Music to listen to: OPP by Naughty by Nature
Last season/offseason changes: The Nets had a terrible season, a historically terrible season. They started the year 0-18, fired their head coach and managed to avoid the imfamy of having the worst-ever record in NBA history by finishing the year 12-70.
However, there is optimism in New Jersey. It starts with the new owner, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. He brings money and potential assets that can increase the profile of the club.
The next biggest move is that its finally been confirmed that the Nets will finally move to Brooklyn, New York which is another move to increase the name brand of the Nets. While the Nets will probably never be able to surpass the New York Knicks in popularity in the New York metro area, there is room for two teams to thrive in the market.
Avery Johnson is also the new head coach but I’ll get to him later.
Strength: Arguably the two hardest things to find in the NBA on the court is a competent point guard and a center. The Nets already have those positions filled.
When Dallas traded Devin Harris to the Nets for Jason Kidd, it was looked at a home run for New Jersey. The Nets were getting the younger, more explosive player with more potential. Harris even showed respect for the Nets by being selected to the All-Star game in his first season with the team. However, after last year’s campaign and Kidd’s revival in Dallas, the trade has evened out.
For the Nets to reach their potential, Harris has to play up to his potential. We all know that he can score and has speed but the decision making, especially on passes must improve. Some defensive effort wouldn’t hurt either.
The center for New Jersey is Brook Lopez, who is a burly rebounded with a decent offensive game. His main issue is staying healthy, but honestly, that’s an issue for nearly every big post player in the NBA from Andrew Bynum to Yao Ming to Kendrick Perkins to Greg Oden and on and on and on. When healthy, he may be the second-best center in the East.
Weakness: You don’t win twelve games and have a lack of weaknesses. You can say the Nets’ weakness was stepping on the court every night.
However, if you had to look at two things in particular, it was the lack of rebounding and shooting ability. I know I just called Lopez a “burly” rebounded, which has a positive connotation, but one man can’t do it alone. New Jersey is hoping that the additions of Troy Murphy and first-round pick Derrick Favors will take care of this issue. It won’t but its at least a start.
The second issue will be approached by the additions of Travis Outlaw, Anthony Morrow and Murphy. Once again, this won’t solve the problem but the situation is better now than last year.
Most important player: Without question, the answer to this question is Favors.
The Nets had a chance to draft Demarcus Cousins out of Kentucky in the draft but didn’t select him because they already have Lopez and had questions about his character. Cousins proceeded to have a double-double, 16 points and 16 rebounds in his first preseason game. I’m not saying that Cousins isn’t going to do this the whole year but the Nets may have passed on arguably the most talented player in the draft for an unproven commodity in Favors.
The knock on Favors is that he is a great athlete but lacks the fundamental skills to be a productive NBA player. As a Georgia Tech fan who saw a decent amount of his games last year, here’s my response to that. First, the guards at Tech were not good last year and he wasn’t able to get the ball in productive offensive spots to score. Harris will be a major upgrade for him at the point guard spot. Second and most importantly, he’s still a kid that can’t even have alcohol yet. It takes a while for big men to develop. Even those who have had immediate impacts in the NBA over the years spent at least two or three years in college.
If you give Favors time to develop, he should be fine.
Celebrity crush from the city: Many choices but I’m going to take actress Laura Prepon
Coaching: This is Avery Johnson’s second turn as a head coach in the NBA after his run with Dallas. His biggest asset is an attention to detail and that has also been his biggest weakness. He has clashed with his top players in the past because of his constant grading of their efforts. One of these players included Harris so that will be interesting to see how they co-exist with the Nets.
The Nets need direction and a personality like Johnson’s may be perfect for this situation in the short term. When he was with Dallas, the Mavs were a playoff team that already had pieces in place. Johnson even took the team to an NBA Finals appearance. He also coached a squad that lost a best of seven series to Golden State as the top seed in the West, which was one of the biggest and unacceptable upsets in recent memory.
The good news is that the Nets aren’t competing for a title anytime soon so the pressure is low. The bad news is that we haven’t seen Johnson in a rebuilding situation.
First memory of team: I clearly remember seeing plenty of Nets games when I was younger because I’m a Syracuse basketball fan and they had Derrick Coleman and I’m also from Brooklyn and followed local legend Kenny Anderson.
My favorite player from that era was Drazen Petrovic because not only was he skilled, he had an edge about him that I hadn’t seen from another European player at that time. Enjoy the highlights.
Best case: Win total is around 35. The three core players, Harris, Lopez and Favors will play well enough to be considered participants in All-Star weekend (Favors for the rookie/sophomore game).
Worst case: The struggles continue all around and the team wins only 20 games.
Uniform grade: I wish they would return to their old red, white and blue look from the early days but the current crop is solid. Grade: B
Overall outlook: Things are looking well for the Nets. They have a new owner, increased the talent level and the prospects of moving to Brooklyn. Fans of the team will just have to be patient and sit through another losing season.
Those are my thoughts, what about yours?
2010 Backdoor Cut Previews:
Atlantic Division
The Sports Inquirer 
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