Nets Are Scorching

@JDoc;
Your just jealous cause my guy is better then the guy you wanted, and got. LOL "I told you so, over and over and over again"...

@mike...

You're getting creepy with you Cousins Love. Maybe you should ask him out on a date.

@fro- your description of yi describes most back up centers. if washington is smart, they would put him at back up center to at least stretch the floor with his half decent outside shot. that would help open up the lane for john wall. speaking of wall, i must admit, its kind of hard to watch him in summer league. he really is everything people say he is. his speed is sick. his athlecism is crazy. and his handle is fierce. i can only wish we got that number 1 pick. but im grateful for harris at the point. it could be alot worst. we could be paying raymond felton 7 mill a year to play the point... ugh

Yi is good outside , great mid-range , good inside. He was tough inside quite a lot on both ends of the floor. When you have good NBA pros looking around for help on him in the paint or out and strugging their shoulders after they just got schooled , you know that guy has a ton of game. I don't think Odom could even handle him , physically. He would destroy Channing Frye , lets be honest here. Frye would have to try his best against Lopez on the block after Yi torches him. And with Bosh , he'd do a better job on both ends than Humphries would. I'm not even sure Favors could even guard Bosh (or any big with perimeter skills) away from the basket at all.
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Bosh and Odom soft and Yi and Channing Frye soft are 2 different things. At least Frye bulked up a bit and does give a hard foul some times, that is when he's not on the perimeter and actualy enters the paint. But Yi....I'm glad he's gone. Not my type of player at all.

@hbj, Yi's % at finishing around the rim is terrible. He's not a good defender and he lacks strength. His rebounding rate is also rather poor for someone with his height and length. If he ever becomes a good/valuable back up C, I would be surprised.

yi is definitley not a player to miss. maybe washington can do something with him. im just glad h is off our team.

I have a gut feeling that by this time next year, the only player we will have left from last year is Brook Lopez. Harris, T-Will, C.Lee and Hump might all be gone. So lets not worry about Yi haunting us. I was one of Yi's biggest supporters and Yi had his chance, and more, and blew it.

Skilled "softies" can help teams wins a lot of games ..... Gasol is considered soft by many , Dirk considered soft by many , Lamar Odom considered soft by many , R.Lewis considered soft by many , Bosh considered soft by many , etc. The list goes on and on. And he could match up with many of those players better than anyone on the current roster or completely outclass other team's bench PF's as a 6th man scorer. I bet even the Lakers would love a guy like that if they didn't already have Odom.

Yi will be a valuable back up center. i could never see him as an efective starter. However, as a backup center, he would run circles around other back up .

I don't think anybody knows what Farmar really is. He played in a system that he was not really suited for. I think that's a big reason he bolted a championship team. To come to a young team to be a more traditional PG. He's young and under the tutelage of Johnson might blossom into a true traditional PG. I think that's what the Nets were thinking when they signed him. Yi has skills, no doubt but maybe it was the coaching staff here or something else. He would look like he was an all star one game and then disappear for the next week or more. He did not play to his size and cannot defend the PF position, he's just soft. No softies on the new Nets please.

Farmar isn't a facilitator. He can't get his own shot and draw double teams to pass (facilitate) , he isn't crafty enough or good enough to run pick and roles to score or pass. If they start a league backup like Farmar over Harris , we are truly in trouble. He's there for his defense and energy , to help get the ball across mid court for T.Will , to shoot open shots after someone else facilitates , to be a good lockeroom guy , and insurance if Harris goes down with an injury. Nothing more.
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I think a lot of Net's fans don't realise how skilled Yi is and how versatile a player he is. He is mobile enough to guard the PF's who like to play away from the basket , there's a lot of those guys in the league now .... and he was long enough to contest shots from the post guys. If all of these other guys can be "coached up" by the great Avery Johnson , then so could Yi. And on the other end of the floor , imagine Boozer chasing around Yi on the Perimeter , or Yi pounding R.Lewis inside with his post game.He is a good player at a good price. (and a tradable asset)

@Mike-- don't play his game. Neither you nor he have no idea how old any of us are.

