2nd half rotations

The second half of the season is upon us and the Nets are 21-31 and one game out of the 8^th seed. The Nets are better than the Hornets and they should make the playoffs but the key to making it is Lionel Hollins rotations. This is something he has struggled with this season, but I’m here to fix that problem. The first thing is no more starting Jarrett Jack. The Nets have a -8.6 net rating with Jack on the floor!!! That is horrible! He shouldn’t be a starter on most teams. When Jack is on the bench the Nets have 5.6 net rating. All the numbers say the Nets are better when Jack doesn’t play; so stop starting him!!! Even though Deron Williams is having a down year the Nets have a net rating of -1.2 with him on the floor. Now that’s not good but it’s a lot better than Jarrett Jack. It’s time to start Deron and it’s not even a debate. When it comes to the 1^st wing position it’s a no brainer, Joe Johnson. The 2^nd wing is interesting Bojan Bogdanovic and Alan Anderson have basically the same net rating, Bojan is a better shooter than Anderson but Anderson is a better defender. I would go with Anderson (I can’t believe I’m writing this) because of the defense and he doesn’t hurt the spacing. Both players should certainly get a lot of minutes. It would be smart to sprinkle in another wing player like Karasev or Markel Brown. They would only play like 5 minutes, but they are needed. When it comes to power forward, Thaddeus Young needs to play a lot. He’ll be pushing 34-36 minutes a night. The Nets only backup is Cory Jefferson and he bare plays as it is. Mason Plumlee is the starting center and Lopez is off the bench when it comes to the center position.

Minute’s breakdown (warning, my math skills are 76ers bad)

PG Deron Williams (32-36 mins) Jarrett Jack (12-16 mins)

Wings Joe Johnson (34-36 mins) Alan Anderson (26-30 mins) Bojan Bogdanovic (18-22 mins) Markel Brown (5-7 mins)

Power forward Thaddeus Young (34-36 mins) Cory Jefferson (12-14 mins)

Center Mason Plumlee (28-32 mins) Brook Lopez (16-20 mins)

It’s important to note that these minutes wouldn’t allow Deron Williams and Jarrett Jack to play alongside each other, as well as Brook Lopez and Mason Plumlee. Those two combinations have not worked all year so let’s not try this in the second half. Okay?  

Nets Trade Deadline Roller Coaster

At 1pm I was sitting in my communication arts class (what does that even mean?) and I see that the Nets are on the verge of trading Brook Lopez, Kevin Garnett and Jarrett Jack. If you follow me on twitter or have read anything I have written you would know trading those guys would make me thrilled. So I was in class smiling pretending to pay attention but I was violently swiping my timeline looking for the confirmed tweet from Woj or Stein. So at around 2:30 I was working on a project with some people I looked back at my phone and I see Kevin Garnett has been traded for Thaddeus Young (good trade we’ll get into that later). I was happy with that the only thing left was Lopez and Jack. At this time I am wondering why this trade hasn’t been completed yet. So I go away from my phone I come back at 2:55ish and devastation, Reggie Jackson has been traded to the Pistons. WHY WOJ!!! Enes Kanter has been traded to the Thunder. All hope is dead.

At one point today the Nets looked like they were going to be HUGE winners. They were going to get a young point guard in Reggie Jackson but instead Sam Presti played Billy King. Brook Lopez is now in a really awkward stage, he’s playing for a team that has tried to trade him multiple times in the past month. By not trading Lopez Mason Plumlee is a trade deadline loser today. Without Lopez Plumlee would be able to play freely and not be worried about being pulled for making a mistake. But the Nets did get Thaddeus Young so let’s look at that.

Thaddeus Young was drafted by Billy King in 2007 in Philadelphia and Billy has always been a fan of Thaddeus and now he got him back. KG for Thaddeus is a good trade for Brooklyn I thought KG had no value but Flip Saunders really wanted him back and offered the Nets a good player but he’s having a down year he’s averaging 14 points on 13 shots! And shooting 29% from three but he’s Thaddeus isn’t having a bad year due to a decrease in talent or athleticism it’s because he’s being asked to do too much. Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic have been hurt a majority of the year making Young the 1^st or 2^nd option. Young isn’t good enough to be the 1^st or 2^nd option on Brooklyn he will be the 3^rd or 4^th option which is a much better fit. In Brooklyn he will play off the ball more and he will be able to slash a lot more which is strength in his game. He also fits nicely in Brooklyn having him on the floor with Plumlee will allow the Nets to operate at a much faster pace. Young had good on/off #s in Minnesota their offensive rating was +2 with him on the floor. Young brings the Nets youth and athleticism which is something they needed, Young has a player option for next season, and The Nets need Young to opt-in because they have no cap room so they won’t be able to sign a power forward. Young should play a lot for Brooklyn since the Nets don’t have a backup power forward, they have Cory Jefferson but Hollins has been hesitant to use him. If Young can play good defense and help offensively he can boost the Nets to the eight seed. (GO CRAZY) It’s hard to predict future success, especially in this case with Young but I think he’ll be a good fit on this team is it enough to make them a playoff team? We will find out.

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