Nets Are Scorching

I thought this was a fun Saturday morning read. ESPN (Insiders only) has listed the five worst players in the history of each NBA franchise who have played at least 10 minutes a game over the course of 100 games. The players were ranked according to their PER (Player Efficiency Rating) and the worst Net was Trenton Hassell:

It’s fitting that last season’s 12-win Nets team started Trenton Hassell 31 games and paid him $4.4 million to be their 12th leading scorer.

I’ll be honest, as bad as Hassell was for the Nets, I’m a bit surprised that he ranked as the worst in the history of one of the league’s most sorry franchises. And of course, PER doesn’t really account for defense, which explains why Jason Collins is also number three on that list.

NetsAreScorching were honored to be a part of this year’s NBA Blog Previews.  The first week of previews just concluded and the Atlantic Division is now complete.  Check out all of the great previews from every team in the Atlantic:

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Sixers: Liberty Ballers

Recaps: All Previews

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) Other than Kevin Durant, name three players that will be a part of the next generation of NBA superstars.

Sebastian: Of course, you have to consider John Wall even though he has yet to play a regular season yet.  It is pretty obvious that the talent is there, and we are just waiting to see it.  Derrick Rose is another one, and I think he will get there because of his work ethic.  Rose works so hard to add pieces to his game every year, and he just seems to improve each year.  For the final spot, I am going to go with Brook.  Probably a long shot, but once the Nets start winning, Brook will start to get attention for his play.  Also, he has one of those personalities fans love, people outside New Jersey just don’t know about it though.

Mark: For starters, is LeBron James still young enough to be the next generation? If not, I’ll go with three Calipari PGs: John Wall, Derrick Rose and Tyreke Evans. All three will need a solid supporting cast around them to win it all, but I think all three are capable of being a part of that next batch of upper echelon players.

Devin: John Wall, John Wall, and John Wall. Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my system, let me choose two more – and my other two are point guards too. Firstly, I think Derrick Rose is an obvious choice. He’s got elite athleticism and is starting to really get a feel for the game. While there are still concerns about his jumper, and his assist rates are more Steve Francis than Jason Kidd, the league is favoring athletic point guards more than ever, and he’s the closest thing to the PG prototype we have. Except John Wall. (That was the last time, I swear.) The other guy I’d choose is Stephen Curry. The guy has absolutely zero issues with the spotlight and his jumper is so beautifully smooth. He doesn’t have a traditional release – he releases the ball lower than you’d expect from most shooters – but no one in NBA history made more threes in their rookie season than Curry did (166), and his percentage was third-best of all-time by qualifying rookies. He’s more of a combo guard than either Rose or Wall, and his instincts as a playmaker are questionable, but I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for outside shooters and a feeling that Curry will light up the league for the next decade, one three-pointer at a time.

DV: John Wall quickly comes to mind, and it isn’t primarily because of his skills on the court. He has the charisma and smile that Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant had/have that made them household names, which is the true measure of superstardom.  If your grandmother knows who a certain player is, he’s a superstar, and I think that’s going to happen for Wall.  Of course, it helps a ton that he’s also an athletic freak that can score and pass at a prolific rate, and a great teammate.  Derrick Rose is still young and still has some upside, basically getting a consistent jumper will do big-time wonders for his game.  He does everything else well and is a dynamic ballplayer on the hardwood.  Rose is another athletic point guard that can score almost at will and is a blur on the court.  It helps that he plays in the third largest media market as well.  I really like Stephen Curry’s game… okay, no, I love it.  He’s an excellent shooter and is growing as a point guard.  He’s in the perfect offensive system to utilize his skills and he’s coming off a great rookie season where he really stepped up in the second half of the season.  Curry was recently the darling of the NCAA Tournament a couple of years ago and has a baby-face that will endear him to female fans.  However, all of the real hardcore NBA fans know that he’s an assassin on the court.

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Barely 24 hours after we were discussing on this site whether or not Derrick Favors should be used as trade bait, Avery Johnson spoke to reporters yesterday and said it was possible that the rookie PF could be a starter as the season starts:

“The main thing is he’s so bright,” Johnson said. “He’s a bright kid. He retains a lot of information, he’s getting stronger and stronger every day. We’re going to take it step by step and when we need to take speed up, we’ll speed up, and when we need to slow down, we’ll slow down. I was joking with him the other day. I said I heard where you said ‘We’re going to bring you along slowly and we’re going to bring you off the bench.’ I told him, ‘Who said you’re coming off the bench? Did I tell you that?’”

Let’s not get crazy here. Unless Favors made dramatic leaps and bounds from the summer league, he should be playing against second units, getting comfortable and used to the NBA. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Still, like the motivational techniques from Avery here.

