Dirk” numbers, but they’re hardly bust-worthy. The end of the season was a disappointment for sure, and I would have been fine if Thorn was able to move Yi in the off-season for something worthwhile, but I think the phrase “bust” is used a little too loosely here.

Fortunately, as we’ve discussed here at NAS, Yi has bulked up and looked halfway decent in the FIBA Asia Championship this summer, so let’s see if Dwyer needs to revise the list next season.

In a recent blog post on his web-site, Vince Carter pens a rather sentimental piece about running a basketball camp in New Jersey despite being traded to the Orlando Magic earlier this summer. In the post, Vince says he’s still “a bit sad, surprised, and excited” about his new location before heaping praise on the Nets organization and its current batch of players, who he still considers friends and wants to see succeed. It was a classy post from a guy who seemed to really enjoy his time in New Jersey.

I wish I could say the feeling was mutual. As a Nets fan, I was never able to fully embrace Vince Carter ever since he was acquired in 2004. I always saw him as a player who would perennially underachieve given his talent. Someone who could get you to the playoffs, but disappear in the critical junctures of a game. Someone who filled a stat sheet. The Alex Rodriguez of basketball for those of you who follow baseball (though I tend to think some of the criticism A-Rod gets about his play on the field is unwarranted). I didn’t even need to read about how Carter didn’t give his all towards the end of his tenure in Toronto, despite the fact that he was heralded as a conquering hero in Raptor-land in the early 2000s. I think that was plainly obvious to anyone watching the 2003-04 version of Vince Carter, compared with the 1999-2000 Vince Carter.

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To piggyback on Sebastian’s post yesterday, is this not-so-subtle dig coming from the same franchise that threatened to move their team to Nashville after winning the Stanley Cup in 1995? Look, I know you run the risk of being knocked loopy when you play hockey, but I figured the front office/marketing folks would have a better grasp of their own history before deciding to come across like a bunch of Lindsay Lohan-esque mean girls.

For starters, in terms of distance, it’s not like Brooklyn is on the other side of the globe. I work with plenty of people who live in New Jersey and commute into lower Manhattan every day. I’ve gone to bars on the Lower East Side that have been invaded by the Garden State (and to be fair, Long Islanders). It’s not like the Nets are threatening to move their team to Los Angeles. If you actually want to follow the Brooklyn Nets while still living in New Jersey, you should be able to with no problem and you might even get the chance to go to a game in a new, state-of-the-art arena. How awful.

And like Sebastian said, it’s not like the state of New Jersey hasn’t had ample opportunity to embrace the Nets. As a New Yorker, the Izod Center isn’t the most accessible arena in the world, but that hasn’t stopped New Yorkers and New Jerseyians from packing Giants Stadium for Jets and Giants games, which is part of the same sports complex.  You can’t not show up for games for years, and then all of sudden act betrayed by the thought of moving a train ride into NYC away.

I’m glad the Devils have so much Jersey-pride. But I do hope all of the Garden State folk out there who are given them a big “atta boy” remember that the Devils, at one point, were as disenchanted with Jersey as the Nets are now. He who lives in glass hockey rinks, shouldn’t throw pucks at the Nets.

See that billboard?  That billboard now towers over I-78 (Big thanks to reader Brian who pointing this out to me), and it is the latest in digs and cheapshots the Devils have hurled at the Nets.  I have no idea why the Devils continue to poke and prod at the Nets, but they seem to enjoy it.  Seriously, where were they all this time when the Giants and Jets call themselves the New York Jets and the New Yourk Giants.  Sure the Nets don’t have New Jersey on their jerseys, but the Giants and Jets don’t even acknowledge the Jets at all.  As a New Jersey resident, that pisses me off more than anything the Nets have done.  As for this latest dig the, is it clever?  Meh, not really.  Is it petty?  Sure.  To me, however, it just screams marketing ploy (notice the number to get your package plans is up there, almost as big as the words Jersey’s team), but you no what, it worked.  Everyone who follows sports in New Jersey seem to be talking about it, and this billboard has given the Ratner bashers the opportunity to get on their podium again.

