Comments on: Do the Nets Need a Heart Transplant?

By: NetsAreScorching – New Jersey Nets Blog – Nets News, Rumors, Analysis, Podcasts, Salaries, & Statistics » Blog Archive » The Intensity of Chris Douglas-Roberts

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:49:56 +0000

[...] losing has led to some really eye-opening post-game quotes this season. Remember, it was CDR who challenged his teammates after a humiliating blowout loss to Washington to foul harder and to “protect each [...]

By: Shea23

Shea23 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:51:26 +0000

I knew somone was going to pick at that comment. True Harris didn’t defend well last year. I kind see that as a predictable thing since he had to be a hustle player to get his playing time in dallas because the team had so much talent. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Devin started untill the western confrence against SA when he destroyed TP with his D. So unless I’m wrong (again I don’t remember if it was that specifc series I know he didn’t start before the playoffs) it was Harris’ D that got him his starting job. So yeah in dallas he did what he could to play. I feel like he’s not going to be as avoided when he’s gone from fighting to his time to the go to scorer that offense is being rebuilt for. I think he embraced his new role as the offensive force and somewhere in there the focus on D is gone. Probably also due to the excitment of having a break out season and seeing what he could do on offense. The good news is we know that he is capble of being a good defender and not in the he has the potential to be or he was a great defender in college but we’ll have to see how he pans out in the pros king of way like T Will (not a gid I’m really liking the guy and I think he’ll be a great defender) we have actually seen Harris play great defense against the elite offensive point guards in the game. We know he can do it its just a question of desire and if he can do it while giving us the scoring we need. If Devin was to play to how he played D in big D (pun much) before esp beacause how old he is Rafer wouldn’t be a fraction of the defender Devin is. But that not the case right now. So yeah the good news is we know Devin can play D and he’s been talking about it a lot over the last few months so we’ll just have wait and see how ti goes now that he’s not all caught up in his breakout season like last year. Sorry was a lot longer than I intended.

By: dunbladekilla

dunbladekilla — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:00:13 +0000

correction on last line: “I just want to see” not “I just don’t want to see”

By: dunbladekilla

dunbladekilla — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:58:32 +0000

I just have to LOL at Alston not being “a fraction of the defender of Harris”. Devin Harris was a very good defender in Dallas. He has been a turnstyle in New Jersey. The reality is Harris was a fraction of the defender Alston was last year. If you watched the Nets and Magic last year it was plain to see. I’ll give Harris a pass so far this year, because a groin injury will hamper your defense, but it looks like more of the same so far this year.

Hopefully Harris can learn to defend again at some point… but it doesn’t help that people like Matt are still giving Harris props defensively when he hasn’t defended well since his Dallas days. He doesn’t have to be elite, as he has way more scoring responsibilities on this team…. I just don’t want to see him to get back to the level of atleast decent defender.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:54:49 +0000

Alston is uncoachable, IMHO. He always takes risks – always has, always will, and the only way to hide it is if you have, say, Dwight Howard guarding the rim. Lopez is good, and edging toward great, but he’s not Howard.

As for the young guys… they’re young. I’m not the biggest LFrank fan in the world, but you’ve gotta expect some amount of stupid mistakes from guys who are just now becoming NBA regulars.

So I say patience. If this is still a problem come January,* then it may be time to consider a shake-up.

*And the thing is, you can wait til January and still have a shot at making the playoffs because the bottom 2/3s of the conference is awful.

By: Mark Ginocchio

Mark Ginocchio — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:30:50 +0000

Very true Matt – I think it was very clear from the first two games that Devin wasn’t good to go out there. He looked sluggish on defense and lacked his usual explosiveness on offense – all signs of an injury that would affect his mobility.

Still, even with a healthy Devin, there are just some coachable things the Nets still don’t do on defense. Are the players uncoachable or are the coaches not coaching? That’s the big issue for me.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:19:41 +0000

I think it all comes back to Harris’s injury. He’s the guy who makes the team go on both ends of the floor, and without him they don’t have an alpha dog. Alston may want to play the role, but he’s still a “go my own way” guy at heart and isn’t a fraction of the defender Harris is.

So yeah, at this point the story is “Team’s best player injured; Play suffers as a result.” Predictable stuff, and frustrating because it has such an impact mentally as well as physically. But that’s the way things go with young teams in the league.

The good news is there’s real potential for the Nets to be this year’s version of the pre-Big Al injury T-Wolves of last year. If Harris comes back healthy, if Lopez keeps developing, if Lee starts hitting his 3s…

And if all of that doesn’t happen, you still end up with a lottery pick and $25 million of cap room. Grey clouds, silver linings and all that.