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.

AI the 2nd Still Has Much To Learn

A lot of people have jumped on the Jennings bandwagon lately, me not being one of those people. Probably because he reminds me too much of Allen Iverson. I don’t hate either player, they’re exciting to watch, and their passion is evident, but basketball is a team game.

Jennings is playing phenomenal, something that any casual NBA fan probably would have heard by now, but tonight’s game against Nowitzki and the Mavericks showed us exactly why he’s not ready to step into the next level. Don’t get me wrong, AI is a HOFer, and at the pace Jennings is going, he probably will be too, but he needs to build some trust with his team. He needs to quit acting like he’s the only reason the Bucks are winning, seemingly undermining the fact that there are four other guys with the same jersey on the floor. You’re looking great now, Jennings, but are you seeing how AI’s career is concluding? Don’t want that do you? Star players need to be selfish to an extent because they need it in them to drive that fire to win games when they’re on the line, but Jennings really forced the action tonight. He hit some big shots, Nowitzki hit a real huge one at the end of the game, but Jennings just tried too hard, chucked up really dumb 3s, completely ignored open teammates, and that’s what really cost the Bucks the game. Remember Kobe and the selfish tags put on him? He used to play the exact same way, and while he was seen as a very talented player, he was yet to be considered to arguably be one of the best to ever play the game outside of the Lakers huddle. Changed that, and now look at the guy’s status.

Granted, Redd is injured, and Jennings' only other real reliable offensive option is Andrew “Bogans” (Jennings doesn’t even know his own teammates names lol), so we have yet to see how he would play around an adequate supporting cast. The problem though is we’re not just seeing this on the court. Jennings bitched about needing to go to college before the NBA and decided to go overseas instead of reading a couple of books (Doesn’t matter though because he’s a basketball star and that’s his life, right?— Such a sad society, isnt it?—). The kid has “it”, the problem is the attitude and approach to the game. He needs to check himself to see if he’s either going to go down the path of AI, or to step into the next level and get into the conversation of the truly elite guards like Kobe, Magic, MJ, Kidd, etc. etc.

What’s your opinion on B.J. ? Wow, that is a rather unappealing nickname, especially in today's society.

About Me?

Why hello there. I always have been bad at this intro stuff. I have no problem throwing down my thoughts, and going on endlessly about a subject, but the start off is always rough, kind of like a Honda. That seems to be the problem with most people though, right?

Me? I am nothing more than the fan that has his fair share of opinions that has to do with anything that has to do with the inflatable orange rubber ball called a basketball. I'm the guy kickin' back with his girl downing nachos and suddenly jumping straight up when someone makes a ridiculous pass. The one waving his hand up and down when someone makes an "And1" play as if I was the referee. The one pointing at the corner of the screen yelling, "HE'S OPEN!" wondering why he didn't pass it completely forgetting that not only do the players not have birds eye view of the action, but that I don't have a 6'0+ FT 180+ lbs. guy in my face blocking my vision. The one that puts both hands on his head when someone blows a wide-open fast break layup. The one yelling randomly out of frustration when his team commits a turnover by throwing really obvious pass that results in easy points for the opposition. The one that talks to the TV yelling, "PUT IT IN KOBE'S HANDS" when it's crunch time. I am all that and the bag of chips I destroy while drinking a cold beer and watching the game.

My favorite team?



Jealous? You should be. :) Don't worry, I'm not like other Lakers fans, my favorite player while he's one of the tops on my list isn't even Kobe Bryant(Tim Duncan is, SAY WHAT?!). My all-time favorite player wasn't a Laker either(Hakeem "The Dream" Olajuwon, can't argue that one can you?). I just happen to be from Los Angeles, and yes I am a die-hard Lakers fan, BUT I am also a NBA fan in general. Don’t really care much to argue about who’s better or their individual accolades (like the MVP award for example). I value cohesion and team play a lot more because when the season is over, the most celebrated and cared about accolade is the winning of the championship ring. If I'm talking about an individual player it most likely will be about what he does, and how he helps and or hurts his team instead of what the player can do individually and how "great" he is. Yeah, I don't really care about individual success, I'm the kind of guy that likes helping and watching other people succeed. I'm kind of like the prototypical point guard. I'd rather make the pass and make sure things are working instead of worrying about if I get my points.

Interested? No? Oh well, this isn't really for you, this is just for me to throw down my endless thoughts on this great game called basketball. Why? Because it's hard finding anyone that shares the same passion I do about the game. Wanna follow? That's great, if not, oh well.

Yup, that's me in the basketball sense. That was a lot longer than I expected.

EDITED ADD IN: 3 days in and I'm already starting to get some nice support on this. Hmm, depending on how things go I might wanna start taking it to the next level, whattya think?