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What are your predictions for the Nets season and why?

Playoffs? 9th or 10th?

Does Lopez play a full season and does Johnson regress slightly? Or does adding RHJ and Young make you a playoff contender if Johnson and Lopez have healthy seasons? Are you looking to get back some younger assets for Lopez or sticking with him for the long haul?

Admittedly I'm a Celtics fan and we've been arguing heavily on where the Nets will end up.
The consensus and perhaps homer Celtics fan Nets slot is missing the playoffs somewhere between 9th-12th basically because the East has gotten tougher and your bench has gotten thinner. As bad as D Will was, his replacement options seem iffy.

Thoughts?

Anyway please don't take this as any kind of hostile post, it's just as someone who's going to be following your team very closely and it would be educational to get a real Nets fan's insight- not just the everyday green glasses POV we're used to swallowing.
Thanks guys.

Best case scenario, we match or slightly exceed last year's win total and sneak in as an 8th seed with Lopez having an all star season, a good stable year from Joe Johnson getting around 14ppg, and Bojan Bogdanovic stepping up as a legit scoring option.

Worst case, Lopez gets hurt, Johnson regresses even further, and our PG play is so bad we gift you guys a top 4 pick.

I expect realistically a 9th or 10th place finish, but we will play hard each night.

We're not trading Brook.

12 or 13th in front of sixers, magic, pistons, and maybe hornets if they have another bad year

I say we're a solid 9th seed this season with the off chance that we can swing into the playoffs with amazing play from our key guys


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If Hollins benches Jack and JJ, I think we get 8th spot.

If Hollins takes forever to figure out that Jack isnt what Hollins thinks he is, I think we dont make it.

Larkin is better than Jack. It is so obvious. Let Jack be the leader coming off the bench. JJ off the bench would make the bench more consistent offensively. No more scoring droughts.

Starters
Larkin, Ellington, Bogs, Thad, Lopez
Bench
Jack, RHJ/Brown, JJ, Barg, T-Rob

If we keep Sloan, I would limit Jack's minutes even MORE.

I think it's tough to peg. We're clustered in a group of teams that will be fighting for the 8th seed, but I don't think we make it.

I think we're clearly better than the 76ers who are still in the rebuild process. That is the only team I believe we are clear-cut better than.

I believe after that we are more than likely better than Charlotte as the MKG loss is significant as they're much better with him; maybe Batum can return to form and help them, but Al Jefferson may continue to decline, and I don't love that team.

The Pistons are interesting - more shooters, more guys who fit what SVG is looking for. They don't really have a go to scorer, Jackson has been wildly inconsistent, they do have some young interesting players. I give us a better shot than not being better.

Same for the Maigc. Young, talented players on the roster, but they still haven't clicked since moving on from Dwight. Maybe this year they get it together after canning Vaughn. I give us a better shot than not being better.

The Knicks I would also put in the same category. They improved - I like some of their additions more than other people - KOQ was a good bargain signing, they committed highway robbery trading THJR for Jerian Grant, the Zingis pick I liked, Afflalo was a good value signing and I think Robin Lopez is a good fit. With all that being said - they were awful last year. I don't love their PG play much like with us. Grant is unproven, Calderon is further declining and cannot be counted on to stay healthy. Afflalo is already having injury problems and Zingis as well. They're also weak at PF assuming Melo is back at SF- Derrick Williams isn't good and Prozingis raw. Melo I think will be looking to prove something and IMO still an elite scorer - think they win low 30's number of games.

I think the Pacers are likely similar to us. PG13 at PF will be interesting.

I give the advantage to the Celtics and Bucks over us. the Celtics had a great record after trading for IT and while I don't love the Monroe pickup for the Bucks, they were better than us last year and I don't see them being worse - just not as good as other people think.

I think the Cavs, Hawks, Bulls, Raps, Wizards, Heat are locks or near locks to be better than us. Thr first four were 10 plus games better than us, the Wizards 8 plus young guys getting better - Porter showed growth in the playoffs, the Heat's starting 5 looks very good.

So in summary I think we're about 10th.
Better than 76ers + Charlotte
2 of the Pistons, Knicks, Magic
1 of the Pacers, Celtics, Bucks

What will hurt you as a Celtics fan is the top of the West is absolutely stacked and the bottomfeeders out there will get beat up on.

