Atlantic Division Offseason Review

[Smitty731]

Hi guys!

Atlantic Division Offseason Review is up for RealGM.

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/243170/2016-NBA-Offseason-Review-Atlantic-Division

Grades for 2016-17 and long term are included for each team, as well as some offseason analysis. Trying a new format this year: instead of a full deep dive on each of the 30 teams, we're covering a division at a time.

Have at it you filthy animals!

Smitty

[MrDollarBills]

very fair assessment and review.

[shakendfries]

agreed, good stuff

[spaceballer]

Hi guys!

Atlantic Division Offseason Review is up for RealGM.

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/243170/2016-NBA-Offseason-Review-Atlantic-Division

Grades for 2016-17 and long term are included for each team, as well as some offseason analysis. Trying a new format this year: instead of a full deep dive on each of the 30 teams, we're covering a division at a time.

Have at it you filthy animals!

Smitty

Is there a reason you project Scola to be the starter, while most people expect Trevor Booker to be the starter?

Scola is old and may not be able to handle starter minutes. Booker is able to make up for some of the defense lost with Thad, which may be needed next to Brook Lopez. Booker was also signed relatively early and to a heftier and lengthier contract than Scola, who was likely brought in partly for vet leadership rather than entirely based on performance ability.

And with Brook Lopez expected to move more to the perimeter for greater 3pt volume shooting (a la Horford under Kenny's tutelage), that may open up things for dunks by Trevor Booker off Jeremy Lin feeds as well.

Not sure why you have Scola projected as starter in your write-up. I think most fans expect Booker to be starting PF.

[Roy Tarpley]

Overall fair review.

But yeah, why is Scola projected as the starter when Booker has the higher salary, youth, and overall ability? Also, I think the Nets have quite a bit of young talent to watch grow, including Levert, Whitehead, McCullough, Hollis-Jefferson, and yes, even Anthony Bennett!

[Claud]

As for this year, the Nets will have at least six new players in their rotation. Jeremy Lin and Luis Scola both project to be starters

I disagree about Scola as a starter too.

Lin/Bojan/RHJ/Booker/Lopez are the projected starters.

In addition, they have very little young talent to watch grow this season.

Also, WE DO have some good young players to keep an eye on. RHJ, CMac, Whitehead, Levert, Bennett... I feel excited...just saying.

[Smitty731]

On Scola: The word I have gotten is that he will be the starter in name only. Think 5-10 minutes a half. 5 to start. Then 5 later. Booker and Bennett will take the remainder of the minutes.

And I wouldn't hold your breath on Bennett.

But I do agree that there are some guys. RHJ for sure, and I had to cut the parts out I had on him for length reasons. LeVert is still hurt, so not counting on much from him. And the others? We'll have to see.

[MrDollarBills]

On Scola: The word I have gotten is that he will be the starter in name only. Think 5-10 minutes a half. 5 to start. Then 5 later. Booker and Bennett will take the remainder of the minutes.

And I wouldn't hold your breath on Bennett.

But I do agree that there are some guys. RHJ for sure, and I had to cut the parts out I had on him for length reasons. LeVert is still hurt, so not counting on much from him. And the others? We'll have to see.

Yeah i missed the part about not having any young talent.

RHJ, LeVert, McCullough, Whitehead all have upside. LeVert is also ready to go for camp.

Scola is not starting, unless your information is better than NetsDaily you'll have to provide a source.

[Trader_Joe]

Off season was a C- for me.
Their strategy failed in free agency outside of Lin and are now gambling on youth and potential. All their draft picks were reaches when compared to the mocks. Losing Thad hurts as they have no idea who good LeVert is. We could have signed Booker regardless or offered more to Crabbe. I also thought moving Thad meant they had someone in mind...better than Booker.. at PF.

The realistic best case was...

Lin l Vasquez l Foye
Crabbe l LeVert* l Killpatrick
RHJ l Bogs
Young l CMC l Bennett
Lopez l Hamilton l Scola

*Acquired for $3m and the 2nd we traded for Whitehead if he fell there.

[Prokorov]

On Scola: The word I have gotten is that he will be the starter in name only. Think 5-10 minutes a half. 5 to start. Then 5 later. Booker and Bennett will take the remainder of the minutes.

And I wouldn't hold your breath on Bennett.

But I do agree that there are some guys. RHJ for sure, and I had to cut the parts out I had on him for length reasons. LeVert is still hurt, so not counting on much from him. And the others? We'll have to see.

Booker was promised the starting job, it was what helped sign him.

Scola will backup at center, and play very little if any PF

[Prokorov]

On Scola: The word I have gotten is that he will be the starter in name only. Think 5-10 minutes a half. 5 to start. Then 5 later. Booker and Bennett will take the remainder of the minutes.

And I wouldn't hold your breath on Bennett.

