Like Death And Taxes...
Things break.
Readers don't like posts, comments, ideas or critiques.
And time moves forward regardless.
We suffered a major computer failure here at JNF (the mother of all motherboard failures, apparently) that we're in the process of sorting out. Weeks behind, and with a ton of stuff to catch up on (and apparently bore you with, thanks Peter), we'll try to get back on the horse and figure out which way is up in Netsfanland.
While we were gone:
- The Nets held "voluntary" practices for a week, with everyone but Yi attending. While this is heartening, Waltons'-esque kind of family togetherness, will it make a difference since there are only 3 players left from last season's start? Sorry, I don't think it's going to help much. But it makes for good, no make it great, press.
- The Nets are going to run a new offense this season - the dribble drive offense that Memphis ran last season with Chris Douglas Roberts having a great offensive season. Probably more like drivel drive with the Nets' running it...
- VC's getting trashed (no surprise there, but has anyone who writes about the NBA actually watched Carter over the past few years? He's not the guy who wanted out of Toronto, and while he's not exactly comfortable as the go-to guy, he's going to have to be this year for certain. And that's not a bad thing for Netsfans, since Carter, at his motivational best, is a scorer to be reckoned with. IF and only if he stops settling for the jumper each time down the court.
- The Nets will start their training camp a weekend earlier than the rest of the league since they're headed to London and Paris for exhibitions. So that means we only have another three weeks of desperate, boring speculation to go before we start to see/hear about/understand what the 2008 - 2009 season will bring. Hey, at least Jason Kidd isn't around to age before our eyes...
- Yes, we're still annoyed that RJ was traded for Yi. Yes, RJ was overpaid and probably had peaked as a player (and who wants to see a formerly unselfish player turn selfish, practically overnight and when everything else was falling apart at the same time?), but aside from younger and cheaper, I don't see that this was the deal the Nets should have made. I also understand that there wasn't exactly a ton of demand for RJ's services, but unless the Nets retool with the likes of LeBron in 2010 and beyond, they might have been better off sticking it out with RJ. But as my new good friend Peter would say, there's nothing new there.
- I still have hope that this team will be better than the sum of its parts. I don't know that they'll look pretty doing it, but remember how much praise used to be heaped on Princeton and that damned ugliness they put on the court each game to get wins? With Boston, Philly and Toronto all better in the Atlantic, it's a rebuilding year and that's pretty much all it is.
Much more to come, including our usual preseason stuff and a whole lot more. I appreciate you hanging in there if you are even reading these words, and hopefully we have the web site worked out and back cranking out material daily in the next week or so. Luckily, as far as I know everything is backed up somewhere in cyberspace.
Looking forward to this season, as strange as that sounds. Perhaps like watched a car wreck in slow motion or something like that, but looking forward to it nonetheless.
-Joe
Readers don't like posts, comments, ideas or critiques.
And time moves forward regardless.
We suffered a major computer failure here at JNF (the mother of all motherboard failures, apparently) that we're in the process of sorting out. Weeks behind, and with a ton of stuff to catch up on (and apparently bore you with, thanks Peter), we'll try to get back on the horse and figure out which way is up in Netsfanland.
While we were gone:
- The Nets held "voluntary" practices for a week, with everyone but Yi attending. While this is heartening, Waltons'-esque kind of family togetherness, will it make a difference since there are only 3 players left from last season's start? Sorry, I don't think it's going to help much. But it makes for good, no make it great, press.
- The Nets are going to run a new offense this season - the dribble drive offense that Memphis ran last season with Chris Douglas Roberts having a great offensive season. Probably more like drivel drive with the Nets' running it...
- VC's getting trashed (no surprise there, but has anyone who writes about the NBA actually watched Carter over the past few years? He's not the guy who wanted out of Toronto, and while he's not exactly comfortable as the go-to guy, he's going to have to be this year for certain. And that's not a bad thing for Netsfans, since Carter, at his motivational best, is a scorer to be reckoned with. IF and only if he stops settling for the jumper each time down the court.
- The Nets will start their training camp a weekend earlier than the rest of the league since they're headed to London and Paris for exhibitions. So that means we only have another three weeks of desperate, boring speculation to go before we start to see/hear about/understand what the 2008 - 2009 season will bring. Hey, at least Jason Kidd isn't around to age before our eyes...
- Yes, we're still annoyed that RJ was traded for Yi. Yes, RJ was overpaid and probably had peaked as a player (and who wants to see a formerly unselfish player turn selfish, practically overnight and when everything else was falling apart at the same time?), but aside from younger and cheaper, I don't see that this was the deal the Nets should have made. I also understand that there wasn't exactly a ton of demand for RJ's services, but unless the Nets retool with the likes of LeBron in 2010 and beyond, they might have been better off sticking it out with RJ. But as my new good friend Peter would say, there's nothing new there.
- I still have hope that this team will be better than the sum of its parts. I don't know that they'll look pretty doing it, but remember how much praise used to be heaped on Princeton and that damned ugliness they put on the court each game to get wins? With Boston, Philly and Toronto all better in the Atlantic, it's a rebuilding year and that's pretty much all it is.
Much more to come, including our usual preseason stuff and a whole lot more. I appreciate you hanging in there if you are even reading these words, and hopefully we have the web site worked out and back cranking out material daily in the next week or so. Luckily, as far as I know everything is backed up somewhere in cyberspace.
Looking forward to this season, as strange as that sounds. Perhaps like watched a car wreck in slow motion or something like that, but looking forward to it nonetheless.
-Joe
posted by Joe Netsfan at 9:21 PM
2 comments
