Nets 2014-2015 Game Discussion Thread

[gigantes]

byron scott said last week that kidd was an a-hole. maybe that was spot on. maybe he has that isiah thomas quality of being all polite and friendly in certain situations and being a manipulative dickhead in other scenerios. maybe. TBH this also describes a wiiide range of people in life... such as business execs, bosses, politicians, highly-talented ppl of all kind, salespeople, traders, etc.

it does suck about larry drew getting frozen out. even when new owners come in, there is supposed to be that courtesy of firing upfront, not in stealth. at the same time kidd was almost certainly right about billy king-- he's probably the NBA's biggest joke of a trader, not to mention prokhy is probably tied with dolan as world's most incompetent at deciding who to pay.

the guy was callous but he -did- have a point.

i'm still a kidd admirer, so i became interested in the mavs and now the bucks. i think the joumana thing (major superb-tch) was overblown, but the drunk-driving thing was really bad for putting others' lives in danger. we'll see. i do have a big appreciation for bosses who can turn underachievers in to gold by power of the right motivation / plan. it is such an important part of life to me.

just for comparison, i'm *quite* sure i'll always be a phil jackson admirer, so i'd love to see what he can do with the knicks even tho he has a complete jackass for a boss. sorry fellow nets fans, but we all need secondary hobbies in life. :P

this also brings us to owners who aren't in the game because of ego and know how to defer (and identify) those with much greater knowledge. the incorruptibles one might say. peter holt and jerry buss are pretty good examples i think. meanwhile, the apple got ICBM'd two continents away, eh jim buss?

[Nets fan 93]

past the bumpy start of last season, he's been on an absolute tear as a head coach.

playoffs, really? now the bucks need to see what they can do in the playoffs before we give the man some credit...?

wow, okay.

The east is super weak. In fact most of the league is weak in my opinion. Kyle Korver is an allstar. Let that sink in. Over talent like Vucevic and Brandon Knight. I didn't say Kidd is a bad coach. Lets look at George Karl for example. His team's were always around 50 wins with Denver. Even when they traded their two best players in Melo and Billups. But in the playoffs he was always a first round exit. Denver fired him after he won coach of the year because he just never got it done in the playoffs.

I'd like to see what kidd could do in the playoffs, but that's just me.

[gigantes]

The east is super weak. In fact most of the league is weak in my opinion. Kyle Korver is an allstar. Let that sink in. Over talent like Vucevic and Brandon Knight. I didn't say Kidd is a bad coach. Lets look at George Karl for example. His team's were always around 50 wins with Denver. Even when they traded their two best players in Melo and Billups. But in the playoffs he was always a first round exit. Denver fired him after he won coach of the year because he just never got it done in the playoffs.

I'd like to see what kidd could do in the playoffs, but that's just me.

the east is weak, but it's the same conference they played in last year. checking the record, it says they were the worst team in the league last year at 15-67. i see they're now listed at 30-23, already doubling their win total from last season even tho they've lost a couple of their best players this season. if that's not very, very impressive then i don't know what is.

kyle korver has worked his ass off from what i've read. he's on track to have the greatest shooting season in league history (50 - 50 - 90) from what i've read. who says the deadliest sharpshooter in the league shouldn't be in the allstar game...?

IIRC the nuggets actually got better when they got rid of melo and iverson. i also think that karl is one of those guys who sometimes suffers from overachieving with flawed rosters. when the playoffs roll around, there is more time and information for other clubs to attack the team's weaknesses, but that doesn't necessarily mean the coach is flawed. larry brown was another guy like that.

[MTing]

Nice back to back wins against the Lakers and Nuggets. I can't believe we actually have a young, athletic team that runs now. We finally found a team that fits D-Will's game.

[Nets fan 93]

Even nicer back to back wins against the Mavs and Warriors. Jarrett Jack has been the player with ice in his veins this season. Gotta love it

[MTing]

Even nicer back to back wins against the Mavs and Warriors. Jarrett Jack has been the player with ice in his veins this season. Gotta love it

Joe Jesus gave his powers to Jehovah Jack.

[gigantes]

i like this woj article "in defense of billy king" that just came out.