@Big Daddy;
No offense but you are going to scare off the few posters we do have. Lighten up a bit. I love your comments but you are a bit tough on these youngsters.
And yes, they are mostly kids.

Yi SUCKS....I hated him. 7 feet of drek, he plays like he's 6'5". No defense, clueless about fundamentals. I liked Peterson and I think he's going to be a really good player. But we have Favors who I think will be an elite PF within 2 seasons. Playing next to a true 7 foot center will help his growth and visa versa with Lopez. And we have 2 very good PGs, one is an ex all star and the other has how many rings? In fact I bet Farmar gives Harris a run for his money for the starting job, might even best him out. We need a facilitator at the PG position now, more so then a scorer.

They could have done the Granger - Harris deal and went after Felton hard in free agency and drafted Pattick Patterson at PF with Indiana's pick (and kept Yi)
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Felton
C.Lee - T.Will
Granger
P.Patterson - Yi Jianlian
Lopez
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They would of had a top 5 center in the east and a top 5 SF in the east (nice 1-2 scoring combo), a solid point guard , and some young , talented , and hungry SG's and PF's. That team would have been tough to play against even for the top teams in the east with Avery kicking them in the butt on defense. And all under under the age of 30.
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But they chose to chase the dream.

@yoyo....please...I never said that unless you can quote me, can you...no, because you're doing exactly what people do. Make things up. Your whole post is nonsense, made up in your own mind. How do you know what the plans of the Nets were? Do you know Proky personally, are you his confidant? Did Thorn call you to make sure his plan was good?....NO...LOL. Guys ya gotta stop this nonsense it makes it hard to have an intelligent conversation here. It's like the same on all these forums. I was a Mod on a Knicks forum, I quit because of this type of stupid stuff. If you guys are adults you should be ashamed of yourselves, if your kids well then that explains it.

Something else to consider. Avery think Outlaw can be like Josh Howard. We can only HOPE so. With AJ as he coach (2005/06-2007/08) Howard enjoyed his best years and average approximately 18 pts, 6.7 rb, 1 steal, 2 asst and shot 79% ft, and from what I remember he was a very good defender. As an aside Outlaw shootss 36% on 3's to Howards 34%. I would take that in a minute for $7m/per. Coincidentaly, Howard was 25 years old (outlaw is 25 now)when Avery starting coaching him and they are basically the same size (Outlaw is 2" taller and 8lbs heavier so maybe the lil general is on to something.

@ Mike R- i agree with u 100%. The only reason we should trade devin is for chris paul. He is 27 years old, an all star calliber player, and he is only making 9 million per year over the next 3 years. If he can get healthy, hecant get back to all star form. And if he can get back to all star form with an emerging lopez and shooters around the both of them, he playoffs are looking good. Because contrary to some opinions on here, we are much better than last year...

Guys, this is a fun blog to write on. Lets keep it that way. Lets not get serious with this. We are all nets fans. I thought i would never find people who are as passionate about the nets as i am. So this is something good for me. For us. Lets have fun with it. Lets not go at each other personally...

Devin has been constantly discussed as a tradeable asset, but the more I think about it the less likely I think it is going to happen. Devin has expereince playing for AJ (and more importantly has his respect), AJ needs a general on the floor, Devin is a pg, Devin is one of NJ's best 2 players, and Devin is the second oldest player on the Nets. I expect AJ to rely heavily on Harris for leadership with this young bunch, and think he would have to be bowled over with a trade to get rid of him. I dont see him trading Devin (and we already discussed how much power/influence he has over personnel) unless the Nets are getting CP3 in return (which I think is extremely unlikley.)

@Big Daddy , Lebron doesn't insure a title. He knows this , that's why he is feeding people BS just in case they can't improve the team through free agency greatly even with plans B through D. I would do the same in his position.
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Nets plan A. Lebron
Nets plan B. Bosh
Nets plan C. Rudy Gay
Nets plan D. Boozer
Nets Plane E. Outlaw , with Tyrus Thomas or whatever they can get and more Damage Control.
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I like Proky too , but you are hanging off every selective little word and believing a championship is coming within 5 years because that's all according to Proky's great plan B and that he'll magically land a couple of amazing players along the way with all this great CAP SPACE which will insure a title (lmao).He's just displaying his confidence and will say whatever they think the loyal fanbase want to hear because they may gobble it up.

