Selfish Little Kidd

You know, sometimes I get tired of the grind, having to produce content each and every day. In years past, I had help -first, the wildly creative Champagne and others - now, just Joe. So, I hereby turn this space over for the night to DJ HEAVYDUTY, a long time reader who decided he had to get a few things off his chest.
-Joe

Take it away, DJ...

Is kidd seriously telling us he wants to be traded?? WOOOHOOO!!! What a news flash!!!
We all know he wanted a trade last year!! So what’s new pussycat??
For someone that is supposed to be unselfish on the court, he really is selfish off the court??
A professional doesn’t act like a little kid when he doesn’t get his way.
There are plenty of players that didn’t win a championship. What makes him so special?

Oh I forgot he’s Jason Kidd.
The phenomenal point guard that has been coddled his whole career.
Kidd is a coach killer.
He got Scott Skiles fired in phoenix and Byron Scott in NJ after the 2nd Finals loss.

The nets don’t owe this man anything.
He was traded to NJ after a domestic violence incident in Phoenix.
He may have brought life to the Nets but he is sucking it right back.

Jason Kidd is a great player maybe pound for pound the best point guard but
SO WHAT
He is not a leader.
A leader doesn’t give up on his team
And that’s exactly what he has done.

When Jason signed his 6 year 100k+ contract
He had a grand ole time in San Antonio but they wouldn’t fork over the $ he wanted.
So instead he forced the Nets to sign an aging and ailing Alonzo Mourning to an outrageous contract.

When the Nets started off slow and Mourning went out with kidney problems, Jason blamed Byron Scott and eventually got him fired.

How do you fire a coach that just took you to 2 Finals appearances??
And has 3 rings???
Look at Byron Scott now!!!!
Best team in the west with maybe 1 allstar

Funny how the Nets went on that 13 game winning streak right after!!Was is really the coach??NOOO it was Jason Kidd

Jason felt so great that he got his way, that he decided to play defense!!!
That was the nets philosophy when they got to the Finals and it starts at the top.

When your point guard doesn’t play defense, the other teams guard gets into the lane to score or dish to an open player that is open because of the penetration . So the Nets worries about defense in the paint wasn’t just a big man issue it was a team issue.

When you see that your point guard is not giving his all no one else on the team is going to step up on that end of the court.
Yes, Jason did everything else that was needed to make himself look good.

I call it CYA- cover your ass-
“Look I put up the numbers, It’s not my fault”
Like his recent comment.
“We used to win when I got a triple double”
Sounds like someone that is just playing for numbers to me.

Now it seems like the same thing has happened.
On the recent 9 game loosing streak, Jason Kidd was burned by every player he guarded.

The crème de la crème was that mystery headache!!You mean to tell me that a migraine stopped you from playing??
Where’ your Dr’s note??

That’s what my boss says when I call out last minute.

Jason Kidd has played through bad knees, a bad back and how many off court issues??
Oh yeah there was that messy and violent divorce a couple of years ago!!!
Some example set by your team captain!!

Its true that Kidd is not the only problem on the team but he is the main one.
VC is supposedly hurt….. So he doesn’t drive the lane
Sounds like CYA to me there too.
But a true leader is supposed to say to his teammate.
“You are stinking up the place, I’m not passing you the ball unless you are headed to the basket”
Or take it to the coach

Jason Kidd is a spoiled bratt.
He is setting a great example for his little boy.
Whine and you will get your way!!

Where do you think kidd will go??

Here’s what I think.
If Kidd is traded this year.
He goes to the Lakers
Nets get Farmar, Kwame, Fisher, Radmonovic and maybe 1 more

Good Luck Nets fans.
If VC gets traded you know rebuilding is coming

1 more question..
Why aren’t the nets playing in the new arena in Newark???

Keep up the good work Joe!

DJ HEAVYDUTY

Kidd Wants Out

...And we don't care.