If Lopez goes down though you can start setting your sights on Ben Simmons

in no order i have these ahead of us as locks:

Cavs
Hawks
Wizards
Raptors
Bucks
miami
indiana

i think these are good bets to be ahead of us:

Bulls
Celtics
Knicks

I think we are in a group with:
Magic
sixers
Pistons
Hornets

so id say likely 11th or 12, but wouldnt rule out 7-10 or 13-15

I say 8-11 seed. I think we are better than the Sixers, hornets, pistons and magic.
-The bucks fell off bad after they traded for MCW and I don't believe in their defense so I don't think they are a lock just yet...
- Indiana doesn't have big men and even though Hibbert was trash, his defense is underrated and he is a factor in that paint on defense, losing him and D west will hurt them and idk if George is ready for heavy minutes at the 4
-I think celtics over achieved last year and have a bunch of role players on the team but will fight for the bottom 2 seeds like last year.
-Knicks are on the same boat as us and they did improve their roster
Cavs,hawks,bulls,raptors and Miami are locks right now but remember injuries are a big part of the game
Wizards are in if John Wall can keep healthy, if he goes out for a couple months I believe that team goes too
I see us fighting with the knicks, celtics, indiana, bucks, and I say Magics (sleeper) for the last 2 spots just like last year. But at the end I think we fall short this time.

I saw this on the other site.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/nba-brooklyn-nets-preview/?ex_cid=story-twitter



I couldnt comment on this above chart due to my status, but I wanted to say something about this nonsense.

How convenient they added Dahntey Jones with the worse stats (especially offensively) in this list where he would be the 16th man. I dont get how the rookies get these +/- when they havent played a game in the NBA yet.

SIC wrote:I saw this on the other site.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/nba-brooklyn-nets-preview/?ex_cid=story-twitter

[img]https://espnfivethirtyeight.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/carmelo_depth_chart_nets.png?w=610&h=628[/img]

I couldnt comment on this above chart due to my status, but I wanted to say something about this nonsense.

How convenient they added Dahntey Jones with the worse stats (especially offensively) in this list where he would be the 16th man. I dont get how the rookies get these +/- when they havent played a game in the NBA yet.

Yeah, this is garbage. I believe in analytics but those numbers should only be adjusted for established talent. Not camp invites or rookies.

Swav718 wrote:I say 8-11 seed. I think we are better than the Sixers, hornets, pistons and magic.
-The bucks fell off bad after they traded for MCW and I don't believe in their defense so I don't think they are a lock just yet...
- Indiana doesn't have big men and even though Hibbert was trash, his defense is underrated and he is a factor in that paint on defense, losing him and D west will hurt them and idk if George is ready for heavy minutes at the 4
-I think celtics over achieved last year and have a bunch of role players on the team but will fight for the bottom 2 seeds like last year.
-Knicks are on the same boat as us and they did improve their roster
Cavs,hawks,bulls,raptors and Miami are locks right now but remember injuries are a big part of the game
Wizards are in if John Wall can keep healthy, if he goes out for a couple months I believe that team goes too
I see us fighting with the knicks, celtics, indiana, bucks, and I say Magics (sleeper) for the last 2 spots just like last year. But at the end I think we fall short this time.

the bucks added greg monroe, jared dudley, and jabari parker returned , plus their young guys are improving. indy will be good with ellis , and myles turner looks really good , their big men besides him are suspect though, the celtics are very good and well coached.


the knicks, pacers, bucks, and celtics, are better than the nets right now

I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone watched this team last year and seriously believes that Deron Williams, who got benched last year and dogged it is the difference between 38 and 25 wins.

SIC wrote:I saw this on the other site.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/nba-brooklyn-nets-preview/?ex_cid=story-twitter



I couldnt comment on this above chart due to my status, but I wanted to say something about this nonsense.

How convenient they added Dahntey Jones with the worse stats (especially offensively) in this list where he would be the 16th man. I dont get how the rookies get these +/- when they havent played a game in the NBA yet.

its projections. and whether jones is on there or not really doesnt effect it one way or another.

