It is
finally October; the greatest month of the year, which means the NBA training
camps have begun and the NBA season starts at the end of the month. For the
Brooklyn Nets the season can’t start fast enough. The Nets had one of their
strangest off seasons of recent memory when their head coach bolted to
Milwaukee. FREAKING MILWAUKEE!!!!And now the owner is reportedly looking to
sell the team as well. Why is it that everyone is leaving Brooklyn except for
Billy King? Regardless, let’s look at the major issues surrounding the Nets
this season.
Feet
I don’t know if Rex Ryan has a
favorite basketball team but if he doesn’t he would love this year’s Nets team;
because the teams season depends on three feet. Deron Williams is coming off
ankle surgery on both ankles. Before the surgery last year, Deron Williams
looked like a bottom ten point guard in the league. If the Nets are going to
make the playoffs Deron Williams has to be a top 12 point guard. Deron’s numbers last season were equal to his
career average and the Nets offensive rating with Deron on the court was 108.3
(that’s very good). So if Deron averaged his career numbers and had a very good
offensive rating why has he been killed by fans and the media? Because his
career numbers aren’t enough. In order for the Nets to have a great year Deron
must have a great year. The other foot of concern on the Nets is Brook Lopez.
Lopez is coming off his second major foot surgery. He only played in 17 games
last year and the Nets struggled last year with Lopez. They turned the season
around after his injury when they played small ball. If Kidd was still the
coach of the Nets, Lopez would make the team worse. However, with Hollins as
the coach, Lopez will be a key to the Nets season. Reports say Lopez is looking
good and is ahead of schedule in his rehab but the Nets need to be careful with
Brook. They can’t let him play in back to backs or 4 games in 7 days. They need
to be cautious with him because one more foot injury and it could be his
career. If Lopez and Williams stay healthy and have great years the Nets will
be a top 5 team in the east.
Lionel Hollins
When Jason Kidd left for
Milwaukee it left the Nets in a bad spot. They needed to find a new coach four
days before free agency; so the Nets reacted quickly and hired Lionel Hollins.
His career win percentage is .516, but his last 4 seasons in
Memphis he went 183-129 which is a .704 win percentage. Since the 2010-2011
season all of Hollins teams had a positive net rating and in the 12-13 season
his last year as the coach of the Grizzlies he had a net of 4.2 and reached the
Western Conference finals. Each season in Memphis, Hollins teams were among the
slowest in the league when it came to pace; which is something he wants to
change in Brooklyn. With a new coach comes a new system and it will look a lot different
this year in Brooklyn. Under Kidd, the Nets usually only had one big on the
floor, but with Hollins the Nets will use two bigs and they will be a key part
to the offense. Last year Kidd was a players’ coach. He took the blame and he
preferred rest over practice. Hollins is the complete opposite. He is a stuff
coach and will work the Nets hard all season long. Last year the Nets had a
negative net rating. I think that will change under Hollins and the Nets will
have positive net rating all year.
Shooting Guard
The Nets current starting lineup is Williams-???-
Johnson-KG-Lopez. Who will be the starting two guard? As of now it looks like
the newest Nets Bojan Bogdanovic (he needs a nickname ASAP). Bojan is finally a
Net after playing in Europe the last three years. He is a sharpshooter and should
hit a lot of threes this year. He comes to America with high reviews from
basketball writers and executives. Bojan is the only real option to start for
the Nets at the two guard. The other two players are Alan Anderson and Andrei
Kirilenko. Anderson is a good player when he is used right. When Alan Anderson
plays more than 18 minutes a game you aren’t going to win. If Anderson is the 8th
or 9th guy on a team it’s good, but by no means is he a starter.
AK47 is one of my favorite players on this team but he isn’t a good option to
start, but he will finish a lot of games for the Nets. If you start AK the
spacing will be bad for the Nets. The lane will be clogged, teams will double
Lopez in the post, and there won’t be any open perimeter shots for Deron and
Joe. A lineup with AK, KG and Lopez would be good defensively but it wouldn’t
be able to score. Bojan is the only option because the defense must keep a
defender on him because of his sharp shooting and because he is a pretty good
scorer. I don’t know a lot about Bojan but he should work on his postgame. He
is 6’8 and 216 pounds, that’s huge for a two guard and it’s bigger than most
threes in the league. Another reason why Bojan should start is because he’s
only 25. The Nets let Pierce go because they wanted to save money and get
younger. Bojan is that young guy play him.
KG and The Other
Bigs
It sounds like this will be
Kevin Garnett’s last season in the NBA. Last year KG averaged 20 minutes a game.
Under Hollins that will change; he is already playing more in preseason. KG
should be on the same schedule as last year, no back to backs. He is an old man
and needs to be ready for the playoffs. KG should have a good season but my
major concern with Brooklyn is the lack of bigs they have. With Lopez and KG bound
to miss games due to rest, the Nets don’t have a good safety net behind them.
Plumlee was a great pick last year but can he repeat last year? I don’t think
so. Plumlee was a perfect center in Kidd’s system. With Hollins the Nets will
be slower and Plumlee will be working in the post a lot more than last year,
and Plumlee was never in the post last year. Mirza will be spaced out and
should be okay offensively but going up against other big men is where Mirza
has his trouble. The only other big man on the roster is Cory Jefferson who was
the last pick in this year’s draft. The Nets biggest mistake this offseason was
not resigning Andray Blatche. He would be a good player in this system. Blatche
is far and way better than Plumlee in the post. With Blatche you get the stupid
mental errors but he’s an effective score down low with the ball in his hands.
That is something Plumlee hasn’t shown he can do yet. This is a concern because
what if the Nets have a back to back and Lopez can’t play, Plumlee is starting
at center and gets into foul trouble (which is something that happened a lot
last year) who’s playing center? Jerome Jordan has been a great training camp
find for the Nets. He’s been a force down low and might even see some playing
time in the regular season.
Record
Now I think picking a record for
82 game season is dumb but what the hell I’ll do it. Going through the schedule
I have the Nets at 44-48 wins… seems like a lot but I have a good feeling about
this team Hollins is a good coach. The Nets start 10-21 last year that won’t
happen this year. Early in the season the Nets have a good first six games at
the very least they should start 5-1. I think the Nets will finish between 6th
and 4th in the East. They could win the Atlantic but I think the Raptors win
the division again.
On a
personal note @threwthenet will have a lot less coverage this year due to
myself being an assistant/student manger on my college’s basketball team.
For
everything Nets and NBA follow @threwthenet on twitter.
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