@BigDaddy-- Stop. Really, just stop. You have nothing to say.

@ toasters so you are quoting someone who does not have any idea of what he's talking about? Sources said..LMAO..Now were does that so called journalist get his information about what Avery does or doesn't do, it's BS? I never quote journalists, they make things up, like ESPN who makes stuff up that is just halirous..I never quote people unless they are the ones saying it. I crackup at guys like that, quote people who quote people who have sources who are quoting other sources....LMAO!!!!!!!! If I quote someone it's the person making the statement. Not someone who heard someone, say something to someone, about what someone else said....LOL. That's a huge problem with sports journalism today, so much hearsay taken as fact just like people who post things that are their opinions and state it as known fact. The only people who know about the Outlaw signing are him, his agent and about 3-4 other people in the Nets hierarchy. So that story is based on nonsense. As is so many people who post on forums that think they know what's going on inside the inner circle of the people running the team. Just too funny!!!!!

@hbj725;
Nice catch, but you must agree they were the exception to the rule.
Superstars play in and win most of the championships. But hey... who knows. "A dollar and a dream". Lets go Nets...

Food for thought: The detroit pistons whipped the lakers a$$ in the finals with no one superstars on that team. They had guys who made the all star team, but none of them were players u would deem a superstar. There were no lebrons, kobes, wades, bosh's, etc. So they didnt look for the great 25-30 point scorer. They did it with good players coming together playing effective basketball. They shut everybody down. They made it to the championship again the very next year doing the same thing. The lakers had 4 hall of famers that year. Detroit had 0. But they had great chemistry. Now im not saying we are that detroit pistons team. Because we are not. But we have talent on our team. And that team showed the world that good players with chemistry can defeat great individual players. If we can get chemistry to go with our talent, there is no telling what we can do this year...

I agree with big d. u guys missed the point. Yes we offered boozer a contract. We probably offered lee one to. But we didnt want to overpay them.
@ yoyo- i dont think we are going to be a worse team for not signing boozer. He doesnt play defense and he has injury issues. I would not want to use our cap space for that. Boozer would hae made us a better rebounding team. But he would have been a liability defensively. And besides, we are not done making moves We have too many shooting guards. There is more trades on the way.

@Big Daddy-- I guess this is your idea of "not an attack."
"I think you’re making stuff up and have no idea what you’re talking about, just my opinion. Your coming off like you have a special knowledge of the internal workings of an NBA team and you don’t. It just comes off as a negative ninny who thinks he actually knows things none of us are actually privileged to know. It’s your opinion and far from fact, just very negative and acidic. Take charge guys make lousy GMs…LOL…How old are you?"
That is an attack, and one that is purely personal.
As to your alleged point, I got most of my information from the Wojnarowski article linked to in Mark's post. I will quote the relevant passage:
"Whoever the Nets hire, there’s no mistaking that Johnson has gone out of his way to ingratiate himself with Russian ownership and usurped a great deal of power and authority for himself. Johnson was the driving force behind signing Travis Outlaw(notes) to a five-year, $35 million contract, sources said. Johnson has frightened off several potential president candidates, who simply didn’t want to deal with him as coach, sources said.

Johnson crushed the candidacy of former New Orleans Hornets executive Jeff Bower as the Nets potential GM two weeks ago."

Now, will you PLEASE stop addressing your comments to me? I am tired of scraping your "thoughts" off my shoes.

No you missed the point, proky said he did not want to over pay for people that would NOT insure a chance at a title. He felt those players were worth a certain amount and no more. He was right. The addition of Boozer or DLee would have been nice and helped the team but by no means would they have insured a chance at a title like LeBron would have. There's a fine line and he walked it and talked it. He did not want to be a pawn in a bidding wars with other teams, he's a lot smarter at this then we give him credit. You have to read his words carefully because he says what he means and that can be confusing these days were everybody seems to be full of crap. It's really a breath of fresh air to have someone in sports that speaks his mind and is demonstrative as opposed to the phonies that fill the sports world in the USA. Plan B was to keep cap space and have trade assets, so he was sucessful at that. Don't underestimate Proky, I'm sure many people have and lost.