I think (hope?) that we are a bit better then that. I have us at a likely 33-49 record, although honestly we can really fluctuate heavily in either direciton. 41-43 wouldnt shock me. neither would the 25 wins shown above.

i dont think their evaluation is really off base, even if it is on more of the heavy pessmistic side. looking at the chart, it points out the obvious. we really dont have any 2 way players. its basically brook, who while ok defensively isnt really a stopper, and ellington, who is a reserve. outside of that i mean your not getting much D from Jack, Bogs Joe, thad, bargs and not getting much offense from Brown, RHJ, or Trob.

best case for this season, we survive an early tough schedule, lopez plays like a 20/9 guy all year, and we luck into a trade that brings us all-star talent at the deadline, helping us make the playoffs.

MrDollarBills wrote:I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone watched this team last year and seriously believes that Deron Williams, who got benched last year and dogged it is the difference between 38 and 25 wins.

as bad as deron williams was, the difference between him and a backup like larkin is still decent. and for a second forget about the production and think about the fit. we lost our only good 3 point shooter at the PG position from a team that had little shooting to begin with.

our margin of error is REALLY small as well. we cant every play less then our best game and expect to win.

also, id be weary of using comparions like "losing dwill isnt worth 13 games".

look at post from last offseason. did anyone think the difference between pierce and mirza was going to be 10 wins with us getting a healthy lopez back?

we lack talent in the starting lineup, and dont have much depth to boot.

MrDollarBills wrote:I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone watched this team last year and seriously believes that Deron Williams, who got benched last year and dogged it is the difference between 38 and 25 wins.

The media dogged DWill since he got to Nets. Now they are basically saying without Dwill Nets will suck.

I dont get it.

Even losing AA and MT3 also doesnt even equate to such a crazy decline. We now have Thad for training camp and a full season. Lopez isnt hurt to start the season. Wasnt Dwill recovering from surgery too? IMO starting Larkin can probably equal what DWill contributed at the start of last season than hope Hollins can mold him enough to be as productive as Dwill was the remainder of the season. 2012-2103 we won 49 games with an even worse bench than what we have now with Crash and Evans starting the majority of the year.

Basically to start the season it is:
STARTERS
Larkin, Bogs, JJ, Thad, Lopez ----INSTEAD OF----- Dwill, Bogs, JJ, KG, lopez

BENCH
Jack, Ellington, RHJ, Barg, T-Rob ---- INSTEAD OF--- Jack, AA, AK, MT3, Plumlee

END OF BENCH
Sloan, Brown, Karasev, McC, Reed ----INSTEAD OF ---- Morris, Brown, Karasev, CJ, Jordan

Once again this is just LAZY journalism. I am not saying they are going to be great, but some real research instead of JUST BECAUSE.

I FORGOT TO ADD
Hollins was also just added to the team. Hollins didnt have any player on last years team that played for him before besides Jordan. Now Hollins has 9 players that have played or have been coached by him before on this team. There has to be some significance to that too.

Prokorov wrote:in no order i have these ahead of us as locks:

Cavs
Hawks
Wizards
Raptors
Bucks
miami
indiana

i think these are good bets to be ahead of us:

Bulls
Celtics
Knicks

I think we are in a group with:
Magic
sixers
Pistons
Hornets

so id say likely 11th or 12, but wouldnt rule out 7-10 or 13-15

Pretty much agree, though I do think the Sixers will be in a tier of their own at the bottom. It is their objective to tank and the personnel to do it.

MrDollarBills wrote:I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone watched this team last year and seriously believes that Deron Williams, who got benched last year and dogged it is the difference between 38 and 25 wins.

It's much more than just the gap between D.Will and the rest of our PGs

We lost Anderson who was big for us
We lost Plumlee who had his moments
and.... everyone else, other than say the Sixers made a conscious effort to get better between the draft/free agency/trades. We made an effort to get under the tax and get younger/more athletic, not necessarily better.

Plumlee was ineffective towards the tail end of the season. I liked Mason but he seemed to lose it once he lost his starting spot.

Anderson will be missed for his leadership and 3+D play. We are hoping Ellington can replace that at least on the 3+D part.

We got into the playoffs because Lopez, Bojan, and Jack/Anderson played their asses off. D-Will had all but quit.

Yeah, D-Will is better than anyone we have at PG but that didn't mean that he was out there killing it and carrying this squad. So again, losing him is a 13 win difference? i call bull ****. I think if this team competes and plays hard that's half the battle right there. Its all about getting Lopez the rock, guys hitting shots, and Bojan stepping up.

