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 14th in the league, just about as average as possible, while the defense ranked a tough 23rd.
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.
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