|
Overall
Win/Loss Record (At Season’s End): 49-33,
second place Atlantic Division
|
13
|
At
Season’s End:
14
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Team
Statistics and League Rank (At Season’s End)
|
Individual
Statistical Leaders (At Season’s End)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Taking a Look Back at the Season that Once Was . . .
|
SDH Player of the Year:
Andray Blatche 
In a team which consistent of marginally disappointing performances from it's higher paid and higher profile players, it is nice to see someone who provided more bang for his buck despite having a checkered past. Being forced to leave in disgrace from his former team, the Washington Wizards, Andray Blatche remade himself in his new home as he came off the bench to lead the second unit in scoring while providing the energy and leadership that he did not show while playing for the Wizards. It must have ground the gears of Wizards' GM Ernie Grunfeld as he watched a former player perform so well in another team--especially since he is still paying said player 21$ million to get rid of him in the first place. Andray Blatche certainly have numerous sports writers in not only the District of Columbia, but also those who cover the NBA in general as they all wrote him off as a lost cause. Yet he silenced all his doubters to have an impressive season helping his team reach the playoffs thus becoming one of the feel good stories on the 2013 season.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Analysis:
They came into their new home, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NewYork with new look draped in all black and a whole new attitude as the team formerly known as the New Jersey Nets made their debut in the NBA. To prepare for the momentous occasion, the Nets set out during the off season to remake itself, paying no attention to the cost, from the sad sack team that they once were into a thoroughbred contender. Despite failing to acquire his most coveted prize, Dwight Howard, who ended up with the Los Angeles Lakers, Nets GM Billy King, nonetheless, went about to reshape the Nets' rather sad excuse of a roster into a team in which their new home fans would be proud of and he also had the resources to do it. With a new owner who had really deep pockets and was by no means patient enough to watch the Nets struggle once again in their new home, King knew that he would not only have the resources at his disposal, but also the backing of an owner to do whatever it took to make this downtrodden team a winner. With a blank check and his owner's blessing, King went on an such an off season shopping spree that would cost the team a grand total of 72.2$ million putting the Nets WAY over the league's salary cap and into luxury tax territory. First he went about retaining the services of their All Star point guard Deron Williams signing him to a maximum contract extension worth around 95$ million for five years and then went about surrounding Williams with a stellar supporting cast that would rival any in the NBA. In a move that shocked many, King essentially traded almost the entire roster of last season's team to the Atlanta Hawks in order to acquire William's future backcourt mate, Joe Johnson, in addition to the 60$ million that is owed to him for the next three years and he did not stop there. King went on to resign center Brook Lopez, who had shown signs of being a superstar but had his seasons cut short by injuries, to lucrative four year deal worth in the area of 50$ million and paired him with the former Mr. Kim Kardashian himself, Kris Humphries, who ironically posted the best numbers in his career during his public and rather messy divorce, for a cool 24$ million for next two years. King finally rounded out his starting five by giving a four year contract extension worth in the area of 40$ million to Gerald Wallace, who had joined the team late in the 2012 season and carried with him the reputation of being one of the toughest and best rebounding swing men in the NBA. Altogether, the starting five alone would cost the Nets a grand total of $342 million in new contracts and despite spending his team's entire salary cap and so much more on just five players, King was still about to use what little he had left in salary cap exemptions--the 6$ mid level exemption given to team who have gone over the salary cap along with veterans' exemption worth around 2$ million, to round out the roster rather nicely. King spent much of his team mid level exemption sign 6'9" sharp shooting power forward from Bosnia, Mirza Teletovic, at a reasonable three year deal worth 3$ million per year which was considered quite the coup at the time as Teletovic built himself a reputation as one of the best players in Europe. He also managed to snag one of the league's most prolific rebounders in the league in Reggie Evans for just 1.6$ million over three years and point guard CJ Watson, a key player who helped keep the Chicago Bulls on top of the Eastern Conference playing in place of the team's star injured Derrick Rose, for 1.8$ million for two year. King' s biggest coup, however, was picking up Andray Blatche off of waivers--a player who oozed talent and potential, but had been cast away in disgrace by his former team, the Washington Wizards, due to his poor work ethic and his attitude being a detriment to the team--for next to nothing and that addition would prove to be his best off season acquisition to date. Add last season's NBA All Rookie First team selection, Marshon Brooks, who looked to build from his phenomenal fresh man season and the Nets would have one of the most impressive and intimidating nine man rotations in the league coming into the 2012/2013 regular season. With such an impressive roster, a team like the Nets appeared to have enough depth, talent, and firepower the league by storm not only upstaging their soon cross town rival, the New York Knicks, but also rank statistically in the league's top five in every statistical category winning a minimum 55 to 60 games; sadly, however, as the season went on, the Nets proved indeed that appearances can be certainly be deceiving as they would fall well short of expectations making them probably one of the biggest letdowns in the 2013 NBA season. After starting the season with an impressive 11-4 record by the end of November, the Nets simply crashed and burned the following month as they lost 11 of 15 entering the New Year with a rather abysmal 16-15 record. That ensuing train wreck led to the eventual firing of head coach Avery Johnson for his flagrantly incompetent mishandling of the team thus shattering his once pristine image and sterling reputation as one of the premier young coaches in the NBA. The team would later bounce back into respectability under interim coach PJ Carlesimo as the would finish the season strong winning 34 of their last 52 games earning them a fifth place finish in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately Brooklyn would suffer an even worse humiliation at the hands of the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the NBA Playoffs as the Nets would shamefully lose to a team who they not only outmatched, but was also playing shorthanded as their roster had been decimated by injuries coming into the post season. Talk about false advertising: the Nets committed absolutely the worst case of fraud in NBA history as they come into the season looking all tough with their intimidating jet black uniforms with white trim only to exit it with their tail between their their legs looking like a bunch of two bit scrubs. For those who dare to consider such a debacle of a season as a success noting that the Nets improved their win total from 22 last season to 49, they need to be smacked upside the head because with all the money dropped in building that team, anything short of a top three finish and Conference Final showdown against the Miami Heat should be considered an absolute failure. Even as an overall team the Nets underwhelmed as they allowed their allowed their opponents to virtually have their way with them offensively as they were allowed to shoot better than .460 from the field. Their supposed cast iron starting five that was to rival any lineup in the league turned out to be a weak and frail as tin foil with players either showed the ravages of father time, as in the case with Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace, or in the sad infuriating case of Kris Humphries, chose to simply cash his 12$ million check and disappear. Even Deron Williams did not look that stellar either despite finishing second on the team in scoring with 18.9 points per game saw his assist numbers drop for the third straight year from nearly 13 per game while he still played in Utah Jazz all the way down to 7.7 now. What's even worse is that the Nets, thanks to the loose spending of their GM, Billy King, are essentially stuck shackled to players way with WAY over-bloated salaries and have proven to be nothing more than a sheep in wolves' clothing--looking all tough and intimidating on the outside, but soft and meek on the inside. Unless the Nets come out next season re-energized with a new sense of purpose, expect them to continue to disappoint yet again and show that are all flash with little or no substance to offer their opponents nor their fans. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday, June 27, 2013
SDH Presents the 2013 End of Season NBA's Worst to First: 14. Brooklyn Nets
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment