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Ladies and gentlemen, we're in for an old-school basketbrawl. Pascal makes his season debut against us, too, so you already know they're pulling out all the stops for the W in this division rivalry.

The Raptors have plus-defenders all over the floor. Fred is a pest at the point of attack, and surprisingly strong when switched onto bigger players. Gary is not the greatest overall defender, but he's all-world at deflections and steals. He's their disruptor, and if we're as sloppy with passes as we were on Friday, he will have a career night. Ogugua has taken a Jerami-esque leap, improving his offensive skill set significantly while slumping slightly on D due to the extra scoring load. Still, he's a known Nets stopper. Scottie is a Giannis/Lebron hybrid, who's just starting to understand how devastating he can be on a basketball court. I pray that it takes a couple more seasons for Nurse to figure out that he needs to be their primary playmaker.

On offense, Toronto are pretty anemic, and not very creative. However, all they've ever needed in victories against us recently are simple system looks, which they execute with perfect discipline. If we fail to give multiple efforts defensively, and refuse to adhere to basic principles, they will pummel us with corner 3's and interior passes. They also thrive on turnovers, and give up very few.

All that said, what chance do we have? Well, anytime you roll out the basketball with 2 MVP's, you have a chance. One of them is playing at an MVP level, while the other is doing his best to get back from injury and return to that level. Kevin will get his 30/10/5/2/1, even against these young, athletic, strong and lanky defenders. But how does all this size, speed and length affect James? His efficiency and effectiveness will go a long way toward deciding this one. He seemed to have brain fog against Detroit, but he'll need to be mentally sharp in order to orchestrate our offense. Joe has to show up and ball out against his Kryptonite, aggressive perimeter D. I'm not sure how Bruce will find space to attack with floaters, but if he can that would be a benefit. Blake and the bench mob will need veteran savvy to counteract their other deficiencies. The Raps don't rebound as well as you might think with their physical profile, so we *should* be able to outsmart them on the glass.

As with most of our games this season, it'll come down to possessions and shots. We cannot allow them to dominate us on our defensive glass, AND the turnover margin. That will lead to a large discrepancy in opportunities to score, and if you give them enough life, nothing we do can overcome it. I *think* we understand this, and I have faith that we can survive this crucible. GO BROOKLYN!

Not sure where to post this, but I'm really concerned with the Nets depth... I didn't like the idea of drafting 5 rookies and also wasn't a fan of the Millsap signing... Didn't expect James Johnson to be such a non-factor so that one kind of surprised me... And at this point I might actually prefer Mike James over Carter even though I understand the issues that would arise trying to play James and Mills at the same time...

Karate Diop wrote:Not sure where to post this, but I'm really concerned with the Nets depth... I didn't like the idea of drafting 5 rookies and also wasn't a fan of the Millsap signing... Didn't expect James Johnson to be such a non-factor so that one kind of surprised me... And at this point I might actually prefer Mike James over Carter even though I understand the issues that would arise trying to play James and Mills at the same time...

I don't know why we signed 5 rookies either.

Trading Shamet for a rookie was particularly confusing. I'd rather just keep Shamet.

Its looking like the rookies will get no PT this year.

The Milsap signing was fine, but I agree carrying 5 rookies was a big mistake.

There's three teams in the league that has their azz targeted, we one of them. If we won't, see what's going down in LA. We got Kyrie situation, it can get toxic real fast. We ain't got privilege like Bucks right now, we were overhyped by media . Craptors dusted Siakam out, pretty sure he'll come out to play.

As long as the Nets play solid D and force tough shots or turnovers, Nets should win this one. We need to get this one at least because we have a tough one against Chi Town tomorrow, which I don’t expect to win.

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GTR11 wrote:There's three teams in the league that has their azz targeted, we one of them. If we won't, see what's going down in LA. We got Kyrie situation, it can get toxic real fast. We ain't got privilege like Bucks right now, we were overhyped by media . Craptors dusted Siakam out, pretty sure he'll come out to play.

Bucks need Middleton. No Middleton means they will get crushed. It’s amazing though the difference between us and then how we came close to essentially beating them without Kyrie and a 25% Harden. A returning Kyrie means the league would be done.

KD35Netted wrote:[youtube][/youtube]

GTR11 wrote:There's three teams in the league that has their azz targeted, we one of them. If we won't, see what's going down in LA. We got Kyrie situation, it can get toxic real fast. We ain't got privilege like Bucks right now, we were overhyped by media . Craptors dusted Siakam out, pretty sure he'll come out to play.

Bucks need Middleton. No Middleton means they will get crushed. It’s amazing though the difference between us and then how we came close to essentially beating them without Kyrie and a 25% Harden. A returning Kyrie means the league would be done.

Saying Kyrie and available in a same sentence is laughable. Guy missed over 40% games since he signed here. If anything Khris is unti Kyrie and actually most reliable player that is out there.

KD35Netted wrote:As long as the Nets play solid D and force tough shots or turnovers, Nets should win this one. We need to get this one at least because we have a tough one against Chi Town tomorrow, which I don’t expect to win.