But I do agree that there are some guys. RHJ for sure, and I had to cut the parts out I had on him for length reasons. LeVert is still hurt, so not counting on much from him. And the others? We'll have to see.

Yeah i missed the part about not having any young talent.

RHJ, LeVert, McCullough, Whitehead all have upside. LeVert is also ready to go for camp.

Scola is not starting, unless your information is better than NetsDaily you'll have to provide a source.

we do have young players, but comparatively, not so much.

bennet is our only player under 25 who was a lottery pick... actually the only guy taken earlier then #20 overall.

[Prokorov]

Off season was a C- for me.
Their strategy failed in free agency outside of Lin and are now gambling on youth and potential. All their draft picks were reaches when compared to the mocks. Losing Thad hurts as they have no idea who good LeVert is. We could have signed Booker regardless or offered more to Crabbe. I also thought moving Thad meant they had someone in mind...better than Booker.. at PF.

The realistic best case was...

Lin l Vasquez l Foye
Crabbe l LeVert* l Killpatrick
RHJ l Bogs
Young l CMC l Bennett
Lopez l Hamilton l Scola

*Acquired for $3m and the 2nd we traded for Whitehead if he fell there.

your "realistic best case" really isnt any better then what we have now... and with less cap flexibility moving forward. agree on thee C- grade(i had us at a D+)

were not getting levert in round 2 for a purchased pick, although that doesnt matter a ton as he isnt a super prospect or anything.

[Born_Ready]

The assessment is pretty much spot on and realistically what I am expecting from Brooklyn.

I think they will play hard and be much more competitive than previous seasons. They have a head coach who is league wide respected, some veteran leadership for the bumpy ups & downs the season will propose, and some youth with the right development could/should be beneficial long term.

I am curious to see how Bojan and Brooke play out this year. Can they truly build around Brooke via PnR with Lin at the helm? And, will Bojan play like he did against his international foes (not so timid) in the NBA and continue to progress? Some of the pieces are in place. It's up to the players and coaches to make sure the pieces stick.

[Trader_Joe]

Off season was a C- for me.
Their strategy failed in free agency outside of Lin and are now gambling on youth and potential. All their draft picks were reaches when compared to the mocks. Losing Thad hurts as they have no idea who good LeVert is. We could have signed Booker regardless or offered more to Crabbe. I also thought moving Thad meant they had someone in mind...better than Booker.. at PF.

The realistic best case was...

Lin l Vasquez l Foye
Crabbe l LeVert* l Killpatrick
RHJ l Bogs
Young l CMC l Bennett
Lopez l Hamilton l Scola

*Acquired for $3m and the 2nd we traded for Whitehead if he fell there.

your "realistic best case" really isnt any better then what we have now... and with less cap flexibility moving forward. agree on thee C- grade(i had us at a D+)

were not getting levert in round 2 for a purchased pick, although that doesnt matter a ton as he isnt a super prospect or anything.

We reached on both Whitehead and LeVert. We probably could have drafted him at #42 since most did not have him in the first round. So we don't have to trade Young and get LeVert. That's a major deal, as is offering slightly more to Crabbe and getting him. No, it' snot much better, but it's about as well as we could have realistically done. Maybe still not an A.

[MrDollarBills]

LeVert has to make good from the door to justify that horrific trade

[Prokorov]

Off season was a C- for me.
Their strategy failed in free agency outside of Lin and are now gambling on youth and potential. All their draft picks were reaches when compared to the mocks. Losing Thad hurts as they have no idea who good LeVert is. We could have signed Booker regardless or offered more to Crabbe. I also thought moving Thad meant they had someone in mind...better than Booker.. at PF.

The realistic best case was...

Lin l Vasquez l Foye
Crabbe l LeVert* l Killpatrick
RHJ l Bogs
Young l CMC l Bennett
Lopez l Hamilton l Scola

*Acquired for $3m and the 2nd we traded for Whitehead if he fell there.

your "realistic best case" really isnt any better then what we have now... and with less cap flexibility moving forward. agree on thee C- grade(i had us at a D+)

were not getting levert in round 2 for a purchased pick, although that doesnt matter a ton as he isnt a super prospect or anything.

We reached on both Whitehead and LeVert. We probably could have drafted him at #42 since most did not have him in the first round. So we don't have to trade Young and get LeVert. That's a major deal, as is offering slightly more to Crabbe and getting him. No, it' snot much better, but it's about as well as we could have realistically done. Maybe still not an A.

its a D offseason with or without crabbe and with or without thad. thads cap space is still at the very least close to as valuable as he is.

as far as levert, no way he drops to 42.

[Trader_Joe]

your "realistic best case" really isnt any better then what we have now... and with less cap flexibility moving forward. agree on thee C- grade(i had us at a D+)

were not getting levert in round 2 for a purchased pick, although that doesnt matter a ton as he isnt a super prospect or anything.