In fact, we seem to relish it right now. And while we're at it, throw Lawrence Frank overboard too. Maybe even Vince Carter.

This is state of Netsfanland right now. A sorry state, indeed.

Kidd gave life to this franchise, but he was always a bit of a moody SOB when it suited him. We forgave that and any other transgression as long as he was leading the break and bringing in wins. No longer is that the case, and now we're more than happy to part with him.

After all, if he doesn't want to be here...

But really, who can blame him? Rod Thorn seems to have stuck it out with his Big Three more than a year too long, and they've proven nothing except the Kidd/Jefferson/Kenyon Martin trio was better at getting wins. With a better bench as well (and remember how we complained about the sorry state of the bench back when the Nets were playing for championships? Some things just dont' change).

So if Kidd has given up and wants out, and he's got enough willpower to bring the Nets this far down (look at the lost looks on the Nets' faces each and every time things go to pot, which is every game at this point, and tell me they dont' somehow believe that if Kidd's heart were in it the Nets would win more games), it's time to change the mix. And quickly, although at this point missing the playoffs and getting the youngsters experience ought to take priority even if Kidd is untradeable.

Start playing Marcus Williams, Sean Williams, Josh Boone, Jefferson and even Carter together more often, and see if anything comes of it (young Marcus isn't quite sharp defensively, so expect the points parade to continue). What do the Nets have to lose except a playoff berth (and a dubious one at that)? We know, attendance, already hitting the skids, would only decrease and the Izod would be emptier than one of Bruce Ratner's suits, but face reality - the Nets, even if they back into a playoff berth, aren't going anywhere as presently comprised.

So should we continue to care about this team that gives no effort, seems resigned to its fate, and somehow can't seem to work up enough pride to get a win? If Vince Carter phones it in, Kidd mails it in, and the rest of the squad flounders helplessly? What the hell should we do?

Pray for change, and quickly. The only way it can get good is if there are significant changes made (and we know that Kidd won't get back what he should in trade, and Carter is about as untradeable as they come) and this entire squad is disbanded. This group should go there seperate ways, and the Nets should figure out how to rebuild around the Williams', Boone, Jefferson, Carter if he can't go, and that's about it. And most of those folks (save Sean Williams) should be moved if the price is right (and I don't mean for Jermaine O'Neal).

What will happen next? Unfortunately, we can only play out the string, wait for Nenad Krstic's return, and pass the time until the trade deadline, hoping that someone gives Thorn more than junk bonds for at least one of the Big Three.

Oh, and we'll have to read and hear about it ad nuseum, but that's just part of being a Netsfan.

And that's still better (at least for now) than being a Knicks fan.

Joe

BBQ'D

And to think I missed the second half of the Kings/Nets game last night completely.

A complete and utter barbeque on the defensive end for the Nets. Showing no signs of life, getting pick-and-rolled to death, the Nets have now dropped six straight, the last two by an unbelieveable combined total of 58 points.

Nothing worked last night. Certainly not the Nets defensively.

At the midpoint of the season, the Nets are 18 - 23. Not what they expected, certainly not what Netsfans expected, but here we are.

I'd go back and bbq the tape of this one, except it's on DVR. I'll watch and review tonight, but don't expect me to be able to shed any light whatsoever on this group.

Except maybe one thing - this is a very bad team right now.

Joe

Now What

Zero for 2, and one non-compete, in the first two games of the long road trip that was supposed to help this team.

Now what?

The Big Three are starting to look like they can't play together anymore (and perhaps it's time to stop calling them the Big Three entirely), while collectively the Nets look like they're mailing it in. Postcards from vacation and all that...

There are no deep thoughts at this point, only the blatently obvious it's time to make changes, shake things up and see what happens. Time to admit that holding serve before the move to Brooklyn isn't working, and try to replace pieces on the fly.

We hear the owner loves Kidd and Carter, so they probably aren't going anywhere. That's pretty short-sighted to me, although you probably couldn't give Carter away right now.

