Big Bigger Biggest
We're dialed in exactly 5 days before the draft, and from the looks of things, the Nets are keeping their picks at #10, 21, and 40.
Or maybe not.
Such is the life of the Nets right now - in stealth rebuilding mode, wanting to move one of their chief assets (albeit one that's overpaid) in Richard Jefferson while bringing in newer and younger blood. Holding some good draft pick spots in a draft where quality will come, but will it be at #3, #10, or even #24? It's that kind of draft - Rose and Beasley and then everyone else.
So the #10 pick will likely net quality, but is also something of a crap shoot. How do you feel about that, Netsfans? Can the Nets afford to take someone with serious upside potential but also needing 2 or 3 (or more) years to get there? Do they need to cast the waters for Antoine Wright version 2.0?
Dave D and others say the Nets have five players on their wishlist for #10, including 2 guards. The expectation is the Nets will pick Danilo Gallinari, the forward with the sweet stroke (but unathletic)from Italy if he's there at 10. Certain folks feel he could be another Dirk Nowitzki in the making, and the Nets would be fools to pass him up if he's still there at 10.
Let them be fools, I say. Will he be the second coming of Nowitzki, or Andrea Bargnani? Is that something we want?
Others on the list of five - F Joe Alexander, C Brook Lopez, G Russell Westbrook, and G Eric Gordon, if any of those folks are still on the board.
Not expected to be on the board, but with a serious man-crush by Vanderweghe and Thorn, is Kevin Love of UCLA, who isn't expected to make it past #5.
Anyone on the list excite you more than any other? Should the Nets trade up, or trade down? Or better still, package the pick for existing, established talent?
At this point, you know how I feel - move the pick, either for a better draft position in the top five or for someone who can help the Nets right away (like Elton Brand, perhaps, though he's only an example), rather than settle for Gallinari or even Lopez (and they might turn out to be fine pros, but the Nets need someone to help them win NOW, not in three years' time).
But, if the Nets don't go that way, and stay at #10, grabbing a big over a guard would be a good idea (though Westbrook intrigues, to say the least, as does OJ Mayo if by miracle he drops down).
Go big, says Joe. Of course we love Love over here at JNFHQ, but there are others on the board we'd certainly be interested in bringing in, everyone from Anthony Randolph to Mareese Spreights, and a whole bunch more. Can the Nets get quality at #21? Even better.
Of course, #21 could surely be reserved for a shooter, which the Nets seem always to be in short supply of. There isn't anyone in the draft that should be considered a lock, but there are options to pick one up (and I won't get into them here, because no one is really interested in them per se).
Go big. Do something big. Bigger. Biggest. That's my opinion on things - whether it means trading up to get some Love, or trading down to get a veteran body plus a draftee, whatever.
Hell, right now I'd even consider the muck in the papers that has Richard Jefferson going to Phoenix for Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw. Just because it would be doing something different. Add Love or Lopez or Darrell Arthur upfront, and it will at least begin the serious change away from the Jason Kidd era.
Face it, no one is convinced the Nets can win anything with Jefferson and Carter and a cast of role players. Might as well make the big play.
Of course, draft night always throws us a curve somewhere (like in 2002, when the Nets selected Eddie Griffin and Netsfans were for the most part despondant, then a bit confused when he was traded for 3 bodies), and there is no better time for that curve to be from the Nets.
Sure will be interesting to see what the Nets actually come up with, and who falls downward or floats upward in the draft.
More thoughts to follow, especially based on any last minute conjecture as we head into the final week.
-Joe
Or maybe not.
Such is the life of the Nets right now - in stealth rebuilding mode, wanting to move one of their chief assets (albeit one that's overpaid) in Richard Jefferson while bringing in newer and younger blood. Holding some good draft pick spots in a draft where quality will come, but will it be at #3, #10, or even #24? It's that kind of draft - Rose and Beasley and then everyone else.
So the #10 pick will likely net quality, but is also something of a crap shoot. How do you feel about that, Netsfans? Can the Nets afford to take someone with serious upside potential but also needing 2 or 3 (or more) years to get there? Do they need to cast the waters for Antoine Wright version 2.0?
Dave D and others say the Nets have five players on their wishlist for #10, including 2 guards. The expectation is the Nets will pick Danilo Gallinari, the forward with the sweet stroke (but unathletic)from Italy if he's there at 10. Certain folks feel he could be another Dirk Nowitzki in the making, and the Nets would be fools to pass him up if he's still there at 10.
Let them be fools, I say. Will he be the second coming of Nowitzki, or Andrea Bargnani? Is that something we want?
Others on the list of five - F Joe Alexander, C Brook Lopez, G Russell Westbrook, and G Eric Gordon, if any of those folks are still on the board.
Not expected to be on the board, but with a serious man-crush by Vanderweghe and Thorn, is Kevin Love of UCLA, who isn't expected to make it past #5.
Anyone on the list excite you more than any other? Should the Nets trade up, or trade down? Or better still, package the pick for existing, established talent?
At this point, you know how I feel - move the pick, either for a better draft position in the top five or for someone who can help the Nets right away (like Elton Brand, perhaps, though he's only an example), rather than settle for Gallinari or even Lopez (and they might turn out to be fine pros, but the Nets need someone to help them win NOW, not in three years' time).
But, if the Nets don't go that way, and stay at #10, grabbing a big over a guard would be a good idea (though Westbrook intrigues, to say the least, as does OJ Mayo if by miracle he drops down).
Go big, says Joe. Of course we love Love over here at JNFHQ, but there are others on the board we'd certainly be interested in bringing in, everyone from Anthony Randolph to Mareese Spreights, and a whole bunch more. Can the Nets get quality at #21? Even better.
Of course, #21 could surely be reserved for a shooter, which the Nets seem always to be in short supply of. There isn't anyone in the draft that should be considered a lock, but there are options to pick one up (and I won't get into them here, because no one is really interested in them per se).
Go big. Do something big. Bigger. Biggest. That's my opinion on things - whether it means trading up to get some Love, or trading down to get a veteran body plus a draftee, whatever.
Hell, right now I'd even consider the muck in the papers that has Richard Jefferson going to Phoenix for Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw. Just because it would be doing something different. Add Love or Lopez or Darrell Arthur upfront, and it will at least begin the serious change away from the Jason Kidd era.
Face it, no one is convinced the Nets can win anything with Jefferson and Carter and a cast of role players. Might as well make the big play.
Of course, draft night always throws us a curve somewhere (like in 2002, when the Nets selected Eddie Griffin and Netsfans were for the most part despondant, then a bit confused when he was traded for 3 bodies), and there is no better time for that curve to be from the Nets.
Sure will be interesting to see what the Nets actually come up with, and who falls downward or floats upward in the draft.
More thoughts to follow, especially based on any last minute conjecture as we head into the final week.
-Joe
posted by Joe Netsfan at 7:20 PM
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