IMO it's one of the more accurate assessments of the situation, basically pointing out that it's very hard to evaluate king based on the imperatives he was under from the russians... the most obvious example being the celtics disaster of a trade.

in other words, we have utterly no idea where we'd be now if king had been left to his own devices to build a team around derrick favors and whoever else.

another good point raised in the comment section is that even considering all that, why the hell did king not include protections on the mountain of picks he gave away? that's arguably the worst he's done here as a GM.

overall i do think ratner should get most of the credit for the nets being upgraded so to speak. THE MOVE and the new arena were both his babies, and he took endless shit for that. prokhy was the deep-pockets guy who waltzed along and bailed out the project, but it could have been any rich guy at all, really.

when prokhy first came along he was naturally treated as a savior. partly because he was already the boss of a championship team in the euroleague. in other words, we all assumed the f-cker knew what he was doing.

turns out he was pretty much just another crazy russian in a world full of crazy russians.

[MTing]

i like this woj article "in defense of billy king" that just came out.

IMO it's one of the more accurate assessments of the situation, basically pointing out that it's very hard to evaluate king based on the imperatives he was under from the russians... the most obvious example being the celtics disaster of a trade.

in other words, we have utterly no idea where we'd be now if king had been left to his own devices to build a team around derrick favors and whoever else.

another good point raised in the comment section is that even considering all that, why the hell did king not include protections on the mountain of picks he gave away? that's arguably the worst he's done here as a GM.

overall i do think ratner should get most of the credit for the nets being upgraded so to speak. THE MOVE and the new arena were both his babies, and he took endless shit for that. prokhy was the deep-pockets guy who waltzed along and bailed out the project, but it could have been any rich guy at all, really.

when prokhy first came along he was naturally treated as a savior. partly because he was already the boss of a championship team in the euroleague. in other words, we all assumed the f-cker knew what he was doing.

turns out he was pretty much just another crazy russian in a world full of crazy russians.

This 100x. I usually defend Billy against the people that want his head because it isn't 100% his fault. He was under the influence from Proky and his right hand man to make the sexy moves and acquire the big names. However, one thing that is his fault is not protecting all those picks. One would think Billy King must have a lot of illegitimate kids because he never uses protection lol.

[gigantes]

lol... good one, there.

[MTing]

Brook the last few games:

[Nets fan 93]

Back at #8

[MTing]

I don't want to jinx it but what a turnaround. A few weeks ago I thought the season was long gone. The advantages of playing in the Leastern Conference.

[Nets fan 93]

I don't want to jinx it but what a turnaround. A few weeks ago I thought the season was long gone. The advantages of playing in the Leastern Conference.

Wouldn't blame it on you anyway. Really really tough schedule for this last month. Gotta take care of business tonight

[gigantes]

hollins had some interesting comments about KG and leadership in this article:

I have nothing but the great memories and thoughts of the great Kevn Garnett as a person, a player and as a leader, but leadership comes in a lot of ways. And definitely, Kevin was a strong foice in the locker room but everyone can lead by example by doing your job and going out an playing. I think as a team, they're bonding as a group. They're leading each other as a group without vocal domination but with just going out and doing your job and playing. Guys have grown through the year. Markel has grown, Bogie (Bojan Bogdanovic) has grown. Jarrett Jack is a good leader in the locker room. Alan Anderson is a good leader in the locker room. And Joe has stepped up and been more of a verbal leader than everyone says he ever was. So you lose one dominating voice and all of a sudden, there's a lot of voices that step up.

maybe garnett was not all that helpful of a presence for the nets, even in the locker room.

[MTing]

hollins had some interesting comments about KG and leadership in this article:

maybe garnett was not all that helpful of a presence for the nets, even in the locker room.

I think it did this team good to have him here. Remember our first year in Brooklyn, people were saying how there was no definite vocal leader on our team and we lost to the Bulls because we weren't tough? Well I definitely feel like we were tougher last year. Guys like D-Will and Joe, who are notorious for being quiet and emotionless, have both shown a lot more emotion since KG was here. Hell last night D-Will got mad at the ref on a no-call, got pissed and proceeded to drop 10 straight points and bring us back in the game. Let's not forget KG also helped with Mason's development and helped motivate Brook whenever he was having an off night.

Just my opinion but I really think KG helped this team find a spine.