@hbj725 , if you'd rather have a worse team , that's fine. But I'd take my chances on having two all-star level players (Lopez,Boozer) than only one.That's why they offered him a contract. They want to get better , they want to win , they want to put butts in the seats. Only one team can win a title every year obviously.
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Honestly , there aren't many free agents next year that could make a big impact on the level of even a Boozer besides Melo , right? (or did he accept Denver's offer?). And how do they get them with a losing team and a coach that is going to look angry all the time. They just won't. "Saving cap space" is just a product of missing out on all the top players this year. But if they really wanted to save cap space , they could have aquired some players for less money this year. It's going to be hard to move Outlaw and Farmar at those prices and they are eating up your precious cap space. Those aren't assets.

@Mike R;
Too bad we didn't hire Billie Jean King. She was one tough customer.

What would have happened if Boozer accepted are offer? Would we still have signed Outlaw, etc. The Nets seemed to be confused during initial free agency period. I think they did O.K. after regrouping. Proky said they didn't want Boozer, Amare or Lee. How come they offered Boozer a contract then? Very strange having Thorn handle free agency, unless of course, Thorn was only a puppet.

@ toasters it wasn't an attack, it was an observation. If I wanted to attack you there's is enough ammunition in any one of your posts. I find it humorous when people speak in absolutes without any exact knowledge about what they speak of. It would be different if people used the common (IMO) In My opinion, as I do most times....that makes anything someone says clearly an opinion and not fact. For anybody to state their opinion as fact is pretty egocentrically self important. Too many people on blogs, forums and such state their opinions as hard facts like they are privileged to information nobody else in the world knows....I find that to be pretty funny, but it does get old and tiresome quickly.

@yoyo- Whether its damage control or not, i'm glad we didnt pay 86 mil for gay, 80 mil for lee, 80 mil for boozer, 100 mil for amare. These guys would not have made us much better for all of that money. i would rather take my chances with the younger guys and save cap space...

@Big Daddy-- you really need to stop the personal attacks. Actually, just stop addressing posts to me. That way I can skip right over yours.

Stein reporting... Billy King accepts Nets executive position, will be named at Thursday press conference. Story up soon on NBA.com

Cousins is a center to them and most NBA teams. They already have a great one in Brook Lopez. They didn't want to play those 2 guys together defensively.
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As far as Proky goes , I think he's just trying to hire the very best available in all aspects. Avery wasn't their first choice as coach.Of course , there's slim pickens out there and people make their own decisions , so you take whatever you can get. They are doing the same with big free agents. They are just striking out repeatedly so they'll say their damage control and talk about their youth approach and how they won't overspend. It's just DAMAGE CONTROL people. They wanted Rudy Gay , they wanted Boozer , hell they would have taken Tyrus Thomas (lol). They already overspent on Outlaw and Farmar. They are just trying to give people hope that things will work out. They are hoping the next Wade or Lebron is in the next lottery or Melo will magically jump on board with a losing team or they can trade an "asset" for a big time player (lmao).
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Go Nets!

@ Mike R, you must be reading my older posts. I can't agree MORE!!!! And that's the same words proky himself said. That's the logical way of thinking and that was Plan B for the Nets. To sign some lower tier free agents that were young and athletic, let Johnson coach them up and see what we have. We still have many assets and cap space. He wants to make the playoffs this year and I think we can sneak in if we stay healthy and play hard. So many NBA teams dog it and don't play hard. Then after the season assess were we are and take action in getting that super star he wants. Although we might have a super star already on our roster, time will tell. I think Lopez and Favors can be the best one-two punch in the NBA in a few years.

The nice thing about having Proky's billions is that he can fire /buyout anybody at any time. If Avery Johnson screws up he will be gone. Sounds like Proky will have enough buffers and speed bumps in his management team to avoid any one person from screwing up too badly. I think this fact and money of course, was the reason Thorn is saying goodbye. Too much interference can be a good thing at times.

