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.

Odds and Ends

Dave D'Alessandro focuses on defense as an offseason priority in his game recap.

Defense still rules the NBA, and it always will. The top eight scoring defenses in the league are all going to the postseason, and the best of the group -- the Cleveland Cavaliers, who yield a stingy 91.1 points per night -- are the odds-on favorite to take the hardware this year.

He brings up great points that I will be addressing soon. Defense wins championships and the Nets will need to improve it they hope to make the playoffs soon.

Update: D'Alessandro's Notebook details Rod Thorn's desire for winner's.  It will be interesting to see how this effects the Nets' drafting strategy, and whether they will focus on players from winning programs.

It's all about this: Who can you play that can help you win games? To me, that's all that counts -- can they help you win, going forward?

Game 82 Recap: Nets at Knicks

Any team playing without its 2 best players is going to have a tough time winning, even against the Knicks.

Tonight was no exception. Without Harris and Carter the Nets were lifeless and showed little-to-no passion or fire needed to win.  A look at the box score tells most of the story.  You just can not win in the NBA while shooting 31%...even against the Knicks.  

Offensively there was little ball movement, which did not matter since the ball was going in the hoop.  Without their two offensive catalysts the Knicks had no one on the floor who could create their own shot which turned the team into jump shooters.

The Nets needed a big night from Lopez, but unfortunately he was overmatched by more physical David Lee.  All night there was just no answer to the physical presence of Lee.  And offensively there was no answer to the Nets quick guards who overmatched the backcourt of Dooling and Roberts.

No need for individual observations.  This was not the true Nets that we have seen show up this year.  Hopefully this tough loss will give the front office the kick-in-the-pants it need to improve the bench this season.

Gameday Thread: Nets at Knicks

Should be an interesting game.  Hopefully the starters will get solid minutes so the Nets can notch a win to improve on last year's record.  

This could be Frank's last game as head coach so don't be afraid to kiss the TV one last time...I joke, I joke...  But here is to hoping for some momentum going into this offseason both for the players and the fans. 

Carter Wants To Remain A Net

Dave D'Alessandro has an article up on The Star Ledger addressing Carter's future with the team.

"As far as I know, I'll be here next year, that's why I'm trying to do what I have to do for this team -- to keep us together and build something for next year."

The Nets will have some tough personnel moves to address this summer.  We will have to wait to see how current, or possibly new, management will handle Vince.

Game 82 Preview: Nets at Knicks

The Nets enter the final game of the season .5 games in front of last season's record.  Even if it is just one game it can be a direct showing of improvement from last season's disappointment.  

The Knicks are an improved team from last year.  Although still just as Jekyll and Hyde (more Hyde) as ever, they are an offense focused team thats only purpose is to outscore the opponent.  The Nets are 2-1 against them this year, all three times scoring 100+.

The Knicks are currently playing for nothing but ping pong balls, so do not expect to see a defensive battle.  They are colder than cold at the moment, only registering 3 wins in the last month. 

Keys to the Game:

1. The Nets, cough*Brook Lopez*cough, must keep the Knicks out of the paint. At this point in the season their entire game is drive and kick. 

2. Devin Harris must abuse the paint against the Knicks. If he can penetrate the game is over.

3. Lopez needs to hit the boards hard.  If the paint is shut off the Knicks only hope will be getting second chance points off long rebounds because they will be a jump shooting team.  If the Nets can crash the boards, with help from the guards, it will be an easy win.

Last Note: It will be interesting to see how the fans react to the recent job acquisition of Isiah Thomas.

Welcome!

As the season wraps up a new day begins.  Although the Nets earned a similar record to last year the team has  shown strides toward improvement and a bright future.  

Join Net's Nation as we blog about the offseason and follow the Nets toward the 2009-2010 season.

It is an exciting time to be a member of Nets' Nation so join now!