Before the season started, I thought the depth of the Nets bench was going to be the team’s strongest asset. Veterans like Rafer Alston, Keyon Dooling and Jarvis Hayes would provide shooting and leadership, while big men like Josh Boone, Tony Battie and a healthier Eduardo Najera were hypothetically going to provide a little grit and toughness, especially on the defensive end. And rookie Terrence Williams was potentially a jack-of-all-trades player who could fill a stat-sheet in a number of categories.
But a funny thing happened. A bunch of injuries to the team’s starters forced guys like Alston, Boone and TWill into bigger roles than expected, exposing them as below average, bordering on awful rotation players. Injuries to Dooling, Hayes and Battie kept them out of action for prolonged periods. And Eduardo Najera looked to be all but finished in the NBA. A perceived strength was now the team’s biggest weakness.
In a recent post, Sebastian mentioned that the Nets may have one of the weakest 6-12 guys in the league, referring to the bench, but through a series of roster moves and health upgrades, I’m starting to see positive signs with the bench again.
The Nets are back to competing, and in my opinion that is a good thing. I know, the wins aren’t coming, but when you lose 44 of 48 games, you take what positives you can. The biggest reason why the Nets are competing is because there seems to be some stability in New Jersey. What do I mean by stability? Well, they have finally found a nice pace to play at (somewhere in the 92-95 possessions per game range), and they are selectively running now which is what this team can be very good at (27 fast break points tonight). What I mean by selectively running is when the opportunity is there, take it, but if it isn’t there slow it down. In the first 20 or so games of the Kiki era, he was forcing the Nets to run at any chance they get. The Nets aren’t good enough offensively to do that, and Kiki finally made the correct change.
The Nets are also becoming more stable when it comes to the rotation. Remember when guys like Hayes and T-Will had their minutes fluctuating like crazy? They would play 20 minutes one game then 5 the next. Now everyone is getting consistent minutes, and that makes things easier for the players. As an example, when Terrence Williams was getting limited minutes, he was going out there and forcing things. This is because he didn’t know when he was getting pulled, so he would try to make the most of his minutes, and that caused him to press. Now that he is getting 20 minutes on a regular basis (along with guys like CDR and Humphries), they can let the game come to them, knowing they will have numerous games to effect the game positively. This was proven tonight as the bench looked comfortable out there, and everyone who entered the game off the bench for the Nets had a positive +/-.
As for what the Raptors did to win last night, they hit the three ball. They were 10-19 from deep. The three point shot was a real problem for the Nets in the beginning of the year, but over the past couple of weeks, they have done a very good job defending the three point line. Maybe it was the teams they were playing (The Clippers, Sixers, Wizards, and Pistons don’t light it up from deep), but it was disappointing to see, and I think it cost the team the game. Some more thoughts after the jump.
It’s like a vicious cycle for Devin Harris and the Nets, according to John Schumann: The Nets are as bad as they are because Harris hasn’t been playing well, and Harris hasn’t been playing well because the Nets are as bad as they are.
NJ Gov. Chris Christie is not talking about whether or not the state would enforce a $7.5 million penalty if the Nets jumped the Izod Center for the Prudential Center in Newark.
And…. holy crap that’s Vanilla Ice performing at halftime last night:
