Since the return of Yi, the Nets have had a stable starting lineup (with the exception of the last game – Devin’s wrist injury), but let’s face it. The lineup we have on the court isn’t working right now, and I think that a switch in the starting lineup is well overdue. In my opinion, there are two players you can consider moving to the bench and have them be the new sixth man. Those two players are Yi and Chris Douglas-Roberts. This is because these are the two guys that are “struggling” the most right now. So how are we going to analyze this? Well, in the book Mathletics (a book I highly recommend), Wayne Winston dedicates an entire chapter to analyzing lineups, and we are going to use some of the techniques he uses to see which lineup the Nets should start with.
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Before the season began, NAS polled some team beat writers and bloggers for some predictions about the Nets. Participating were Dave D’Alessandro of the Star-Ledger, Al Iannazzone, from the Bergen Record, Julian Garcia from the Daily News, Rory Toohey from Slippery When Nets, Gregory Hrinya from Nets Examiner, Henry Abbott from ESPN’s TrueHoop and Kelly Dwyer from Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie. Since we’re now about halfway through the season, I thought it would be a good time to check in on these predictions, to get a sense of where our heads were in October, versus where they should be now.
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Kelly Dwyer of Ball Don’t Lie takes another look at the Kidd-Devin Harris trade: The premise, the ideology, was correct. The Nets won the trade that sent Jason Kidd(notes) to Dallas. They acquired a very good, borderline All-Star, point guard. The enjoyed some payroll relief and pulled in two first-round draft picks. Jason Kidd won’t be playing in a few years, Devin Harris(notes) will be. And he’ll be playing well. They won the deal. Without actually winning anything, though. They won the ideology battle but lost the basketball war. Because after turning in a near All-Star campaign last season, Devin Harris decided to take 2009-10 off.
Dwyer also pegs Brook Lopez as an Eastern Conference All-Star.
Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com profiles Yi Jianlian and his success on the offensive end this season.
If the Nets want Amare Stoudamire, Julian Garcia speculates what the Suns want: The Suns are said to be looking for a combination of young players, draft picks and salary relief, all of which the Nets could provide.