I'm prepared for some rocky moments here as they figure things out but as long as these guys fight hard I think, barring any catostrophic injury to Lopez, they can get close to last year's win total at the least

Deron Williams was one of the worst starting PGs in the league last season. The most we'll miss is his 3 point shot and his willingness to pass (because he couldn't get past anyone and frankly he settled half the time). Larkin will pass the rock, whether he can hit shots is another story. I go with either Larkin or Sloan and let Jack come in for offense. This nonsense about this team being 13-20 games worse because D-Will is gone reeks of revisionist horse ****.

SIC wrote:

MrDollarBills wrote:I seriously cannot comprehend how anyone watched this team last year and seriously believes that Deron Williams, who got benched last year and dogged it is the difference between 38 and 25 wins.

The media dogged DWill since he got to Nets. Now they are basically saying without Dwill Nets will suck.

I dont get it.

Even losing AA and MT3 also doesnt even equate to such a crazy decline. We now have Thad for training camp and a full season. Lopez isnt hurt to start the season. Wasnt Dwill recovering from surgery too? IMO starting Larkin can probably equal what DWill contributed at the start of last season than hope Hollins can mold him enough to be as productive as Dwill was the remainder of the season. 2012-2103 we won 49 games with an even worse bench than what we have now with Crash and Evans starting the majority of the year.

Basically to start the season it is:
STARTERS
Larkin, Bogs, JJ, Thad, Lopez ----INSTEAD OF----- Dwill, Bogs, JJ, KG, lopez

BENCH
Jack, Ellington, RHJ, Barg, T-Rob ---- INSTEAD OF--- Jack, AA, AK, MT3, Plumlee

END OF BENCH
Sloan, Brown, Karasev, McC, Reed ----INSTEAD OF ---- Morris, Brown, Karasev, CJ, Jordan

Once again this is just LAZY journalism. I am not saying they are going to be great, but some real research instead of JUST BECAUSE.

I FORGOT TO ADD
Hollins was also just added to the team. Hollins didnt have any player on last years team that played for him before besides Jordan. Now Hollins has 9 players that have played or have been coached by him before on this team. There has to be some significance to that too.

just because deron williams underperformed doesnt mean we arent worse on the court without him. dwill is a low effort trash starter. larkin is a trash bench player. going from dwill to larkin is not an upgrade or a push. it also drastically hurts our 3 point shooting as teams can no ignore our PGs from beyond the 3 point line.

its not just losing williams, its also about fit, and our group is a pretty bad fit. no one really compliments eachother, we dont have many 2 way guys, and we lack shooters across the board.

MrDollarBills wrote:Plumlee was ineffective towards the tail end of the season. I liked Mason but he seemed to lose it once he lost his starting spot.

mason at his worse is still less of a negative then bargani.

Anderson will be missed for his leadership and 3+D play. We are hoping Ellington can replace that at least on the 3+D part.

We got into the playoffs because Lopez, Bojan, and Jack/Anderson played their asses off. D-Will had all but quit.

Yeah, D-Will is better than anyone we have at PG but that didn't mean that he was out there killing it and carrying this squad. So again, losing him is a 13 win difference? i call bull ****. I think if this team competes and plays hard that's half the battle right there. Its all about getting Lopez the rock, guys hitting shots, and Bojan stepping up.

he wasnt carrying us, but you are ignoring how much it hurts an offense to remove a 3 point shooter from the lineup, especially when its a gaurd. we ALREADY had poor shooting and already had poor spacing. that gets even worse when you remove a shooter. teams can pack it in even more. which means less space for lopez on those rolls to the rim, and less driving lanes for the few guys we have who can get to the hoop.

we are one of the easiest teams in the league to gaurd. we have 1 great offensive player, and you can double him without worrying about getting burnt because he is slow to move the ball out of double teams and if he does we dont have the shooters to make them pay.

Deron Williams was one of the worst starting PGs in the league last season. The most we'll miss is his 3 point shot and his willingness to pass (because he couldn't get past anyone and frankly he settled half the time). Larkin will pass the rock, whether he can hit shots is another story. I go with either Larkin or Sloan and let Jack come in for offense. This nonsense about this team being 13-20 games worse because D-Will is gone reeks of revisionist horse ****.

key word is starting pgs. we went from one of the worst starters as a starter to one of the worst backups now starting.