We reached on both Whitehead and LeVert. We probably could have drafted him at #42 since most did not have him in the first round. So we don't have to trade Young and get LeVert. That's a major deal, as is offering slightly more to Crabbe and getting him. No, it' snot much better, but it's about as well as we could have realistically done. Maybe still not an A.

its a D offseason with or without crabbe and with or without thad. thads cap space is still at the very least close to as valuable as he is.

as far as levert, no way he drops to 42.

There was a very good chance he did.
#50 in DX
#45 in CBS prospect ranking
#45 in NBA.Com Mock
#47 basketball insiders Steve Kyler
Don't see him in basketball insiders consensus in the 1st round

etc. Just because we reached, doesn't meant the rest of the GMs would as predicted by most paid "experts" who I will trust more than your "no way" comment.

And no, Thad is worth more than cap and thus returned more than cap. Cap space was overrated this off-season and proven especially to the Nets and especially compared to what was given out.

[MrDollarBills]

Cap space is air if your roster is coming off of a 21 win season.

Again, its on LeVert to make this move not look like a disaster.

[Roy Tarpley]

We reached on both Whitehead and LeVert. We probably could have drafted him at #42 since most did not have him in the first round. So we don't have to trade Young and get LeVert. That's a major deal, as is offering slightly more to Crabbe and getting him. No, it' snot much better, but it's about as well as we could have realistically done. Maybe still not an A.

its a D offseason with or without crabbe and with or without thad. thads cap space is still at the very least close to as valuable as he is.

as far as levert, no way he drops to 42.

There was a very good chance he did.
#50 in DX
#45 in CBS prospect ranking
#45 in NBA.Com Mock
#47 basketball insiders Steve Kyler
Don't see him in basketball insiders consensus in the 1st round

etc. Just because we reached, doesn't meant the rest of the GMs would as predicted by most paid "experts" who I will trust more than your "no way" comment.

And no, Thad is worth more than cap and thus returned more than cap. Cap space was overrated this off-season and proven especially to the Nets and especially compared to what was given out.

Even if mock drafts had Levert at high 40s, it doesn't guarantee that he'd be around at #42. Anybody who has done a mock draft knows that, despite what the consensus says about average draft pick, there's always a few smart people who have different evaluations. Even the Nets themselves had pegged Levert as a top 20 pick so it's only natural for Marks to assume that other people had Levert that high too and it was too risky to wait until #42.

Even setting aside Levert, if you're just comparing a swap of Thad and Booker, I think it was at minimum a wash if not a slight positive for the Nets. Booker is almost equal to Thad offensively, but better defensively, and similar height, weight, age. On the whole, I think Booker will be better than Thad for the current Nets team PLUS $3million/year cheaper. Add in Levert, and the deal seems to me like we got two silver dollars for giving up a dollar bill. If Levert turns out to hit 3s at 35%+ and capable defender who can give 20minutes his rookie year, it's a slam dunk.

[Trader_Joe]

its a D offseason with or without crabbe and with or without thad. thads cap space is still at the very least close to as valuable as he is.

as far as levert, no way he drops to 42.

There was a very good chance he did.
#50 in DX
#45 in CBS prospect ranking
#45 in NBA.Com Mock
#47 basketball insiders Steve Kyler
Don't see him in basketball insiders consensus in the 1st round

etc. Just because we reached, doesn't meant the rest of the GMs would as predicted by most paid "experts" who I will trust more than your "no way" comment.

And no, Thad is worth more than cap and thus returned more than cap. Cap space was overrated this off-season and proven especially to the Nets and especially compared to what was given out.

Even if mock drafts had Levert at high 40s, it doesn't guarantee that he'd be around at #42. Anybody who has done a mock draft knows that, despite what the consensus says about average draft pick, there's always a few smart people who have different evaluations. Even the Nets themselves had pegged Levert as a top 20 pick so it's only natural for Marks to assume that other people had Levert that high too and it was too risky to wait until #42.

Even setting aside Levert, if you're just comparing a swap of Thad and Booker, I think it was at minimum a wash if not a slight positive for the Nets. Booker is almost equal to Thad offensively, but better defensively, and similar height, weight, age. On the whole, I think Booker will be better than Thad for the current Nets team PLUS $3million/year cheaper. Add in Levert, and the deal seems to me like we got two silver dollars for giving up a dollar bill. If Levert turns out to hit 3s at 35%+ and capable defender who can give 20minutes his rookie year, it's a slam dunk.

No real point in bringing up Booker. We could have signed him even if we did not trade Thad since we still have more than Thad's salary in cap space. I also don't see how they are comparable offensively.

As for the draft of course there was no guarantee but there was a good chance based upon the pundits who get paid to predict these things, sometimes with good inside info. And it it wasn't LeVert that "fell" there would have been others there of similar hype/value.