Nets Are Scorching

Obviously, this is a New Jersey Nets blog, however, the NAS crew absolutely love the NBA in general. So, every week, Sebastian, Mark, Devin, and myself will answer questions regarding the L.

1) The NBA has a “super team” in Miami and Chris Paul is angling to be traded to join forces with an NBA superstar to form another power team.  Are these sort of teams good for the league?

Sebastian: I think with all of the talent in the league, seeing it happen to one team isn’t really a big deal.  I think there are enough good teams and individuals to prevent teams like the Heat from going for 65-70 wins.  With that being said, I am probably going to be sick of seeing the Heat on national television after like the first week of the season.

Mark: I’ve already been on the record as saying “no.” I’m a big fan of parity in sports and while I appreciate a team going out building a dynasty through the draft and smart trades, the idea that the NBA’s top players are colluding to play with each other is something I don’t think the league will ultimately be better for.

Devin: No. No, no, no. Before I launch into my anti-superpower tirade, I have to say that they probably make the league a lot of money, and in this instance we’re going to be privy to a lot of amazing basketball next year in Florida. They’ve got perhaps the best 1-2-3 punch in NBA history, and if CP3 goes to Orlando, we’ll have four of the top five players in the NBA (Paul, Howard, Wade, and LeBron) on two teams in the same state. Throw in Bosh, Rashard, and VC (if they don’t move him for Paul) and these battles are going to be akin to basketball warfare. They’ll be very, very fun to watch. That being said, I hate what this does for the league. As I mentioned in last week’s NORT, parity is dwindling and friendships are dominating. I don’t want NBA players to want to kill each other, or scream “F*** YOU, MAJERLE!” for no reason like Jordan did, but I would like some competitive pride. I just don’t see any when you’re conspiring to play with other superstars instead of pushing yourself to be better than them. I hope Oklahoma City wins the next four championships (the fifth, of course, to be won by New Jersey).

DV:I honestly don’t mind there being one super team in the league like the one Miami has.  I think how it all went down is sketchy, but if David Stern doesn’t have a problem with it (and he usually has a problem with everything), then I guess we need to move on.  I view the Heat like the New York Yankees in baseball at this point.  Love them or hate them, you’re going to watch and pay attention to them.  Ask yourself this question if you’re not a Miami Heat and/or LeBron James fan – do you want them to lose?  I mean, not just against your team, but lose as much as possible.  Or maybe in the first round of the playoffs when as the top seed in the east after they play the eighth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers?  Maybe you want them to lose in the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.  Well, the thing is, if you’re anticipating them losing in whatever manner, and the trio of LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh haven’t even played an NBA game together yet, you’re paying attention… and the NBA loves it.  There’s nothing wrong with having a team that other teams’ fans hate and want to lose.

Read more…

I know a lot of Nets fans were grumbling after it was announced that former Sixers GM Billy King was coming in to run the team, but Al Iannazzone has an article up this morning that focuses on some King’s good traits. The bottom line, some players liked how he made teams that worked well together, while Larry Brown, who coached the Sixers throughout most of King’s tenure, liked how the GM worked with the head coach:

“His effect of what he gets done was always felt afterward,” said (Eric) Snow, the former Sixers point guard and now an analyst on NBA TV. “You may have looked at something and maybe questioned it, but it was typically right most of the times. He’s got a great feel for the unseen.

“We jelled and meshed. Some of it had to do with Larry Brown’s coaching but Billy King was the guy making those deals work.”

and

“The neatest thing is he’ll work with Avery,” Brown said. “That was the best part for me. If you’re going to be successful as a coach you’ve got to have a general manager that believes in you, is loyal to you and an owner that seriously wants to win. They got that.”

Personally, I’m still not bowled over by the choice, but articles like these let me give the guy a little more benefit of the doubt.

There seems to be two camps of fans regarding the New Jersey Nets and their offseason.  The first are those that are mired in the negativity of recent Nets seasons, particular this past 12-win 2009-10 season, and the inability to sign any big free agents, particularly LeBron James and/or Chris Bosh.  What stings even more to those in this camp is that secondary stars were not even wooed enough to join the Nets and those free agents that were actually signed do not measure up to those players the Nets “should have” signed.  The other camp recognizes the positive strides the Nets have made with a new owner in Mikhail Prokhorov, a new and excellent coach in Avery Johnson, and see the free agents signed – Anthony Morrow, Travis Outlaw, Jordan Farmar, and Johan Petro – as a welcome change in direction towards athleticism, improved three-point shooting, and defense.  Count myself in the latter camp, but for the sake of the extreme tempering of expectation, let’s say the Nets don’t make the playoffs and find themselves in the NBA Draft Lottery again.  Who will potentially be available and how would they fit in with the team as it’s currently composed? Read more…

In a letter to USA Today, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov defends LeBron James’ decision to join Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, calling it an exciting time for the NBA:

We are seeing the birth of a new, dynamic team with such star players, and all of us can await the new season with great anticipation. I wish them success and give them my moral support. I will be happy for us to beat the Miami Heat in the conference finals, maybe not this season, but in the very near future.

Funny dig at the end aside, sorry Proky, can’t share in your optimism. I am neither excited nor curious to see LeBron and the Miami Heat next season. Similar tactics/dominance from the Yankees nearly killed my love for baseball in the 1990s and quite frankly, I’ve always been a more die hard baseball fan than basketball. Unless the Heat experience some kind of karmic meltdown, making the whole thing a colossal failure, I’m really not excited to see a bunch of egomaniacs pretend like they earned anything if/when they win it all.

