Nets Are Scorching

With four of the starting positions seemingly locked down, the only real point of roster contention seems to be at the shooting guard position between free agent signing Anthony Morrow and second-year Nets player Terrence Williams. Today, Dennis and Devin look at the case for both players.

Terrence Williams has to be the most polarizing New Jersey Nets player right now.  Should he start or come off the bench?  Should he play some point guard or stay exclusively at the two or three?  Should the Nets trade him or keep him for his big-time potential?  Let the debate begin. Read more…

In the ongoing Carmelo Anthony drama, Yahoo’s Marc Spears is reporting that Anthony is trying to persuade the Nuggets to trade him to either the Knicks or the Bulls.

The Knicks have limited assets to offer the Nuggets, which makes the Bulls a more appealing potential trade partner. The Bulls can offer a replacement small forward in Luol Deng(notes), as well as two young forwards in James Johnson(notes) and Taj Gibson(notes). New York officials would like to make a run at signing Anthony next summer if he were to opt to become a free agent. The Knicks will have salary-cap room with Eddy Curry’s(notes) contract expiring after the season.

Between Denver’s reported absurd trade demands and Melo’s disinterest in coming to the Nets, I think the best course of action may be to lay low. If I’m Billy King, I only ramp up my discussions with Denver if it sounds like another Eastern Conference team is close to getting him.

Two years ago, Devin Harris dropped 41 points (and 13 assists) on his former team against former Nets’ point guard Jason Kidd.  Two years ago, Devin Harris was representing the New Jersey Nets at the NBA All-Star game and almost took the Nets to the playoffs despite nobody really expecting them to even be close.  Two years ago, Devin Harris was the New Jersey Nets’ point guard of the future.

Now?  Well, now everybody thinks that the Mavericks won that Jason Kidd-Devin Harris trade.  Now, this team can’t win with Devin Harris as their starting point guard (you should see the e-mails I get “Trade Devin for Rubio,” “Get Kidd back,” “We should start Farmar”).  This complete 180 in fans’ opinion of Devin Harris is mostly due the Nets’ 12 win season last year.  But while most fans are shaking their heads in disgust thinking about Devin Harris running the New Jersey Nets, I am excited because you know what?  Devin Harris is still a very good point guard.

When Nets fans complain about wanting to upgrade the point guard position, they need to realize that they only way the Nets can truly upgrade at the point is if they get Chris Paul.  That’s it.  The great Kelly Dwyer had Devin ranked as the 8th best point guard (Kidd wasn’t ranked in the top 10 for what it is worth), and that is after his poor performance last year.  Dwyer’s rankings aren’t the be all, end all but he is one of the smartest basketball writers out there (in my opinion), so when he says something I listen.  Despite that, you still hear the same  four arguments over and over:

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After suffering a stress fracture in his foot during a workout, the Nets have decided to part ways with PF Sean May, the team announced yesterday. After the acquisition of Troy Murphy, May was a longshot to make the team anyway, but it’s disappointing to see he couldn’t even get the chance to prove himself during the preseason:

Nets general manager Billy King explained that the team just couldn’t wait on the 25-year-old power forward: “The injury has a four- to eight-week rehab period,” King said, “which would not provide Sean a legitimate chance to make our team.”

By Evan Kaplan

Fast-forward about seven weeks and envision this scenario. There are 5 seconds remaining in the Nets opening night game against the Pistons. The score is tied and the team needs a bucket to win their debut at the Prudential Center. Who is going to take that all-important shot with the game on the line?

One of the team’s main problems in 2009-10 is that there was no clear answer to this question. Many times the Nets would keep the game close until the last few minutes but would be unable to hit that big shot needed to secure victories. There was no Vince Carter, no Jason Kidd on the team that could be relied on in crunch time. This season the team needs to find a player that can be called upon to make big plays when they are most needed, especially if they want to try and contend for a playoff spot.

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Did you hear the Nets signed a new SF in the off-season? He may not be the King or ‘Melo, but Travis Outlaw does have a reputation for some 4th quarter heroics. The new Net has posted some video of himself working out on YouTube (hat tip NetsDaily). Why don’t you give it a look?

Day in and day out, we here at NetsAreScorching try to provide content that you guys want to read, however, we don’t know what exactly you want to hear about, and some things may fall through the cracks. This is what the mailbag is for. Every Monday we are going to be answering questions from you the reader, don’t be afraid to e-mail your questions to mailbag@netsarescorching.com.

It was a pretty short mailbag this week with only two questions e-mailed in.  They were interesting though, so I felt the need to answer them.  Remember guys, we want to be able to do this every week, so please, send in any questions that you may have.  We’ll blame this one on the holiday…let’s get it next week.

Jeff

Over/Under 5 Triple Doubles For T-Will?

I really want to say over, I really do, but it is going to be under.  Every time Terrence Williams steps on the basketball court he has the potential to get a triple double, and while I do think he may pull 1 or 2 this upcoming season, 5 is just way too much.  Williams will have a few close calls as well I think, just like the end of last year.  He has a few better shooters around him, another year of experience, and maybe more playing time this year.  However, there are some things working against him as well.  Scorers mean there are lets shots to go around for him, and no question that Coach Avery Johnson is going to make him work on the defensive end, and that could take away from some of his offensive game.  So yeah, 1 or 2.  What does everyone think?  Let me know in the comments.

Ryan

The Nets-Knicks rivalry has always been a good one locally in the tri state area, but doesn’t really get that much buzz, will that change this year?

I know that I personally hate the Knicks, because growing up my dad was a Knicks fan so in order to trash talk, I rooted against them.  That has always stuck with me as I grew up.  As for this rivalry going national, it all depends on one thing, will both teams be good.  Last year’s Knicks-Nets games were pretty good and competitive last year, but nobody was paying attention because there was only 5 wins between them.  When the Knicks were good back in the day, the Nets were awful.  Same for when the Nets were really successful, both teams have just never been good at the same time.  If these two teams are right around 35-40 wins and battling for the final playoff spot, people will start to pay attention again.

With the Nets constantly being mentioned by the mainstream sports media as a potential landing spot for Carmelo Anthony, the NAS squad is going to take a look over at some of the players who would likely be included in a deal for the All-Star SF.

Note: Earlier this week, we at NAS incorrectly referred to a rule that noted Derrick Favors could not be traded within the year. In actuality he is only trade-protected within 30 days of signing his rookie contract. We apologize for the error.

Would You Trade Derrick Favors?

The Case For Trading Derrick Favors:

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