Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A Really Early New Jersey Nets 2010 Offseason Preview

First of all; congratulations Kobe Bryant on your 100th career 40 point game. The Lakers are 69-31 when Kobe scores 40 or more. Pretty damned good percentage. But everyone's going to blog and talk about that tonight, so I'll go in a different direction.

The New Jersey Nets. Winless through 11 tries. 0-11. WINLESS. The Nets must love donuts. This is hurtful to me though because the Nets are my Eastern Conference team (I spent some time in New Jersey, following Lakers basketball was hard, there was no such thing as NBA League Pass at the time, they grew on me, so sue me). They lost to the Pacers tonight 91-83. What sucks for the Nets is that a lot of their losses have been close losses. Remember the Miami game? They were so close to stealing one if not for Dwyane Wade's game winning three-pointer. You feel bad for this young squad, Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, and Yi Jianlin are injured. Their top options currently are Chris Douglas-Roberts (Had a career high 27 tonight) and Brook Lopez, who went off tonight for 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks... in a losing effort.

But the numbers don't matter, something I've always said, and something CDR said after the game tonight, "It's nothing if we don't win," Douglas-Roberts said. "My numbers don't matter if we're losing because you are labeled a loser. It doesn't matter what you're doing on a losing team. Nobody really cares. I know I don't."

The good news is that the The Nets so far is the team to have the most money at the end of the season to play with once the 2010 offseason comes around, but money, or not, if the Nets don't start salvaging some pride and scrapping out some wins who would want to come to New Jersey? Right? Wrong. That's the reasoning you use for the New York Knickerbockers because unlike the Knicks, the Nets actually have some very good pieces to build with.

The big names are obviously LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, but the thing about them is that they all have options that they would need to decline or exercise in order to become free agents. If things go very well for their teams, or if things just don't look good coming in the offseason than who says they won't pick up their options and resign with their current teams? The reality is that New Jersey is still winless, and the Knicks who somehow have a win are even worse. Toronto, Miami, and Cleveland are all playoff contenders. Why leave?

Well, stay within the conference and look at Joe Johnson who despite playing on a loaded Phoenix team wanted to play for the Hawks for more money and a bigger roll because that's exactly what the Nets have going for them. The Hawks were in purgatory at the time yet Joe Johnson wanted to go there. A few moves here and there, and now look at where the Hawks are now, on top of the Eastern Conference (over Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando?!?!). The good thing about crappy teams with a lot of money is that there are players who look towards two things first and foremost, money, and to be the man. Despite how they do this season, the Nets look primed and ready to take it to the next level once they get that guy. What the hell makes me think that? Vince Carter, the guy they traded away to make all this CAP room, with a worse squad they were producing wins with one superstar caliber player. The Nets have enough to bring in not just a superstar player, but also a nice side-kick to boot. Also hey, as it just so happens Joe Johnson has yet to resign with the Hawks, and is going to be an unrestricted free agent this coming offseason. Oh lawd.

Here's a good look at this seasons free agents via ESPN.

Heading into next season these are the returning Nets coming into 2010
G Devin Harris
G Keyon Dooling
F Yi Jianlin
F Eduardo Najera
C Brook Lopez
G Terrence Williams
F/C Josh Boone
G Courtney Lee
G/F Chris Douglas-Roberts

Projected amount of money to play with in the offseason?
$53.6 million salary cap: $24.9 million in cap space
$50 million salary cap: $21.3 million in cap space

If you ask me, as bad as they look now, the next few years look oh so very promising for the Nets. Lots of young progressing talent already having the luxury of going through early growing pains by being thrown in the fire so early. The biggest pieces the Nets currently have is Devin Harris an all-star point guard, Courtney Lee who played a pivotal roll in Orlando's run to the finals run last season, and Brook Lopez, a big man who is showing lots and lots of promise.

So say that Wade, James, and Bosh do stay with their current teams. What big names are available on the wings? Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady, Josh Howard (T), & Rudy Gay (R). Plug any of these guys and why wouldnt they be able to win as much games as when it was a Harris/Carter tandem?

To make things even better for the Nets, if they are able to sign one of these guys, they will probably still have enough to play for a big man, someone that will do just enough to fit in and play next to emerging center Brook Lopez in the post because the Nets already have much depth in the back court.

Best big men available? Ama're Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Yao Ming, Carlos Boozer, Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby, Jermaine O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Luis Scola, David Lee, Carl Landry (R), and Tyrus Thomas (R).

Here's my most realistic and best scenario for right now(well with a little bit of wishful thinking);

C - Brook Lopez
PF - Carlos Boozer/David Lee/Jermaine O'Neal
SF - Chris Douglas-Roberts
SG - Joe Johnson
PG - Devin Harris

6th - Courtney Lee

Bench - Terrence Williams, Yi Jianlin, Josh Boone, Eduardo Najera, Keyon Dooling

Tell me why that wouldn't be a playoff squad in the east?

Also let's not forget that with the way things are going, the Nets are going to have a very high pick in the draft(BPA would help them in any way). So that's an extra young stud coming in for them in 2010. Also, I did this disregarding the fact that LBJ, D.Wade, and Bosh could opt out of their contracts. If any of them do... that makes things look even brighter in the gloomy NJ state. But keep in mind many things can happen, JJ might end up resigning with the Hawks (who look very good and only need one more piece to really be a true contender) after the season, the same with Boozer because he's starting to warm up to the fans in Utah again. They might sign elsewhere, the other big names might resign/sign somewhere else, the Nets just might shoot blanks in the big 2010 offseason. Many types of various things and trades might happen that could throw everything out of wack. This is just one person's hopeful projection. The season is still very early. We're only 11 games in out of an 82 game season. Remember, like the title says, this is just "A Really Early" preview.

But the fact still remains, the Nets have a very good looking high-potential filled offseason ahead of them.

1 comment:

  1. I have been a fan of the Nets for my entire life. What I want to see them do this offseason is sign some young talent. While Joe Johnson is a great player, he is 29-30 years old. I think they should look to sign Rudy Gay along with one of the other big names. I also think we should get rid of Keyon Dooling along with Eduardo Najera in return for some more draft picks. Do this would lead the Nets to a team with everyone under 25 years old--one that could surely grow together to become a dominant team for nearly a decade.

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