Congratulations Brook Lopez!

Here is the official release from the NBA.  I know the Nets expected big things when Brook fell into their laps in this years draft, but this is still a great Accomplishment.

Next year on to the All Star Team!

Season In Review: Ryan Anderson

Now we press on, to the first potential building block for the Nets.  Overall Anderson had a pretty good rookie campaign for a later pick.  Like any other rookie, not named LeBron, he had his ups and downs, with his best months coming in November, February, and April.  

Anderson brings a very unique skill set to the floor.  He presents almost a Dirk Nowitzki Jr. for the Nets on the court.  Anderson is every bit of 7 feet on the offensive end. A natural power forward, minus the power, on the offensive end he presents a problem for the slower 4s the league who want to just play tough post defense.  Anderson can stay around the perimeter and just drain jumpers and threes all game.  Unfortunately, he is also similar to Dirk on the defensive end, as Charles Barkley once said, "7 feet on offense, 6 feet on defense."

During his rookie year Ryan Anderson was very good at blending in with the pace of the offense.  At the end of the game you could never remember all the shots that he took, or missed, which is a great attribute for anyone who is not your star player.  This facet of his game will be very important as I envision his role on this team as the first big off the bench and a shooter in the flow of the offense.  

Anderson's overall statistics are quite impressive if you look at the entire picture.  He will never be a great rebounder but he consistently showed a solid effort, and his turnover rates were low while his assist averages look really good for a big that is not the focus of the offense.

Overall I would give Ryan Anderson a B- for his rookie campaign.  Definitely made more of an impact then I expected, but did  not truly excel at his position.  Hopefully over the summer he will work with Lopez and learn some of the post moves that Brook excelled at this year. 

Frank to stay on as Head Coach

Well, it will be interesting to see the fall out from this. I can not say that I am a huge supporter of this move by the Nets as I do not see Frank as the coach of the future, and if he is not the coach of the future it would make sense that you would want the replacement in as soon as possible. 

"We wanted to look at whole operation and see where we were going and see ways we could improve it," Thorn said. "There are ways to improve, but changing the coach, in my mind, was not one of the ways to improve it."

I'll give some credit to Thorn for not giving into the critics and sticking to his guns, but I am just afraid that he may not know when to admit a bad move.

Season In Review: Maurice Ager

There is not too much to say about Ager's third year in the league. He was not statistically very impressive, but it is not like he had undefinable qualities that are not measure in stats. He just was not very good.  

It seems that Ager may be a casualty of this summer.  Although he had limited minutes, if he was worth anything he would have gotten the minutes after the Nets were eliminated. 

He came into the league with a reputation for being a lights out shooter but I think his career 33% from the field, 20% from distance, and 57% from the line speak otherwise.  Nets' Nation wishes you well Maurice.  Here is to hoping he works out the kinks this summer and can prove me wrong.

It is tough to give him a grade at all but if he had to get one I am going to give a generous D-.

Player Season Review Schedule

Here is the breakdown of when I will be breaking down how each member of the Nets performed this year and their future with the team.

Maurice Ager

Ryan Anderson

Josh Boone

Vince Carter

Keyon Dooling

Chris Douglas-Roberts

Devin Harris

Trenton Hassell

Jarvis Hayes 

Yi Jianlian

Brook Lopez

Eduardo Najera

Bobby Simmons

Sean Williams

2008-2009 Season Recap

The 2009 Season was one of growth and maturing for the Nets.  They finished 3rd in their division, 11th in the conference, and a close 5 games out of the 8th seed.  As a team that lost more than it won the statistical splits are not going to be pretty.  The Nets were outscored by nearly 2.5 points by their opponents, so it is not as if they were getting blown out by any opponent, but at the same time does not mean they were only losing by one possession every game.  The Nets offense ranked 14^th in the league, just about as average as possible, while the defense ranked a tough 23^rd.

Although the records may be the same, this season was very different from the 2008-2009 season.  This year saw marked improvements in talent and the growth of the young leaders of the team.  At the end of last year the Nets had a nice player in Devin Harris that had shown flashes since coming over in a trade but was somewhat of an unknown as a true #1 option, a seemingly “run-down” and aging Vince Carter, and a severely lacking post presence to protect the paint on both ends of the court.  But this year brought a new hope to the New Jersey Franchise.  It started and draft night 2008 when the Nets had a legitimate 7 foot center with offensive skills fall into their laps, and continued with Devin Harris establishing from Day 1 of training camp that he is the leader of the team. 

There is no denying the success that the “Big 3” had on the team this year.  Harris turned from a really nice player and borderline allstar into a legitimate, carry a team on your shoulders, star.  His points, rebounds, assist, and steals averages all went up.  Although some of his averages went down, Carter had his most effective year in recent memory.  There were many games this season that Carter saw a need on the court and effectively put the team on his back and just refused to lose.  At the same time the 2009 season was the official “Look-out NBA” call from Brook Lopez.  During his rookie campaign Lopez carried an impressive 13 points 8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game (leading all rookies).  Besides a few bumps along the way these three basically carried the team for much of the year.

The supporting cast really struggled for much of the year. Yi struggled, Dooling played solid defense, Ryan Anderson showed flashes, CDR holds a lot of promise, and Sean Williams…met several policemen.  The bottom line is that the bench must be improved.  They were consistently outscored by the opposing bench, which will lead to disaster unless your starting lineup includes Jordan and Pippen. 

All in all it was a successful season for the Nets from a development point of view.  Expect changes during this offseason, including what ever happens with Lawrence Frank. 

Make sure you check out our player-by-player review from the Nets’ season.  The schedule should be out later on this week.

Tuesday Links

D'Alessandro has a few offseason stories to chew on:

Frank gets Carter's vote for head coach

Actually, the Nets finished five games out of a playoff berth, but the rebuilding went well -- in large part because of the joint leadership of Frank and Carter. Now it's up to Rod Thorn to determine whether that five-game gap can be erased with another man coaching the team. That decision will be made Tuesday morning, when the Nets president conducts the final planning meeting with owner Bruce Ratner, CEO Brett Yormark, and senior staff.

It will be interesting to see how the players backing of Frank will affect Rod Thorn's decision on the head coaching position.  If the players truly believe that Lawrence Frank is the coach that they want leading them into the playoffs then I think that will have to be a huge factor.  At the same time do not expect the players to be up in arms if Frank was to get fired, I believe they would be just fine with his replacement.

Keepers, Fence-sitters, and Goners found here
Not many surprises here.  He supports Carter as a keeper which is surprising as I think he is the most likely one to move because of his contract status and the fact that he had a very solid year.  If they are offered an expiring contract and maybe a pick, do not expect to see Vince Carter playing in New Jersey 81 times next year.

UPDATE: 

NY Daily News has an article up regarding the in-house support of Lawrence Frank as head coach.  Frank has several factors going for him: owner's support, player's support, and a large contract.  It seems that when it is all said and done Frank will be back for the '09-'10 season, his last season under contract, and then depending on how the Nets perform his future will be decided.  The front office, and fans, are expecting a lot of changes to the team in the summer of 2010, so this offseason and next season will decide whether Lawrence Frank is the coach of the future of the Nets.