Bad Way To Start A Vacation

The losing continues, out west this time where the Nets are supposedly better.

You give up 120 points to a team struggling to average 92, and you give up 19 points in OT, you're not a very good team. Five losses out of six would probably confirm that.

The Nets led most of the way but let the Clips hang around. Surprisingly, the defense disappeard in the last six minutes of the fourth plus OT. NJ had a comfortable 5 point lead with 2:43 to play, then they couldn't get a stop if their life depended on it. Don't let the late comeback from 5 down fool you - this was over the minute the Nets left Corey Maggette open for a big three with :45 to play.

Josh Boone did a great job on Chris Kamen, plus got 17 points and 16 rebounds. Sean Williams was good as well, with 11 points, 11 boards and 6 blocks, but why couldn't the Nets deal with a rookie (Al Thornton)?

Marcus Williams also provided a big lift by playing nearly the entire second quarter and getting 17 points for the game. Points the Nets desperately need on this trip, since Boki Nachbar is no longer someone to count on off the bench.

The Big Three struggled again (Kidd was ok with 10 and 11 but he was -17, and could do nothing right late, RJ continues to look shaky, and Carter was gone for large parts of this one, and horrible defensively), and without them, well, it's a crap shoot at best.

And the living gets tougher tonight - the Suns inPhoenix. The Nets will wish they didn't blow one of the easier games on this trip, because it's Suns/Kings/Warriors this week before ending with Nuggets and T-Wolves next weekend.

The game review will have to wait until tonight - a scrimmage at West Point for the 4th graders awaits (my son's team got the monkey off their backs with a big 2 point come from behind win yesterday afternoon).

Joe

Stuck In Their Craw

What a bizarre game, another home loss no less, for the Nets tonight.

A whopper of a first quarter, perhaps the best they've played all season, and a 33 - 18 lead. It got as high as 16 points, and it was 41 - 27 after 16 minutes. Attacking from the start with something to prove after two straight home losses, five straight bad quarters, and the memory of two losses to the Knicks already this year, the Nets were absolutely unstoppable. Kidd had 10 assists in the first quarter, they got the Knick bigs in early foul trouble, and Sean Williams was having the offensive game of his life with 10 first quarter points, most on easy buckets close in.

Then the damned bottom fell out, the Knicks started attacking while the Nets settled for bad jumpers (the second teamers started that early in the second quarter) and the mojo totally switched. For well more than two straight quarters, the Knicks had any shot they wanted, and they made them too. You would think after Jamal Crawford sunk the Nets in the first two meetings they might keep a better eye on him.

In any case, the Knicks had a lead as high as 15, when the Nets roared back for the comeback. Again, they started attacking, getting to the hoop (and missing too many free throws) before it all came to a dead stop shortly after the Nets finally regained the lead with less than 3 minutes to play. Crawford hit not one but two tough shots, the first with the shot clock set to expire (a banker over Kidd) and the second on what looked like a careless chuck from behind the three point line again over a late to arrive Kidd (and only Crawford seems to be able to make them work). The Nets went cold, and the Knicks held on for yet another victory over New Jersey.

So, they head to the West Coast at 18 - 20, with a 3 game losing streak and a giant puzzle of how they had the Knicks on the ropes early but couldn't put them away. Where did the first quarter energy go? Is it the bench that keeps sucking the life out of the Nets? And why can't they seem to defend for more than say a quarter per game? Is it really that hard to stay on Jamal Crawford, at least to discourage him from shooting?

Good game from Josh Boone offensively, but he had a rough time with Eddie Curry and Zach Randolph, both of whom had their way down low. Kidd finished with 17 assists, Carter was there early, gone for the long Knick run, back for the fourth, but again couldn't make the tough shots late when they needed them.

Yes, the Nets choked another one away. One that never should have been in doubt after the first quarter. Jamal Crawford was lethal, but why doesn't anyone stay on top of him?

I could go on and on with this one, but we'll leave it at that for the moment.

