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Even i as a Nets fan had this reaction

Nobody outside of Brooks can consistently hit shots...that tends to bring your percentages down.

I expect Deron, Morrow, Okur, and Shawne Williams to shoot better, and I expect the ball to be put in Deron's hands more (seriously, playing him as a SG? WTF?)...now that I can think more rationally about the team after the loss tonight, I'm really not all that worried about them, they just need to start hitting shots, and the law of averages says that they're bound to start hitting them sometime soon.

Fun fact: The Nets are a combined 14/62 (22.6%) shooting in the 1st quarter so far, for a combined 40 points (an average of 13.3 ppg in the 1st quarter). This actually means that the Nets are shooting 41.3% through the other 3 quarters, for a combined 198 points (an average of 66 ppg through 3 quarters). If we were able to keep that up for the 1st quarter also, we'd be averaging 88 ppg...instead of 79.3 ppg.

Still crap, but at least we'd be NBA-level crap.

Slow starts are killing us.I'm glad Avery listened to PJ and shook up the starting lineup but Gaines isn't the answer.Keep D-WILL at the point where he belongs and go with Brooks or Stevenson @ the 2.I also want to see Shawne Williams get some consistent minutes so he can comfortable out there and we can see what we got.Give the guy a chance let's see what he can do.I agree with others that we have to run that pick and roll to death with dwill and Humpty/Okur

Need to stop fumbling the ball on fast break opportunities. It's embarrassing.

Glad to see Morrow benched. He is a liability out there offensively and defensively. Start Stevenson for his defense. Not Gaines.

Our rotations now should be.

Deron/ Stevenson/ James/ Hump/ Okur
Farmar/ Gaines/ Brooks/ Shawne Williams/ Shel. Williams

I think when our rotations are set we will start playing better on both ends. There is no reason why we should be getting blown out every game, we are not that bad.

It is tough to get out of our slump when we have no time to practice. ATL tonight.

It's pretty scary.

But I'm both worried and not.

It's only been 3 games and if you look at it like this, even with this insanely putrid shooting, awful all around play and chicken with it's head cutoff composure, we staged a huge comeback on the road and stayed in the fray on the road with a HCA playoff team.

Also, can Deron really play this bad for much longer? Seriously, I'm asking.
He has been just awful.

There were some encouraging signs last night mixed in with remote throwers.

And although the players play the game, Avery needs to get his head out of his crusty ass.
He is killing this team with his incredibly obtuse substitution patterns, almost no play calling and bad play calling, misuse of Deron, stubbornness and false praise.

Why don't we just start Marshon and give him starter minutes (25.3 points per 36 minutes) ? This guy sparks the offense every time he touches the floor. He's the only guy we have that doesn't need Deron to set him up to score.

clifffside wrote:Why don't we just start Marshon and give him starter minutes (25.3 points per 36 minutes) ? This guy sparks the offense every time he touches the floor. He's the only guy we have that doesn't need Deron to set him up to score.

One thing does need to be said, something very legitimate, that goes against the Avery hate and aggravation that others and I are sharing.

This is a thrown together skeleton crew of a team with about a collective half week of training camp coming off a lockout in a compressed season with fewer practices.

Avery is going to have to throw a ton of different looks out there for the first 3 to 5 games before he can make decisions on final starting lineups and rotations he will use a majority of the time.

As much as I hate Avery, if you take a step back and look, he is tinkering and experimenting, it is only 3 games in and at least we're still 1 and 2.

This was likely to be a bad team once Lopez went down for an extended period, but all is not lost yet by any means.

If we're still playing like this 5 games down the line and Avery is still pulling 9 head scratcher substitutions and lineups a game then it's time to panic.

Also, who expected Morrow to be this god awful putrid?

He's shown in 3 seasons before this to be such an elite shooter that you could ignore some of his deficiencies and you didn't have to ask him to overextend himself in other aspects.

Then add to this, who expected any coach to start Brooks, the 25th overall pick from day one without seeing him prove himself?

He honestly still hasn't proven much, he's just shown glimpses, I would start him immediately though because of everyone else's deficiencies.

The the kicker is, everything else said, Deron is playing like a piece of braised dog **** topped with urine aioli.

Yes everyone around him is sucking like a Dyson Ball.

Yes he is mainly pass first and needs shooters to make shots and bigs to finish to be most effective.

Yes Avery is using him so mind bafflingly wrong at least half the time he's on the floor it's mind numbing.

But this is a supposed superstar, a guy who since his 2nd season in the league has been All Star starter without fan votes worthy.

This isn't Deron being overrated and so he's not what we expected.

This is more or less him in a funk, or injured, or flat out dogging it like a scumbag.

There's no excuse for him to be this bad.

We'll find out which one of the above 3 reasons is for his play over the next 5 games.


Just some stuff to keep it in perspective...

I could live with Deron losing his jumpshot completely, but he's been turning the ball over like Jason Williams on the Kings. Being careful with the ball is something he can control.

Deron worked great as a shooting guard in Utah, and he can be a primary scorer if needed.