The Star Ledger posted an editorial about the billboard this morning, and there they coined a name we are probably going to hear the rest of the year.  Nowhere Nets:

It’s the latest gotcha in an intramural feud with the Nets, who continue to commit silly personal fouls against the state while playing in a decaying — and competing — arena the Devils want closed. But motives aside, the Nets deserved the dig.

It’s not enough that the Nets keep insisting they’re moving to Brooklyn (call us when a shovel actually scratches the dirt over there), but now the Nets are removing “New Jersey” from their road uniforms for the upcoming basketball season.

Basically, they’re saying: “When we’re in New Jersey, we’d rather be in Brooklyn, and when we’re on the road, we don’t want anyone to know we’re still from New Jersey.”

So, while New Jersey pours millions of tax dollars into Izod Center to prop it up for the Nets, the NBA team repays the state with disrespect.

The Nets say they’re just, uh, regionalizing their brand. Hogwash. The team that draws fewer people than a planning board meeting (the Nets ranked 24th out of 30 NBA teams in total attendance last season) suddenly wants to market from horizon to horizon?

Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn also chimed in because they seem to hop on any anti-Nets bandwagon there is.  I love how whenever the tax dollars the Nets get from NJ get mentioned, they conveniently forget to mention all of the money that NJ makes off of the Nets.  I mean of course they won’t mention it, it weakens their point.  Also in the quoted section above, they mention the Nets low attendance and the fact that they would rather be in Brooklyn than NJ.  Don’t you think those two things go hand in hand?  Don’t you think if the Nets were selling out the Izod Center, or thought they could sell out arenas like the Prudential Center, they would stay?  I do.  But they can’t and they won’t which is why they are heading to Brooklyn.

I have said this before, I don’t really think this jersey thing is a big deal at all.  And before I go on, I feel like I have to give you guys my stance on this (as if you haven’t already figured it out).  I am from New Jersey.  I have been a diehard Nets fan my whole life.  I was a part of that whole stay in NJ movement at first, but then, then I realized the move to Brooklyn only makes sense business-wise and basketball wise.  As long as they keep the name the Nets, that is good enough for me.  Let’s keep this in perspective people, these are away jerseys.  They are removing the name off of away jerseys.  I think if New Jersey residents were going to be offended they should have been a long time ago.  In my opinion, they have no right to be indifferent for years and now feign outrage to drum up support for their causes (which is what I think these politicians are doing).  Plus, I actually think the red jerseys are nicer.

Eduardo Najera is apparently not going to be suiting up with Team Mexico in the FIBA America’s Championship this week because he was denied permission by the Nets.  Najera, should, however be healthy enough to play at the start of the NBA season.

Najera had sports hernia surgery back in March after only playing in 27 games last season. At the time, I was a big fan of the Najera signing, as I thought his defensive ability was a perfect compliment to an otherwise inexperienced roster.  Charley Rosen at Fox Sports recently listed Najera as one of the NBA’s most physical defenders – when healthy. And that’s always the catch with Eduardo it seems. On one hand, if keeping him out of the FIBA games is an attempt to keep Najera healthy and fresh for the start of the season, then I’m all for it. But I also hope this isn’t a sign of another injury-plagued season on the horizon.

Part 1 | Part 2

A quick refresher of where we are at.  Last week, I took us through the half-way point and with my predictions I have us going 16-26, on pace for 32 wins.  Will the Nets be able to continue or pass that pace?  Stay tuned after the jump, where we will know the Nets’ record after 60 games.

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Happy Sunday readers. Combing through the Sunday papers this morning and saw an interesting piece that’s relevant to the Nets and the future of the New Jersey sports landscape. The Star-Ledger’s Steve Politi launches his “inaugural” Jersey area “Top 25 Most Powerful Sports Brokers” list and obviously a lot of the picks tie-in to the Nets and their potential move to Brooklyn.