Today, ESPN has opened a “Franchise Five” vote, in which SportsNation (I.E. you, the fan) is allowed to vote on their selection for the best players in franchise history at each position for all 30 franchises. At least three players at each position were chosen as the finalists. The options for “The Greatest Nets Team of All Time” are as follows:

PG – Kenny Anderson, Jason Kidd, Bill Melchionni
SG – Vince Carter, Kendall Gill, Kerry Kittles, Michael Ray Richardson, John Williamson
SF – Julius Erving, Richard Jefferson, Chris Morris, Keith Van Horn
PF – Derrick Coleman, Kenyon Martin, Buck Williams, Jayson Williams
C – Sam Bowie, Mike Gminski, Billy Paultz

For this exercise, the Nets have (in my opinion) no-brainers at three positions: Jason Kidd at the point, Vince Carter at shooting guard, and the Doc at small forward. Power Forward is a bit more up in the air – I’d take Kenyon Martin, but you could make a case for any of the other three.

However, it’s hard to deny just how awful our centers are historically: Our three illustrious choices are Mike Gminski (best known for his name), Sam Bowie (best known for not being Michael Jordan), and Billy Paultz (best known for being on this list). I want to clarify: I titled this article as such not because I think Brook Lopez is a God walking among mere mortals, but because our other choices are so poor. This poses the obvious question: with our team’s franchise centers so (ahem) unqualified, should Brook Lopez already be considered the best center the Nets have ever had?

Let’s break it down.

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Ken Berger of CBS Sports writes on a rumored three-way deal between the Nets, Sixers and Nuggets that would yield the Nets Carmelo Anthony, while shipping out Devin Harris and Derrick Favors. The Nets are reportedly “working the hardest” in the league to get a deal done with Denver:

A package sending Anthony to the Nets, Favors to Philadelphia and Iguodala to Denver is one way all of these moving parts could come together. But Thorn is said to have reservations about such a deal, which has yet to rise to the level of discussion among the teams.

Speaking solely from a fan’s perspective, I’m leaning more and more away from wanting to include Derrick Favors in any deal for any player at this point. If this kid evolves into the stud PF some have predicted he would, the Nets would need to import a cornerstone player, they will already have one on their roster. It seems silly to me that Denver continues to ask for the moon and stars for ‘Melo, when they essentially hold no leverage in these talks. If they elect to keep him they’ll lose him for nothing next summer, or he’ll become enough of a distraction that the team is not going to succeed.  It’s very sad for the new Nuggets GM to have to trade their franchise player in his first major move, but such is life. I don’t think the Nets should give away Favors to make Denver’s front office feel better about themselves.

Team Name: New Jersey Nets
Last Year’s Record: 12-70
Key Losses: Chris Douglas-Roberts, Courtney Lee, Yi, Rod Thorn
Key Additions: Travis Outlaw, Derrick Favors, Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, Damion James, Troy Murphy

1. What Significant Moves were made during the off-season

The New Jersey Nets are a 12-win team that is only returning four players from last year’s team. Just about every player brought in is significant in his own way. Anthony Morrow brings an outside shooting presence to one of worst three point shooting teams from last year. That shooting threat will open up driving lanes for Devin Harris and prevent double teams from heading over in Brook Lopez’s direction. Travis Outlaw is a guy who brings a willingness to play defense and hit big shots late in game to a team that ended up plenty of close games last year because they didn’t have that go-to guy. Despite not being a starter in Portland, he was always in the game if it was close at the end. Troy Murphy is the perfect compliment to Brook Lopez, a guy who can grab rebounds and step all they way out behind the three point line and hit a shot. This is what the Nets were looking for when they brought in Yi, but it just never worked out. More importantly, Murphy’s arrival means that we don’t have to see Derrick Favors or Kris Humphries in the starting lineup day in/day out. Jordan Farmar comes in and brings depth to a spot where we did not have it a year ago. After a year where we had to watch Rafer Alston play 40+ minutes for a stretch of the season, it will be nice to see a competent point guard both backing up Devin, and be able to step in and start if Devin goes down due to injury.

Even with all these additions, you could argue that the biggest additions came off the court. Avery Johnson is a coach that I think is very well suited for the roster that the Nets have built. He is a guy who has built his reputation on defense, but is still very competent on the offensive end. And of course there is Mikhail Prokhorov. We have already seen what his money can do. Sure we didn’t get LeBron, but the Nets have added both scouts and assistant coaches to their staff this offseason (something that wouldn’t have happened under Ratner).

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By Evan Kaplan

In today’s NBA there are various offensive systems that coaches implement. There is the run-and-gun style that Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni has become known for and the famous Triangle Offense of Phil Jackson. The Nets new head coach, Avery Johnson, has a clear-cut offensive philosophy, which is focused on pushing the ball and swinging it from side to side in the half-court. But the ultimate key for any offense is to best utilize the players on the roster and allow them to maximize their strengths in a given system.

The Nets 2010-11 offense will in many ways fall on the shoulders of Devin Harris. The team’s point guard played under Johnson in Dallas and despite reports that the two had a rocky relationship with the Mavs, Harris said he is happy with the hire in New Jersey. At times, some felt that Johnson did allow Harris to play with enough freedom in Dallas and that will be a key dynamic to watch with the Nets. In order for this offense to be effective, Harris will need to be the floor general and force the team to get out and run, which is one of the lynchpins of Avery Johnson’s teams.

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