RealGM

I know that the traffic around here hasn't been very high lately, for obvious reasons. I don't mean to barrage the board with FA conversations, but I thought that this idea was distinct enough from my other ones to merit its own thread.

While we wait for this lockout to end, I've been poring over FA information, analyzing statistics and hypothetical lineups for our Nets. This is going to be a watershed offseason, and will play a big part in determining the direction of this franchise for the next decade.

So, how do we approach it? Specifically, what weak points on our team do YOU see as needing the highest priority? The way I see it, the four main categories our FO should consider are:

DEFENSE - It's no secret, guys. We need to improve on the "other" end of the floor.

EXPERIENCE - This is sort of a sliding-scale category. You want guys that are young enough to grow with our core, but veterans with postseason experience are also important to foster a winning culture.

REBOUNDING - One of the key reasons we struggled to close out games, and one of the hallmarks of elite teams.

3-POINT SHOOTING - Morrow can't do it alone. Even with him, we were 22nd in the league at 34.3%.

I'm only allowing you to vote for one, but I'd love for folks to reply with their order of priority. In the interest of full disclosure, for me it's rebounding, defense, 3-point shooting and then experience.

(I know alot of guys want our key FAs to be established veterans more than promising youngsters, but I feel that you pay a premium for experience that way. If you add the right ingredients and shore up weaknesses, playoff experience won't have to be "bought"; it will pretty much take care of itself, E.G. the Grizzlies and Thunder. My $.02.)

The area the Nets need to improve upon the most is intelligence

I mean look at these guys:






Given the choices you presented though I'd go with defense. Being a good defensive team makes your life easier on offense. I'd wager to say that just by being a better defensive squad the Nets would become a better 3-Point Shooting (transition opportunities, less pressure to win with offense) and Rebounding team (increased activity level).

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Note: While adding another experienced player would be nice I hope the Nets have learned from their past missteps and sign a veteran who actually has talent / something left in the tank, not just someone who is a good character guy (shout out to Eduardo Najera!)

Defence, we need a PF beside Lopez who is a beast & efficient without having many plays ran for him on offence.

Step forward our longterm PF of the future......

Nene!!!

A complete beast in the paint, the Nets would be the perfect landing spot. He would play his best position (also the position he plays for Brazil) of PF.

He would be the only big FA move I'd make if it's a shortened season along with any 1year deals such as making a move for Butler.

Starting lineup:

Williams/Gaines
Morrow/Brooks
Butler/James
Nene/Williams
Lopez/Nene

Outlaw amnesty, Petro moved on & Farmar traded because he has decent value.

N Ireland Nets wrote:Defence, we need a PF beside Lopez who is a beast & efficient without having many plays ran for him on offence.

Step forward our longterm PF of the future......

Nene!!!

A complete beast in the paint, the Nets would be the perfect landing spot. He would play his best position (also the position he plays for Brazil) of PF.

You make a pretty strong case for Nene, I must admit. I'm getting more and more comfortable with the thought of him on our team. He's not only efficient enough to counterbalance Brook on offense, but he's assertive.

Of course, even though you like Nene for his defense, my big concern with him, on our team, is there. We all know that Nene has a reputation around the league as one of the very best one-on-one bigman defenders, and advanced statistics bear that out. And even though Brook gets alot of guff over his "defense-ciencies", he's actually decent man defender, too. The problem is that neither of these guys cover ground very quickly as team defenders. No matter who we get to fill the SF slot, our perimeter will be average defensively, at best. With no one quick enough to challenge dribble penetration and swat away mistakes, opposing offenses could resemble a layup line.

Nene has always had "athletic" complementary weakside defenders around him, like Kenyon Martin, Chris Andersen and Renaldo Balkman (similar situation as Lopez, with Derrick Favors, Sean Williams, Brandan Wright etc.). These guys didn't have to worry about helping whenever Nene got beat on D (rare), but they did have to act as insurance for their backcourt. Ideally, Humphries would be our 3rd cog in our bigman rotation with Nene and Brook; but I don't think we can afford him, Nene and a legit starting SF.

Combine this concern with his injury history and the fact that he will demand somewhere between $14mil/yr and the max, and you see why I'm still a bit wary of Mr. Hilario.

Nene rotates quickly on the perimeter around the it's just that around the basket he's more of a positional defender than he is a shot blocker.

I have no problem with HIS perimeter D. I'm saying when our backcourt players are playing defense and get blown by on one side of the court, Nene is not able to travel from the opposite block to contest the shot. He may recover in time to set his feet and draw a charge, and that's useful. But not as useful as a shot-blocker, IMO. TBH, I'd rather have Birdman for $5mil/yr than Nene at $15mil/yr, because I feel he addresses more of our defensive needs.

Birdman at 5million would be the worst possible signing. We cant afford to waste money or over pay people.

It's a sure fire way to lose Williams.

N Ireland Nets wrote:Birdman at 5million would be the worst possible signing. We cant afford to waste money or over pay people.

It's a sure fire way to lose Williams.

That was an hypothetical situation. We can't sign Chris "Birdman" Andersen, he's already under contract;also, he more than earns his salary. And what's the difference between the Bird at his current salary, and keeping Kris Humphries as a 6th man, as many around here want to do?

If you want a Chris Andersen type player to pair with Brook Lopez I can understand the logic in that, but Chris Andersen as I pointed out above is already 33 years old, throw in the fact that he's inked for the next 2 years (3 counting this locked out season), and that his vaunted shot blocking was invisible for much of last season and passing on Birdman is an easy decision to make...

And for what it's worth I don't even know if I want Kris Humphries back... If I had a crystal ball and it told me the Humphries of last year was not a fluke, I'd probably say bring Humphries back, but I can't help but feel that I've seen this script before (contract year wonder / warrior)...

ecuhus1981 wrote:

N Ireland Nets wrote:Birdman at 5million would be the worst possible signing. We cant afford to waste money or over pay people.

It's a sure fire way to lose Williams.

That was an hypothetical situation. We can't sign Chris "Birdman" Andersen, he's already under contract;also, he more than earns his salary. And what's the difference between the Bird at his current salary, and keeping Kris Humphries as a 6th man, as many around here want to do?

There's no difference between them which is exactly why I'd hate to bring back Hump.

He's the classic contract year wonder. He will cost some team an arm & a leg.

the area needed to improve on is talent. You can't be a competitive team when you only have an advantage at 1 or 2 positions on most nights. Also Brook Lopez needs to stop being soft, and become dominant.

thats really it to be honest, were just lacking talent, we can have all the heart in the world, we need serious upgrades at the 2 and 3 spots.

^

True, true. Fortunately, approximately $24mil in capspace and will afford us some much-needed talent, as long as we spend it wisely.

I'm telling you, though, if we're going to spend all of our capspace (or even a majority) on talent, we'd better spend it on youth, JUST IN CASE we win the Dwight Howard sweepstakes. That way, we can sell recent signees as rebuilding pieces to the Magic in return for him (via S&T). If recent comments are any indicator, we are legitimately in the running for the superstar C, *perhaps* more likely than Orlando to have him when the dust settles.

Later this season or next summer, ORL isn't going to want 30-something's like Prince, Butler, Kirilenko, West, Chandler or Nene in return for their star; they'd rather let him walk, and with our capspace tied up, he'd have no choice but to look elsewhere for a max deal. Marc Gasol, DeAndre Jordan, Wilson Chandler and Jeff Green would be far more desirable to a franchise starting from scratch.