The Brooklyn Renaissance
- Thread starter Blacken
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Woj with the real scoop, as always:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jason-kidd-losing-support-within-nets--locker-room-223432794.html
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/jason-kidd-losing-support-within-nets--locker-room-223432794.html
I read somewhere that Sergey Kushchenko has come over to find out what's going on and has been attending Nets practices.
I hate to see KG end his career this way, he certainly never talked about 'father time' when he was hear but he is beginning to recognize his athletic mortality:
Its great to see that he still thinks he is hitting his shots he is shooting 36% for the season.
Its great to see that he still thinks he is hitting his shots he is shooting 36% for the season.
Oh, ok thats probably what he meant, but that makes no sense whatsoever. Doing it in practice at practice speed and doing it in games is just fundamentally different. In addition, father time is going to reduce your elevation on jumpers during the game when you are exhausted from running back and forth. It sucks but its just a function of age
What Garnett said was extraordinarily bad English, but my understanding of what he said basically boils down to this: " I am a professional and I put all the work in, I don't slack of. Father Time doesn't help. I am not getting results right now. That's frustrating as hell".
I am very curious to see how KG handles this in the offseason. If he stays on this path and its clear its going to be embarrassing the longer he plays, will he retire or keep playing? As part of the trade he got his salary ($12M) for next year guaranteed so I wonder if he can let that money go especially with his $300M+ in career salary.
Atlantic has a short, and semi-statistical look at the Nets here: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/01/the-brooklyn-nets-how-to-build-a-disappointing-nba-team-exhibit-a/282789/.
This is probably the take-away paragraph:
This is probably the take-away paragraph:
After the Deng trade today I was browsing this site that lists all future draft pick obligations and found something amazing. The nets don't control there own destiny for a single pick from there 2014 1st to their 2018 1st. 9 picks in a row, 6 are already gone, and the other 3, their 2015 1st, 2016 2nd, and 2017 1st other teams have the right to swap for.
http://www1.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed
http://www1.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/detailed
Pretty scary situation huh? And we have 2 of those picks, its great stuff. This could go down as Dannys best trade ever
Just have to hope this is the beginning of a stretch of futility similar to what the Knicks suffered during the Isiah Era. Fortunately for us it will be tough for the Nets to make significant additions since they don't have any picks to staple to their most enticing trade chip who happens to have broken his foot for the second time in three seasons. They don't really have any exciting young players and no way to acquire any. Basically it will come down to what they can get for next season's expiring contracts (or Pierce this season) but once again it would have to be a perfect storm since they don't have any picks to sweeten the pot.
BigSoxFan said:
After talking to Nets fans, it seems the good news is that there are tons of teams out there who would like to hand them picks for Pierce and Garnet.
It reminds me of the Isaiah era for the Knicks when the fans knew no matter how bad things got they could always recover by trading Malik Rose to the Thunder for Russell Westbrook. (The Thunder would make that trade because they needed somebody to be a mentor for Kevin Durant.)
Don't look now, but the Nets just beat Golden State for their 4th straight win. Deron Williams sat the last two with a sore ankle, too.
Kirilenko is easing into shape and looking good. Joe Johnson is stepping up after a slump. Mirza Teletovic is flashing some of what made him look so good in the Euro leagues.
Kirilenko is easing into shape and looking good. Joe Johnson is stepping up after a slump. Mirza Teletovic is flashing some of what made him look so good in the Euro leagues.
That was a gutsy win by the Nets. I think Johnson's play is what impressed me the most followed by Kirilenko.
On the defensive end, being able to move Garnett back to the 5 where he belongs seems to have helped them a lot. Small sample size and all, but over the last 4 games they're only giving up 97.4 points per possession. That said, over the entire 9 game sample without Lopez, they're still giving up 103.3 points per 100.
He played well too. I didn't know about him, but I read his story on grantland some time ago, so I am happy to see him there.
Nets and Hawks playing in London right now. Brookyln looks pretty good; JJ is hot from downtown and they're attacking the paint with success. AK47 is still a very smart all-around player. Jason Terry is still awful.
86spike said:
I had lost track of him after his stint with the 'Zards. I was surprised that they let him play 51 minutes; I wonder when the last time he played 51 minutes in a game? Had to be before his hellacious knee injury in 2007.
Hard not to root for the guy individually. He could have been pretty special.
The Nets are quietly 30-12 since Jan 1 if they hold on against Houston tonight, 13 in a row at home. Addition by subtraction is always fascinating in the NBA, Lopez might be the best two-way center in the league when healthy but somehow they have been much better without him, and the last month or so has been without Garnett also.
