Nets Are Scorching

How will Big Al fit in out in Utah?  Will the Blazers stay healthy?  Will Melo still be a Nugget on opening night?  Can the Thunder avoid a sophomore slump?  Just what is the plan in ‘Sota?  All this and more in the Northwest previews.

Jazz : SLC Dunk | Salt City Hoops | SBN Recap

Nuggets: Denver Stiffs | Roundball Mining Company | The Nugg Doctor | SBN Recap

Thunder - Welcome to Loud City | Planet BBall | SBN Recap

Timberwolves - Canis Hoopus | TwolvesBlog

Blazers - Blazersedge.com | SBN Recap

Recaps: All Previews

Name: Joe Smith

Position: PF

Height: 6’10’’

Weight: 225 lbs

Birth Date: July 26, 1975 (Age: 35)

Birth Place: Norfolk, VA

Number: 8

Drafted: 1^st Pick of the First Round in 1995 by the Golden State Warriors

Experience: 15 years

Contract: $1,352,181

On Offense:

Joe Smith will not be relied upon to do much on the offensive end, though he has shown the ability in his career to be a very good offensive player. He came out of the University of Maryland in 1995 as a prolific scorer, and averaged in double figures the first four seasons of his career. At 6’10’’ he can score around the rim but also has the ability to step out and hit the 15-17 foot jumper. His scoring average has steadily declined throughout his 15 years in the League, though he did average 11.2 points per game in 50 games with the Bulls in part of the 2007-08 season. Anything the Nets get from Smith on the offensive end this season is gravy, as they are not expecting much from the 35-year old veteran.

On Defense:

Smith came out of college as a tremendous shot blocker and he averaged over 1 block per game in his first two seasons. Has a career average of 0.8 blocks per game and is a solid defender at the power forward position. He has been a decent defensive rebounder in his career, and averaged a career-high 5.4 defensive boards per game in 2003-04 with the Milwaukee Bucks. Injuries and age have caused some of Smith’s athleticism to decline but he can still make an impact on the defensive end off the bench for a few minutes per game.

Miscellaneous:

Joe Smith was the 1994-95 NCAA AP Player of the Year in college and was the First overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft. The Nets are the 11th different team Smith has played for in his NBA career. Smith is involved in rap music off the court, as he calls himself “Joe Beast” and has his own record label called Nova Unit Records. He also started the Joe Smith Foundation to help underprivileged children.

Comment:

Although he’ll be the 3^rd (or 4^th when Troy Murphy is healthy) power forward in Avery Johnson’s rotation, I see Joe Smith as having a very valuable role on this team. On the court he will be able to give the Nets about 10 minutes a game when needed. He has the ability to score around the rim, hit the mid-range jumper and he will play solid defense. The biggest role I see for Smith, however, is in helping the development of Derrick Favors. If things go as planned, I see the 15-year veteran being a mentor to the rook, and helping him adjust to NBA life. The acquisition of Joe Smith may not pay major dividends on the court, but it could end up being huge in the locker room.

For More on Joe Smith:

NBA.com

ESPN

Basketball-Reference

Draft Express

82games

When he officially took over as owner of the Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov said he expected the franchise to win an NBA championship within five years. As for this year, playoffs were a possibility. With the team stopping over in Russian before making their way to China yesterday, Prokhorov was trying to stick by his word.

“Our task is to become champions in five years. I hope we’ll do it,” Prokhorov said, via The Associated Press.

Avery Johnson had backpedaled from those comments at the team’s media day, saying the quotes were out of context given the potential still available in free agency. He said he wanted his team to crawl first, then take baby steps.

The Star-Ledger’s Conor Orr cites Basketball Prospectus, who see the Nets as the 7th best team in the Eastern Conference this season.

You all have heard from Sebastian today, and while we’re very sad to see him go, NAS is also using this as an opportunity to embrace some new voices out there. We heard from a lot of you over the past week, and I think each and every one of you for your interest. But without further ado, here are our new NAS writers:

Danny Savitzky is currently a sophomore at USC, majoring in print and digitial journalism with a minor in the brand-spanking-new sports media studies program. He grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, from the time he was six to when he graduated high school, taking an interest in the Nets for the 2004-2005 season. After watching a month of excruciating basketball with stars like Ron Mercer, Aaron Williams, and Eric Williams, the Nets dealt for Vince Carter, when Danny really started taking an interest in the team. Since then, he has followed the team closely through its ups and downs and is beyond excited for the two years to come in Newark and, thereafter, Brooklyn.

In addition to writing for Nets Are Scorching, Danny is also a Team Writer for the Los Angeles Clippers, covering practices and games for Clippers.com. His favorite experience thus far was going to the World Basketball Festival at Madison Square Garden in August, where he covered Team USA and interviewed Eric Gordon, other players, and coaches. Danny also coedits a USC sports blog, reignoftroy.com, contributing to thehoopsreport.com, and doing play-by-play and color commentary for USC football, basketball, and baseball games for the student radio station, KXSC.

Justin DeFeo is a new writer to the NetsAreScorching blog. He began his blogging career in 2009 contributing to some smaller blogs before having the opportunity to work with a general NBA blog, Sir Charles In Charge, which is part of the Fansided blogging network. While working for that site, Justin covered the whole league and wrote mostly opinion based articles, however, two of his video breakdowns were among his most popular.

A video which examined Kobe Bryant’s footwork, and a video which showcased the many different talents of Pau Gasol.

Justin, who is a New Jersey native, became a Nets fan after falling in love with Keith Van Horn in college, then following him to the NBA. He really fell in love, however, when the Nets hijacked the Suns and acquired Jason Kidd. The Nets two consecutive runs to the NBA finals were his favorite memories as a sports fan, highlighted by the dramatic double overtime win against the Indiana Pacers in game five of the 2002 NBA Playoffs first round, a game he was at.