Derrick Favors told FanHouse in Orlando during the Nets summer league games that he had no idea who his father was or knew anything about him.  However, Favors’ father got in touch with FanHouse and the result is a really interesting article on the situation, including the fact that his father was a basketball player as well, even playing in college:

What Favors, 19, is doing now is embarking on an NBA career with the New Jersey Nets after being the No. 3 overall pick in last month’s draft. The 6-foot-10 forward will start a basketball season this fall for the first time knowing who his father is and believing he inherited some talent from Parker, who was a high school star in St. Louis before signing in 1976 with St. Louis University, where he averaged 10.3 points as a freshman.

The whole article is really interesting and I urge you to check it out.  A really good read on a slow Nets’ news day.

In a Ben Couch interview with Derrick Favors, a common recurring theme kept coming back to the rookie’s strength and conditioning. Favors seemed pleased with his summer league performance and progress, but knows where he needs to make improvements:

NJNets.com: What did you take away from your week at Summer League in Orlando?

Derrick Favors: That I need to work a little harder, in the post, on all things. Get a little stronger.

I’m obviously pulling for the kid, but I hope given his rawness that fans cut him a little slack in his rookie season.

In a great write-up on the Chris Paul situation in New Orleans, CBS Sports Ken Berger lists the Nets as among three teams who the New Orleans Hornets are in discussions with regarding a trade. Berger believes talks with the Nets could “advance” in the coming days.:

There are indications that the Hornets believe the Magic, Bobcats and Nets would have equally, if not more attractive assets to offer. The positive spin emanating from Monday’s meeting allows the Hornets to “keep working on it,” and puts them in “a better negotiating position to do so,” said one of the sources

“They don’t want to let CP3 dictate the teams,” the person said. “And they can’t look like they are being held hostage by his trade demands.”

The problem here (ignoring CP3′s potential health problems), is that the Nets were not part of Paul’s wish list of teams, and with the same folks who orchestrated LeBron’s PR trainwreck  chirping in his ear about going some place with an established “superstar” to win now, I can’t see a scenario where CP3 comes to New Jersey and is a good soldier about it. My guess is NOLA is probably using teams like the Bobcats and Nets as leverage to get a better deal from a contender like Orlando.

Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld.com had a post yesterday that got me thinking.  In the post he ranked the Nets at 15th, last in the Eastern Conference, his reasoning is as follows:

While the young talent in New Jersey is a few years away from making them a competitive team, the additions this offseason were puzzling and won’t help the Nets improve the product they put on the floor in the immediate future. Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, and Travis Outlaw are talented role players but they’re not the big acquisitions that Nets’ fan were hoping for when this summer started. The team wanted to make a splash after missing out on James, Wade, and Bosh but their backup plan didn’t stack up to the ones put in place in Chicago or New York. The Nets will win more than twelve games this season but they’re still a couple years away from climbing up these rankings.

After praising the Nets for their young core, Kennedy moves on to the Nets offseason’, calling their moves puzzling.  Kennedy’s reasoning is something that I have heard a lot from media members fans alike, and it is starting to bother me every time I read it (This isn’t just a personal attack on Alex Kennedy, love his stuff on Hoopsworld).  What Kennedy does is he looks at where the Nets are at, and compares them to what Nets could have been (John Wall, LeBron, or at the very least Chris Bosh) and then says “look what they could have been, they have been awful this offseason!”  They ignore the fact that the Nets have improved at just about every position while still having about $15 million in terms of cap space.

Look, the Nets have been unlucky this season, I get it.  If the Nets end up winning the #1 pick and get John Wall, they perhaps sign LeBron James and are instant contenders.  From that moment on, I assumed that LeBron wasn’t going to take his talents to Newark, and I was hoping for Chris Bosh.  However, the stars aligned an all three of the big free agents signed with the Heat.  While LeBron James (or to a certain extent Chris Bosh) on the Nets would have been fantastic, I think it is important not to judge the team the Nets have now to what could have been.  What people should be doing is looking at the Nets from game 82 of last year and compare them to where they are at now, and that is a huge improvement.

While reading this, you guys can probably guess that I have been in favor of most of the team’s signings.  The one I haven’t been is the hire of new GM Billy King.  Billy King was pretty inept as the GM of the Philadelphia 76ers before being fired by them a few years ago.  King was a surprise hire, especially with guys like Cho and Pritchard available.  However, if you think about it for a moment, the hire does make some sense.  First, there are reports that King is basically going to be a figurehead for the Nets with Avery Johnson actually calling the shots.  I am ok with that, Johnson is the man coaching the team and he knows what their style will be, so it makes sense for him to have a hand in who the team brings in (in terms of personnel).  The second thing to remember is that Billy King is basically going to be a stopgap for the Nets.  Everyone knows that Mikhail Prokhorov wants to bring in his own GM from Russia, so why will Prokhorov bring in a guy like Cho or Pritchard who would be a longterm hire?  The plan originally was going to be Rod Thorn staying aboard for another year or two and then transferring to Prokhorov’s guy.  However, Thorn’s retirement threw a wrench into the plan, and the team was forced to scramble, leading to the hiring of King.

I guess what I am getting to in this rant is that the Nets are on the right track.  Look from point A (the end of last year) to point B (right now) and the Nets are not only improved, but are younger, with cap space left over (for midseason acquisitions or next year).  While the playoffs might not be in the plan for this year, the team is on their way to being a playoff team (and maybe even a contender) two to three years down the line.