Perhaps that's correlation though. Probably the veterans needed time to get going and for the overall team to gel as well.jon abbey said:
Maybe, but there's a serious league-wide trend towards even many of the most talented big men hurting their teams in today's game. Howard and Asik can't play together, Drummond/Monroe/Smith is one of the worst trios in the league, Brooklyn's success without Lopez and Garnett is another entry here.
Only team to ever sweep LeBron in a regular season series.
Only team to sweep the Heatles. (they even beat the Heat twice in the pre-season)
Trainwreck, my ass.
Only team to sweep the Heatles. (they even beat the Heat twice in the pre-season)
Trainwreck, my ass.
So if I am the Pacers, I think I let the Heat get 1st seed so the Heat can play Brooklyn in the second round. It is pretty likely they stay in the 4-5 game - they are three games up of 'Zards for 5th spot and 2 games behind Toronto for the 3rd spot, and it seems like having the Heat and Brooklyn go at it in the second round is worth home court advantage?
Interesting decision though.
Interesting decision though.
86spike said:
Don't think this is true, they showed a graphic yesterday that the Bulls and Spurs had both done it. Those were only 3 and 2 games, though, so they are the first one to win 4.
It is worth noting that the four games were 3 one point wins plus a double OT win. Still impressive, but that is as close as 4-0 gets to 0-4.
jon abbey said:
First 4 game sweep of Bron, thanks.
And yeah, they were all nail biters.
Nice. Who is Brooklyn's Langston Hughes?jon abbey said:
Well yeah... That's why I never objected to the thread title until now. LolCaptainLaddie said:
With the playoffs approaching, the Nets still struggle with young/fast/athletic teams (Toronto has been a problem) and they are pretty awful on the second night of back-to-backs. Age is a bitch.
There are no back-to-backs in the playoffs, so that's good... But I do worry about the quicker teams the Nets may face.
Hold fast to KiddTony C said:
For if Kidd dies
Coach is a broken-hearted Carlessimo
Who cannot coach.
Hold fast to Kidd
For when Kidd goes
Coach is an Avery Johnson
Hopped up on blow.
Grin&MartyBarret said:
Yes but they "rested" all their starters last night (still won, how funny) and some random dude appearing on the CBS morning radio show said Pacers may rest starters for rest of the season.
86spike said:
and on cue, the Nets drop one to Orlando on the second night of a back-to-back against an athletic squad.
5th seed looks like a lock at this point so they won't get to flex their considerable home court prowess 4 times a series.
BTW, the trip to London a while back has really fucked up their schedule now. They had a boatload of off days around that travel which now has them jamming in many back-to-backs at the end to get to 82 games. Proky is infatuated with global branding, though, so I don't see them bowing out of London in the near future.
Rudy Pemberton said:
The major difference being that the Nets paid an insane amount to get there, both in actual dollars and future assets.
I know that the general feeling was that the Nets had to make a big splash in their first couple of years in Brooklyn, but it's hard not to look at their last two years and feel like they placed a much higher premium on stealing headlines from the Knicks--perhaps the league's worst run franchise--than they did on making sound decisions and setting themselves up for sustained success. So far, the Prokorhov Nets look an awful lot like the Dolan Knicks. Trade future draft picks for over-the-hill, big name stars? Check. Trade for huge contracts attached to big names that nobody else will touch with a ten foot pole? Check. I'm pretty sure I've said this here before, but Prokorhov completely missed the boat here. He was so obsessed with putting a dent in the Knicks fanbase and competing with the Knicks that he accidentally turned his franchise into the Knicks. If he'd gone out and hired a smart GM and made it clear that the Nets were going to be the anti-Knicks, a franchise that made measured, wise decisions, valued draft picks, and had a long-term vision, plenty of Knicks fans would have jumped ship. Put it this way, which team is the city of New York more excited about right now: a core of Williams, Lopez, Lillard, and Joe Johnson or Williams, Johnson, Lopez and a bunch of elderly former Celtics who cost your future?
This season couldn't have been scripted any better for Boston and the 3 future unprotected firsts of theirs we own (one being a swap option). KG is done, Lopez injured again, Pierce on the first flight to Clipperland, and Iso Joe quickly approaching 40,000 NBA minutes.Rudy Pemberton said:
Makes Ainge's trade all that much better looking.
Brickowski said:
And when he allowed Jason Kidd to coach the team.
It's great that he got them to the playoffs but when push came to shove - like the last minutes of the last two games - the Nets didn't have any plays and couldn't execute. I know Joe Johnson is their best player, but going to isos against LB can't be a winning move. I don't know the egos involved, but you have to give to PP being guarded by Ray Allen more than once, don't you?
Sad, Nets were up 8 with 4 minutes to play last night and was tied with the ball with two minutes to go the night before. And from those points, they scored a grand total of two buckets (5 points) - both of which, it should be noted, required offensive rebounds.