Off to the West Coast, then. Game review tomorrow.

Joe

World's Apart

Well, that was some dismantling we witnessed last night...

Unfortunately, it's not exactly confidence-building that the young Blazers came in and ran circles around the (again) hopelessly lethargic Nets. Face it, Netsfans, the Nets weren't even in the same building for much of the night. Certainly not the same zip code. Maybe not even the same planet.

Two things killed the Nets - offense and defense. Can't get much simpler than that.

On offense, the shooting was absolutely atrocious. The Nets never did figure out the Blazer zone, and didn't fare much better when it was man to man. Attack the damned thing, for crying out loud!

On defense, well, it was about the same level that we saw earlier this season when the Nets couldn't seem to get to the open man and were picked apart, on the perimeter primarily (the Blazers had 9 threes) but really anywhere they wanted. The Nets looked old, slow and confused - not three words you want used with your defense.

There was no individual performance for the Nets worthy of mention. The first quarter pretty much told the tale, with the Nets failing to match the Blazers energy (and this was a team on a road trip that played a double OT game the evening before, while the Nets were off since Friday) and it very quickly unwound in the second half of the first quarter, with the starters still on the floor.

Oh, a bad, bad omen heading into the long West Coast trip.

We'll get a game review up today, but really after this one I'm in no particular rush to do so.

Joe

No Quarter

What an ugly, ugly end-game for the Nets last night.

I missed just about the first three quarters, but when I finally got home (my son's basketball team lost their game 29 - 16, after leading 16 - 13, so it was a similar story) and turned it on, it was 68 - 60. It was completely downhill from there.

The Celtics are in another league right now, as they started making their run without Garnett and Pierce on the floor. Big Baby was abusive inside, and there was just enough from the C's bench to totally outperform the Nets bench.

Which I understand may have been the case in the second quarter as well.

And then the league leading defense took over, making the Nets look like, well, my son's fourth grade team.

All those missed free throws (Josh Boone!!), all the missed opportunities, after what had been a very competitive game, and still the Nets were able to play well against the best for more than three quarters (or at least in 2 quarters, anyway).

No matter - it's a loss, one that tells the world the Nets can't compete with the better teams in the NBA right now. Or, simply put, confirms it.

The game review will probably have to wait until tonight (another hoops game today, let's hope my son's team can cure their 4Q woes), but hopefully I'll have a better perspective when I watch four full quarters.

Joe

Compete and Complete

So much for having access via Blackberry to the blog..

Just back from Cleveland, looking at box scores and getting ready to watch last night's game on DVR. But it seems to me that the Nets, while not nearly perfect, competed (at least until garbage time) and played a complete game on both ends of the floor. Can't wait to dig into it and see what it was all about.

I see good things from RJ and Kidd (though no triple double - see what happens when you only play 3 quarters?), some defense, and a whole lot more (except a tough night from Boki Nachbar, apparently).

Two things stand out - Johan Petro getting 22 and 9? What's the deal with that?

And, even with garbage time, no Marcus Williams. Doesn't he need to play any way he can? Maybe he is going to the D League to get some PT.

Look for the review late tonight. Big game tomorrow as well.

Joe

Jeckyll & Hyde/Defenseless Against Seattle

Well, perhaps delusions over the five game win streak was seriously masking a coming defensive crisis for the Nets. After last night's game, when no comeback could be found, and even less defense, we truly saw the signs of a team in defensive turmoil.

Think about it - three straight comebacks from down deep preceeded this one. The ability to play defense for 10 or 15 minutes helped them overcome deficit and sharp end-game play helped win things in those three games. But underlying it all was the late-first quarter/second quarter slump that put the Nets seriously behind the eightball in all three games.

Happened again last night, when Kidd left the floor, but this time even the starters couldn't overcome it in the second half.