NJ state senate president Richard Codey comes in at #1 in this countdown.  Politi writes of Codey:

The future of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority is a major issue, and the future home for the Nets — either here, or in Brooklyn, or in a location yet to be determined — will finally be settled.

NJ Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek comes in at #3 with Politi noting that Vanderbeek will play an integral role in bringing an NBA franchise to the Prudential Center in Newark. And of course Nets owner Bruce Ratner makes the list at #6:

Influence doesn’t necessarily translate into likability, and if the Nets owner succeeds with his Brooklyn project, Jersey loses its NBA team. If he fails, he’ll have the power to sell the team to local investors or to a group that will try to move it again.

The move to Brooklyn for years has been a major political issue in New Jersey and New York, but with things seemingly coming to a head in the coming months, Nets fans should expect to read a lot of ink and hear a lot of political grandstanding from folks on all sides of the aisle. The financing for this project is still in doubt, and opposition is still strong and it’s all heading towards a December 31 deadline that many think will determine whether or not Brooklyn happens. And I’m all but certain that the status of this real estate deal will find a way to reflect itself on the product on the court, for better or worse. It’s going to be hard to be a Nets fan going forward without following the twists and turns of the proposed move to Brooklyn.

As someone who was first introduced to the Nets in the 1990s, I’ve retained some real fondness for the 1997-98 team. While only winning 43 games and getting swept away by the eventual NBA Champion Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs, the 97-98 group was just an entertaining group of players: Sam Cassell hitting big shot after big shot, Keith Van Horn when he was “the next Larry Bird,” Jayson Williams owning the boards, Kerry Kittles streaking down the court and lining up for a three. And that team was led by a young, intelligent coach coming off a great little run in the NCAA – you might have heard of him the past 24 hours – John Calipari.

When it comes to Nets lore, the 97-98 team probably gets lost in the shuffle. The Jason Kidd era showed how the Nets could be both fun and talented. Plus the following season was a disaster for the Nets. The 1999-2000 season was already shortened by the lockout, and when play resumed, a Nets team that had shown so much promise, nosedived. You got the sense that Calipari, who was about as energetic and wiry as they come, was starting to rub his players the wrong way. Jayson Williams, who would later tarnish his own legacy with other issues, was very candid about his dislike for Calipari. They started the season 3-17 and Cailpari was fired. It wasn’t until they exchanged Stephon Marbury for Jason Kidd that the Nets were a relevant part of the NBA again.

I guess that’s what Calipari does. While it may not be intentional, he now has a solid steak of coming to a team and giving the fans some hope before leaving behind a path of destruction. Yesterday, it was revealed that the NCAA was stripping the 2008 University of Memphis Tigers of its tournament victories for using an ineligible player, which is believed to be Derek Rose, now of the Chicago Bulls. That Memphis team (with current Net Chris Douglas-Roberts) made it to the championship game and was coached by Calipari.  Calipari was also coach of the 1996 University of Massachusetts Final Four team, which had to vacate its record because then-player Marcus Camby accepted gifts and money from an agent. Calipari was cleared of any wrong-doing, but all of this has to make you think why controversy always seems to be following a Calipari.

I will always have my memories of the 97-98 Nets team. I’ll always remember how they almost caught the Bulls napping in game one of their series, making, what was by all accounts, an invincible team, have to scratch and claw their way to a victory. I remember Slam Magazine putting Cassell, Van Horn, Williams, Kittles and Kendall Gill on the cover – marking the first time I ever purchased Slam. But when I go back and recall the Calipari era in New Jersey, I always get a bitter taste in my mouth. And it seems like now Memphis Tigers fans will now get the taste, when they look back at their own Calipari years.

Posted by Mark Ginocchio