His other passion is coaching, and for the past three seasons he has been an assistant basketball coach at the Division III level, hoping to move up. It is in this capacity that most of his work will be for NAS. He will be taking a look at the X’s and O’s of the Nets and their opponents, and breaking it down providing sound analysis. He encourages anyone to follow him on twitter, @coachdif10, where he tweets mostly about basketball, soccer and coaching.

Name: Jordan Farmar
Position: PG
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 180 lbs
Birth Date: November 30, 1986 (age 23)
Birth Place: Los Angeles, CA
Number: 2
Drafted:  26th pick of the First Round in 2006 by the Los Angeles Lakers
Experience: 4 years
Contract: $4 million Read more…

I have been with NetsAreScorching, posting on a consistent basis, since April 7th, 2009.  Through that, you have seen the site go from a terrible wordpress.com blog (seriously, only go there if you want to have a few chuckles at my expense), to having its own domain, to being a part of the TrueHoop Network.  NetsAreScorching.com was my first foray into blogging, and that is why it is really tough to say this:

I am going to be stepping away from NetsAreScorching starting today.  I don’t want to get too deep into explanations, because this isn’t the place, but with grad school finishing up a job search that is about to begin  there isn’t going to be enough time for me to dedicate myself to the site fully.

So what does this mean exactly?  Nothing really as the NetsAreScorching that you all know and love will still be here.  Just that as I move editor emeritus role, Mark Ginocchio will take over as the lead man and de facto editor (a role that Mark and I basically shared).  You all know Mark, and you will be in good hands with him running the show.  It is no coincidence that the site started taking huge strides in the right direction as soon as he came along.  Not only that, but Devin, Dennis, and Evan (who will be posting more often now) are still here.  Plus, there are two new guys that you guys will be meeting later today.  Trust me, this site is only going to get stronger and will continue to be the best Nets blog around (that’s my opinion, but I am kind of biased).

So what about me?  Well, I am going to still be around.  You have my e-mail address, I may be posting here every once in a long while, and I am still going to be on twitter.  If you are still looking for my writing, you can find it over at NBAPlaybook.com (I know I pimp this site all the time, but check it out!).  In addition to the reasons I mentioned earlier, I am stepping away to focus most of my blogging efforts over there.  I have a lot of special things planned for this season, and for me to be able to get those things done, I need to focus all my attention over there.  Its funny, I am leaving NetsAreScorching to focus more on doing something that started here.

Before I finally step aside, there are a few people who were important to the growth of NetsAreScorching that I want to thank.  Mark has basically been the co-editor with me since he joined the site last August.  Devin and Dennis has been big to the growth of the site since joining, helping cover what was an insane offseason.  Evan, who has been killing it ever since he started it, too.  Nate Jones who was able to hook me up with a Terrence Williams interview shortly after he was drafted.  Ben Couch, NJNets.com fantastic blogger who e-mailed me when I first joined the TrueHoop Network, and was very helpful when I showed up to my first Nets’ event as a credentialed member of the media.  Speaking of that, Aaron Harris (with the Nets’ PR department) has been very gracious in allowing the site to be credentialed to various practices and most recently, Media Day, allowing us to bring unique content to you guys.

A special thank you needs to go out to Henry Abbott, Kevin Arnovitz, and the rest of the great writers of the TrueHoop Network.  Obviously, the NetsAreScorching.com (I don’t even know if it would even exist anymore) that you guys have been accustomed to wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for Henry and Kevin allowing the site to become a part of the TrueHoop Network, even if the site wasn’t that good when they did (Did you click that first link?).  The rest of the guys of the Network (guys like Matt Moore, Tim Varner, Royce Young, Zach Harper, Jared Wade, Eddy Rivera, Dan Feldman, and everyone else) have been so kind offering up advice and tips that also have led to the growth of not only me as a blogger/writer, but the site as well.

Last but not least, I gotta thank the readers who come over the site and comment every single day.  The interesting takes in the comment sections not only kept me entertained, but has also made me smarter (well, most of them at least).

• Scoring droughts have become an issue over the last few games. In the 4th quarter today the Nets went nearly 4 minutes without a field goal and had a stretch of 6 minutes where they scored just 5 points.
• In his first career start, Derrick Favors had a decent game with 9 points and 10 rebounds. Getting to double figures on the defensive glass is something that Nets fans would love to see from the rook.
• Brook Lopez had solid scoring numbers (23 points on 8 of 16 shooting) but 8 turnovers is inexcusable from your center. Travis Outlaw had his best preseason game thus far, with 15 points and 9 boards.
• The team’s defense continues to be inconsistent. They allowed just 14 points in the 2nd quarter but the Sixers came back with a 30-point effort in the 3rd; way too many points if the Nets are going to be successful.
• Bench play: Jordan Farmar had another solid game with 15 points off the bench while Terrence Williams had an inexplicably bad game. T-Will committed 5 turnovers, took 3 shots and scored 0 points. Yikes.
• Their assist to turnover ratio was flat-out awful today (18 assists and 25 turnovers). Devin Harris did have 8 assists but 4 turnovers for your floor general is too many.
• Basically this was looking like a disappointing performance for the 6,252 in attendance until the Nets pulled a rabbit out of their hat in the final seconds. Off to China for two games against the Rockets…

Name: Quinton Ross
Position: SF
Height: 6’6”
Weight: 195 lbs
Birth Date: April 30, 1981 (age 29)
Birth Place: Dallas, TX
Number: 13
Drafted:  Undrafted out of SMU
Experience: 6 years
Contract: $1.1 million

Read more…