I think that after both games have been played, you may change your mind on which game was the tough one.

On the topic of the keeeds, it's early.

Cam and Day have both seen NBA game action, and the Kess Express should be arriving at the station soon. Call me old school, I like introducing PT slowly to rookies, making them earn it while giving them the goal of an increased role. We have the veterans to fill out a rotation now, and by January when some of their legs are tired, we'll have youngsters champing at the bit to fill that vacancy.

I was confused by keeping the other two on draft day as well. I'll bet Sean shopped the picks heavily. At the end of the day, he opted for optionality in the deepest draft of the decade. I read somewhere that you can sign a draft pick directly to the G League, and retain their draft rights. There's been no official word as far as I've seen with Marcus and Raiquan, but I would assume that that is our strategy. Maybe they pan out better than a 2022 mid-2nd would, maybe they don't. But I like the gambit.

MrDollarBills wrote:The Milsap signing was fine, but I agree carrying 5 rookies was a big mistake.

I screamed from the high hills from day 1 that keeping all 5 picks was beyond stupid. looks worse considering we likely wont be able to keep them all and an undrafted guy beat out some of our late picks.

As far as the other moves, all home runs to me. I love Carter. not sure why he gets hate. we desperately needed defensive bulldogs at the PG/SG spot and he and bembry bring that. he shoots well too (slow start but he can hit those). I loved shamet as you know, but carter is a better fit and adding mills made losing shamet super easy.

I didnt like milsap AND LMA. I though only singing 1 would be better because Nash would be dumb and go big, which he did, but seemed to learn quick and claxton is sick so it worked itself out. Milsap has alot more left then i thought. those guys are great depth.

Carter | Mills | Bembry | Milsap | Johnson | LMA | Claxton is at worst a top 10 bench. we may have struggles at times but we are far from lacking depth. its been a strength of the team so far.

GTR11 wrote:There's three teams in the league that has their azz targeted, we one of them. If we won't, see what's going down in LA. We got Kyrie situation, it can get toxic real fast. We ain't got privilege like Bucks right now, we were overhyped by media . Craptors dusted Siakam out, pretty sure he'll come out to play.

6-3 despite the toughest schedule in the east to open the year without one of our stars = "overhyped"

lol, sit down.

Courtside wrote:

KD35Netted wrote:As long as the Nets play solid D and force tough shots or turnovers, Nets should win this one. We need to get this one at least because we have a tough one against Chi Town tomorrow, which I don’t expect to win.

I think that after both games have been played, you may change your mind on which game was the tough one.

Agree. the bulls as are overrated trash. No depth, horrible fit. they are the classic team that plays hard out of the gate with new faces then comes back to earth. i see them as not even a play-in team.

Raps are a lock top 6 team. the only team in the east that scares me more are the heat when it comes to head-to-head and tough matchups.

If the bucks werent tail end of a back to back id have a bit more optomism...

but Siakim is back, Scottie is already a bonafide stud. and Van Vleet/OG are net killers. on top of that NO TEAM in the league the past 2-3 years has had more success guarding KD/Harden then the raps. they put pressure and force turnovers on 2 guys not used ot that and are turnover prone. Last year they were the only team to really give the big3 problems defensively.

then they have an enormous coaching matchup. we saw vs miami how that played out

We CAN win, but i'd have us as underdogs (-5.5).

Will take a huge game by harden, KD, Mills, and we need the bench defenders to play huge.

Vegas moved the line yesterday further in our favor, from -3 to -3.5. They must think that Siakam is gonna hurt their chances today, maybe he's rusty or causes a negative chain of matchups.

Regardless, Prok is correct in saying that 6-3 is fine for this team. I do believe that Vegas and national media over-inflated us, especially as it relates to the regular season. I projected individual wins and losses for us throughout the season, and thus far we're right where I expected.

ecuhus1981 wrote:Vegas moved the line yesterday further in our favor, from -3 to -3.5. They must think that Siakam is gonna hurt their chances today, maybe he's rusty or causes a negative chain of matchups.

Regardless, Prok is correct in saying that 6-3 is fine for this team. I do believe that Vegas and national media over-inflated us, especially as it relates to the regular season. I projected individual wins and losses for us throughout the season, and thus far we're right where I expected.

This is a team where the regular season legitimately doesn't matter, anyone who expected the Nets to come out blazing and with a ton of motivation and effort from day 1 clearly hasn't followed this team recently... So in that sense, yeah, I agree, 6-3 is just fine.

Raps are going to really test our old guys today going small. Better believe they're going to double and triple KD + push the pace and see if we get back on defense.

Really **** refs so far, foul on Harris was garbage and now bad call on Durant, lets double up on our incompetence and hit him with a tech, ugh

Our offense sucks to watch. We're way too light on shooting.

The Toronto home crowd really brings it, even on a Sunday mid afternoon game. We need someone other than KD to get a hot hand to pull this one off.