Nets Are Scorching

Here we have yet another set of these great blogger previews.  This time we take a look at the Central Division, where the Bulls may have lost their status as favorites (in my opinion) to win the division with the news that Boozer will be out eight weeks with a fractured hand.

Bucks: Brew Hoop | NBAMate | SBNation Recap

Bulls: Blog-A-Bull | SBNation Recap

Cavs: Fear The Sword | WaitingForNextYear

Pacers: Indy Cornrows

Pistons: DetroitBadBoys | Detroit Basketball | Need4Sheed.com | SB Nation Detroit

Recaps: All Previews

Anyone have any questions for our mailbag for tomorrow? Send them in: mailbag@netsarescorching.com

The Nets officially kick off their season tonight at 7 PM at the Prudential Center, as they take on the Israeli professional basketball team Maccabi Haifa in Newark. This will be the first opportunity to see the completely revamped New Jersey take on a professional basketball team, albeit not an NBA team. Maccabi Haifa is led by American Sylven Landesberg, a former Mr. Basketball (NY) who played two years at Virginia and spent Summer League this offseason with Sacramento.

Three things to watch out for:

• Anthony Morrow & Terrence Williams. Morrow struggled with his shot at the Prudential Center and chalked it up to adjusting to the rims. While Avery has made a few comments indicating that Morrow is likely the starter come opening day (and according to Nets beat writer Stefan Bondy, he will start tonight), he’ll have to show that he can make some shots in Newark at some point if he wants Avery to keep saying that.

• Jordan Farmar. Unlike Morrow, Farmar seemed to have no issue knocking down three-pointers at the open practice, and showed a considerable swagger on the court. Against a second-tier professional team, he should continue to shine. Devin Harris shouldn’t have any issues keeping his starting job, but if Farmer continues to impress, he could be facing a competition he didn’t expect.

• Lastly, of course, the rookies. Joe Smith, Troy Murphy, and Brian Zoubek are all out tonight, which means that there will be a lot of time backing up Kris Humphries at the 4 (and perhaps some at the 5) for Derrick Favors. Damion James is a 3-4 hybrid w ho should see some time at both positions as well. James is more polished but Favors of course has that unbelievable upside, and against a small front line (Other than 7’1″ Robert Rothbart, Maccabi Haifa has no player taller than 6’8″) Favors should be able to utilize his strength & quickness down low and overpower the opposing defense.

Well, despite seemingly looking to move him in almost every Carmelo Anthony-trade scenario, Avery Johnson and the Nets seem to continually express wonderment to the kid’s raw tools. Today Fred Kerber captures a highlight from the week:

Rookie Derrick Favors sought to establish position on the right block. Kris Humphries, from behind, tried to force Favors away from the basket.

Favors put his right arm into Humphries’ chest, shoved and sent the six-year veteran stumbling. Offensive foul? Probably. Impressive move? Definitely.

Meanwhile, Johnson, while gushing, throws cold water and references Benoit Benjamin again:

” ‘Potential.’ He can potentially get there,” Johnson said, reminding that for every great player who once flashed potential, there was an equal bust who fell short (he referenced Benoit Benjamin).

I really want to see what Favors can do in a Nets uniform. One would think, with the way talks collapsed with Denver, that they would no longer hold the leverage in talks with the Nets as they seemingly did last week, especially if Favors comes out of the gate and can find ways to contribute.

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

1) Washington Wizards owner, Ted Leonsis mentioned that the NBA would have a hard salary cap like the NHL and was fined $100,000 by David Stern for saying so.  How do you think the hard salary cap will affect the league and should the NBA have one?

Mark: It’s clear that the NBA needs to change its salary structure because a number of teams are losing money hand over fist.  For a sport as financially challenged as the NBA, I think a hard cap like the NHL is worth exploring. If there was a way to eliminate guaranteed contracts, like what you have in the NFL, that would lead to even more parity and financial success in my honest opinion. I guess this is why I’ll never be a lawyer for the player’s union.

Devin: It would be extremely difficult to implement now, especially since you’ve got all these giant contracts recently signed. Pat Riley is not going to sign off on a hard cap with three near-max players on their roster. If it was grandfathered in somehow – I.E. contracts signed prior to hard cap agreement only count as a certain percentage of the cap – it could work, but I’m not a fan of a completely hard cap. I think the salary system as it stands is more effective.

Evan: There is no question that if the league implements a hard cap, player salaries will go down, especially for the non-superstars. The top guys will still get maximum money, but players who have gotten mid-level and veteran exceptions in the past will not be as well paid. There are two clear sides of the argument as to whether the NBA should impose a hard salary cap. Naturally the owners will want to implement one to curb players’ salaries and the Player’s Association would be strongly against one. My opinion? Impose a hard cap like the NFL and NHL. One of the great things about the NFL is that each season a new team seems to come out of the woodwork and make a strong run in the playoffs. A major reason for this is because of the competitive balance created by a hard salary cap. A hard cap in the NBA will equal more competitiveness around the league and will not result in the same teams making the NBA Finals each season (Lakers, Celtics, Spurs…).

DV: I’m all for a hard salary cap.  It just makes sense competitively and proof of it working is in the NFL where every season teams come out of nowhere or fall hard from expectation.  Sure there are a lot of factors that go into those things happening, but the managing of salaries is a big part of that.  Not only will this even the field a bit more, but it will make scouting and analysis that more important and in any game, those are important elements to winning, as opposed to just throwing money around and not being afraid to make mistakes because a team doesn’t mind eating up a bad contract. Read more…

Acknowledging that he could still be traded for Carmelo Anthony at any time, NBA.com’s John Schumann has focused on Devin Harris and his capabilities for a bounceback season this year. It’s something NAS has discussed a lot, and Schumann seems to share the same mindset as some of our writers over here. Bottom line, with a new cast of characters on this team who are nearly all good shooters, it’s possible for a Devo bounceback:

Enter Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, Troy Murphy and Travis Outlaw. They may not be big names, but they can all shoot. The four summer additions, all of whom will be major parts of the Nets’ rotation, have combined to shoot 41 percent from 3-point range over the last two seasons.

Harris again has the shooters around him to make defenses pay for sagging into the lane.

“Every point guard needs space,” (Avery) Johnson said. “We feel that’s going to be important for him to not have any excuses of why not to be aggressive.”

If this team remains intact going into the season opener, the status of Devin Harris may be the most interesting thing to watch for. He was such a dramatic game changer in 2008-09. If he resembled that player last season, there is no question in mind that the Nets wouldn’t have been battling to avoid the worst record of all time.