Not only is that not a good sign, because no fan of the Nets in their right mind would ever think outscoring the opposition is a good plan for New Jersey to take, but the level of competition amps up sharply in the second half of the month. After a creampuff game against Seattle tonight (and perhaps without Kevin Durant, and already without Chris Wilcox), it starts anew on Friday night against the Celtics.

Yup, not a time for a defensive crisis.

What might be even more troubling is it didn't appear to me that this was simply one of those "lack of effort" nights. Even with effort, it didn't appear the Nets could have stopped the Bobcats (and granted, they also had one of those shooting nights where nearly everything went in) no matter what they tried. So, if this sudden breakdown inside (there have been 106 points in the paint scored in the last two games against the Nets) isn't just a lack of effort, expect Garnett and Pierce to get about 40 points each on Friday night.

The other funny thing about this Nets team - you never know when you should panic. Efforts are always uneven, they never have a blowout to make you think "aha, they've finally put it together", and at 17 - 17, it's starting to get a bit late in the season to be feeling that his is a 45 + win team.

In fact, they still might struggle to be a 41 - 41 team.

Not exactly what everyone signed up for.

Of course, tonight's game against the Sonics is no measuring stick (especially if Durant is held out - I'm still searching for info as of this moment that tells me how bad it is) given their uncertain prospects this season. But as we've already seen, even the Sonics aren't an easy out.

I'm off to Cleveland for an overnight, so I'll catch up with a game review on Thursday night. I will put something in the blog after tonight's game, even though the site won't update.

And that means no Seattle opponent file, but I've done such a horrible job keeping up with those anyway, that's it's probably no great loss.

-Joe

Bizarro World

OK, Netsfans - take a deep breath, thank your lucky stars they Nets have straightened things out, and look forward to the coming week ahead.

Quick check of the schedule - Bobcats in Charlotte, followed by the Sonics at home in a back-to-back, then the Celtics on Friday.

That's the 29 - 3 Celtics.

Did you ever think we'd be looking at that? It was going to be a year of improvement for Toronto (they're 17 - 17). The Nets would be right there. Even the Knicks had improved. Then the Celtics grabbed Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, and suddenly we're looking at the second coming of MJ's Bulls. They've been a beast defensively, and they can slug it out with the best of them, even with the lack of depth (that clearly hasn't been a problem for them, at least not yet). They can thank Garnett most of all for that, he's the glue that keeps everything together, and no one works harder.

Bizarre, considering the Celtics, while giving away some promising youth and depth, didn't give up anything to be upset over (although Jeff Green's going to be a stud in Seattle). The Nets need to give them a game on Friday night (and maybe even surprise), or else all of this work is for naught (especially given the blowout against the Pistons before the streak started).

First, though, the Nets need to find a way to step on the necks of inferior teams. Too many close games (that luckily have gone the Nets' way) is asking for trouble.

The Big Three have to see to that.

Jason Kidd - can he get a triple triple double in Charlotte? The man is amazing, considering he can't really shoot consistently.

Richard Jefferson - has anyone been more consistent, or fearless, in the NBA this year? How many times has he driven into the paint and gotten whacked, get right up, and make two free throws? And his defense has been good.

Vince Carter - the man has been making shots, and more importantly, making the right decisions on the floor over the course of the winning streak. His passiveness has seemed to pass, as has his ankle problems (or at least he's playing better through it).

Time to get some quality wins, since the calendar is loaded with quality opponents after the Celtics game (the streaking Blazers at home, and that second West Coast swing that features the Clippers, Suns, Kings, Warriors, Nuggets and T-Wolves). Let's see how they handle this week first.

And good bye, Billy Thomas, non-guarantee victim. I'd say we hardly knew ye, but considering he's been here before, and most likely will again, we'll just say see you soon.

Tomorrow, looks like RJ is definite, Antoine Wright may play, Malik Allen will play, and Nenad Krstic definitely won't. The Nets could use Wright to play Richardson and Wallace a bit, but if he's not quite ready, it's probably not necessary to risk injuring him again.

Joe