I am not sure the Nets increased their overall talent to a level that will help them make the playoffs, but some teams such as the Cavs, Pacers and Raptors havn't improved or have gotten worse. What I expect is for the youthful, athletic Nets to be agressive, play good defense, play hard for 48 min/night, and steadily improve over the course of the season. If they do that, it will translate into wins, and that hopefully starts to build a foundation which might attract a big time player.

@ Toasters, read the proky interview first at the daily news. I think you're making stuff up and have no idea what you're talking about, just my opinion. Your coming off like you have a special knowledge of the internal workings of an NBA team and you don't. It just comes off as a negative ninny who thinks he actually knows things none of us are actually privileged to know. It's your opinion and far from fact, just very negative and acidic. Take charge guys make lousy GMs...LOL...How old are you?

Yes I am jumping in the Cousins lacking maturity bandwagon. Leopards dont change their spots. Cousins had issues in high school and in college and he liked and respected Calipari. The guy is a ticking timebomb. People thought CDR and TWill had maturity issues. They are Warren Buffet compared to Cousins. Maybe he works in another system (say with Pop, Sloan or Jackson), but he and AJ would never mesh.

@ Mike R.....exactly.....Avery is a Parcells type personality. We had meek and weak, both Kiki and Frank, nice fellows but low key. We need the little general to make sure everybody knows who's in charge and to get out there and play hard. With a young team that's the type of coach that's needed. With a veteran club that can backfire and I hope Avery realizes as this team matures he's going to have to lay back a bit because it is a player's league unlike the NFL. I also agree with your assessment of Cousins, it would not have worked and we already have a 7 foot center, Cousins would have been redundant. Favors IMO was the second best player in the draft. We need a PF, the fit was perfect, young team, young PF which we desperately needed to pair with Lopez. I read Proky's interview and he wants the president and GM to be one person. That says to me his daughter is probably going to handle the day to day operations, like who does what, like arraignments for hotels and travel. All the little things any corporation does and needs. It will have NOTHING to do with the basketball end.

Mike, you seriously need to get over Cousins, who was also my favorite player in the draft.

Yes, he is going to be great, (Mike R, I think you're on the band-wagon talking about his maturity issues. Everybody in Kings camp is raving about him) But Favors is also going to be a beast, he's just really wide eyed right now and trying to be as humble as possible. Give him some time

@hbj-- The Lakers and Spurs would NEVER let the coach pick the GM or President. Any coach who tried would be out on his a**. Also, the coach certainly gets player input, but the GM makes the decisions.
Take-charge guys are good material for coaches, lousy material for GM. They're so fixed on their "vision" that they often can't do the necessary diligence to make sure they're getting value. To wit, Travis Outlaw. Avery has visions of another Josh Howard, so we have to give $35 million to a player whose actual value is half that? A strong GM would not let that happen.

I agree with Mike R. Cousins is borderline uncoachable. And under avery, if u dont brng it, u womt play. I love the fact that our team is going to go hard this year.

Cousins and Avery would have NEVER worked. Cousins has talent, but he is EXTREMELY hard headed and often times is uncoachable. He would find himself consistently in Avery's doghouse. Make no mistake it's going to be Avery's way or the highway (kind of a parcell's mindset), and you better bring it every night or you wont be playing.

@ calling all toasters- Do you really think that phil jackson and greg pop dont have say who they want to coach? Ofcourse they do. If they didn't, they would leave those teams in a heart beat. Any good coach has say in who comes in to play for him. The coach knows better than the GM who will work for his style of coaching.
Maybe I'm being unrealistic, but i love avery's take charge approach. Our team has been a mess for years now. And I am so happy that someone has the balls to stand up and say "I'm running this thing now." I would rather my coach to be head strong rather than weak. Lawrence frank and kiki were weak. And we see where that got us...

That is the reason we should of drafted Cousins. With all his "red flags" he is still a player who has the chance to be a real superstar. He might end up just O.K. but a team like the Nets should never of passed him up. This is not a knock on Favors. Hopefully Favors becomes the next "superstar", but I doubt it. Favors lacks the drive and toughness that superstars inherently have.

...formerly superintense point guard... New York area....