Official Game Thread #13: Nets @ Jazz (Jan. 14; 9:00 pm)

[vincecarter4pres]

No idea why Avery sat Deron for so long. That might have cost us the chance of getting back into it.

I see what you did there.

No, but seriously. He took him out when we had cut into the lead a bit. Not sure why.

Nah I hear you, it was a little odd.

[Rich Rane]

Man, this team looks so much worse when 3 pointers are off.

[VCRJKidd15]

Favors,Harris, and Williams not a factor at all in this game

[Ronito]

A guest appearance from Jordan Williams.

[jeff1624]

A guest appearance from Jordan Williams.

Avery is an idiot for not giving him meaningful minutes.

[Rich Rane]

A guest appearance from Jordan Williams.

Avery is an idiot for not giving him meaningful minutes.

You sir are the idiot. Why play Jordan Williams when we have Johan Petro?

[jeff1624]

A guest appearance from Jordan Williams.

Avery is an idiot for not giving him meaningful minutes.

You sir are the idiot. Why play Jordan Williams when we have Johan Petro?

Fair enough. You see that pass to Farmar! With a little work Petro could become the next Chris Webber.

[Rich Rane]

Fair enough. You see that pass to Farmar! With a little work Petro could become the next Chris Webber.

I was thinking more like a prime Kevin Garnett...only better.

[624]

We suck enough, but it sucks even more when we have to play a team with 2 days rest out west on the end of a back-to-back.

[ColdBlue]

Wow I was really disappointed in Dwill's game against us (the Jazz). Our fans really stuck the dagger in and I think it affected his game. He deserved better for what he gave on the court for 5 years.\

My advice to the Nets would be to get a get a low post presence, which is probably obvious. Deron is trying to do too much off the dribble. That isn't his strength. Memo will go off from the 3 if you can get someone in the post that demands a double. Also, the pick and pop with Dwill and Memo is deadly.

Also your defense is the worst I've seen this year. Memo isn't going to help you there...

[therealbig3]

I don't have a problem with Deron's performance tonight, he was trying to take over during stretches, but his shot wasn't falling. You can't get mad at a guy just cause their shot doesn't fall, it happens. And you could tell playing in Utah was affecting him, he even overshot an easy layup at one point...I think it was a combination of nerves, trying to do too much in front of his former fans, and just a bad shooting night.

When we're not hitting our shots, and especially when we go up against a front court like the Jazz have, you have to expect games like this. We live and die with our jumpers, and our big men are terrible defensively.

And one thing that really bothers me...every freaking time someone posts up Okur, he does that same BS swipe move instead of actually contesting the shot...that's something that guards do on a switch, since they have no chance at actually affecting the shot. I think Okur forgets that he's 7 feet tall. I don't think it happened this game, but Okur got called for a bunch of and-1s because of that in one of the games this year. And when he misses on that swipe, he's giving up an uncontested look.

And nobody could keep Jefferson and Millsap off the offensive boards. I've realized something...Humphries isn't that great of a rebounder. He doesn't really box people out, he just kind of throws himself at the ball whenever a shot goes up, which is why we give up a lot of offensive rebounds, and which is why you see so many stupid turnovers where him and someone else on the team will battle each other for the rebound, and it'll either go out of of bounds or into the other team's hands. And he's a terrible defender too. His value imo has seriously dwindled this year. I do like his hustle, and I do like that he's the only big man who's capable of catching a pass in traffic and finishing...but he has probably gotten overrated much the same way that Kevin Love gets overrated...his big rebounding numbers hide the fact that he's a bad defender, and he's a "rebound stealer", and he doesn't get those rebounds in a fundamentally sound way (ie, boxing out), which ends up hurting us a lot of times.

[vincecarter4pres]

Kevin Love takes a steaming Taco Bell dump on Humphries.

I get the analogy you're making, but Kevin Love is on an entirely different level even if he has become overrated himself.

[therealbig3]

Kevin Love takes a steaming Taco Bell dump on Humphries.

I get the analogy you're making, but Kevin Love is on an entirely different level even if he has become overrated himself.

No doubt, Humphries isn't close to the same level player. He's like a homeless man's version of Kevin Love.

[DarkXaero]

btw, is it me or has humphries actually been significantly worse defensively this season?

[vincecarter4pres]

btw, is it me or has humphries actually been significantly worse defensively this season?

No it's not just you.

It's the lack of Lopez, which makes Hump's dreadful defense more prominent, but he also looks less focused in addition.

His rotations have always been awful and his man defense severely overrated.

This goes back to the long debates of the summer and those that said Hump was like a cheaper better alternative to Nene or Tyson.

If we weren't going for Dwight we would have definitely signed one of those guys.

Then again, if we weren't going for Dwight, we would have never taken the risk and traded for Deron in the first place.

[therealbig3]

But the sad thing is...Humphries might be our 2nd best defensive big right now...

How's Jordan Williams's defense? I don't know anything about him, to be honest, but some people here are pretty high on him. If he's at least a capable defensive player, I'd say don't play Okur and Humphries at the same time, because that's just begging the other team to destroy us in the paint and on the glass. Bench Petro, start Shelden and Humph together (say what you want, but Shelden is at least a competent defensive player), and bring in J. Williams and Okur off the bench. We need at least one defensive big in there, otherwise games like tonight happen.

I really do think the loss of D. James has kind of hurt us, since even though he sucked offensively, he was grabbing rebounds and playing good defense. He was our backup PF too. Now we're kind of forced to give Petro playing time.

[vincecarter4pres]

It is pretty sad, and scary.

As for Jordan Williams, I was higher on him before he stuffed his fat face with McDoubles again.

He doesn't look to be in terrible shape, but man did he let himself go.

He's never been and never will be considered a defensive big, he's a rebounder, scorer and garbage man.

He'll block some shots, but he's somewhat slow of foot, isn't very explosive and is still rookie dumb.


That said I would love to see him get some consistent burn and don't see any reason outside of Avery doesn't play rookies or he's still punishing him til he gets in good shape, as to why he isn't.

I mean it's not like there's great vets in front of him and we're winning games!

[SpeedyG]

I'm still going to say...given how awful our bigs have been...

LET'S ALL GET HARD FOR HORNER!!!!