OMG, the Nets stink

[BballTim]

The biggest problem with that team is D-Will.  He's gone from one of the top 5 players in the NBA to not really interested in playing basketball anymore.  He is just not dedicated anymore.

so he's gone all Mark Blount on them?

But worse, because Williams was, at one point, either 1A or 1B for point guards in the league.

  That was pretty much when Paul was out with a knee injury.

Earlier and later than that, actually. He was right around 20/10 from '07-'11.

  He was close to those stats, but he wasn't really on the level of CP3 before Paul's knee injury. I don't think a ton of people put him on the same level as Rose during his mvp season either.

Williams was definitely ranked by many sources on the same tier as Paul even before his knee injury.  He came out of college a better long range shooter than Paul and took his team over .500 while Paul's was under .500.

  Williams got drafted onto a better team than Paul's. It's not that he made more of a difference. It's also not like he was an MVP candidate when Paul was.

I'm not saying he made more of difference, just relaying one of the arguments for why people ranked them the way they did.  Although, being drafted to a worse team definitely improves your chances of winning MVP.  And it's not even like MVP is a measurement of who's the best player, that's been proven multiple times.

The basic idea is that people didn't know who was going to turn out the better player so they just called them 1A and 1B until they proved differently.  The fact that Deron was much bigger, a better shooter, and on a winning team instead of a losing team was enough to keep him at least on the same level in people's minds.  In 06-07 the year before Paul was an MVP contender, Williams received 15 all-NBA points to Paul's 3.  It's understandable they rose to the top tier together as Kidd/Billups/Nash were getting older and Arenas stopped scoring 30ppg.

  He might have been seen as on the level of CP3 in 06-07 but that's not the same as being 1A-1B for best point guard in the league, Steve Nash would have been widely seen as the best in the league. He wasn't really seen as on Paul's level in the year or two after that when CP was an mvp candidate. He wasn't really seen as the best pg in the league when Rose was the MVP either. The only time he's been widely seen as the best pg in the game was when CP3 was out with a knee injury.

[mmmmm]

I will say this again: it is a very long season.

This^.

A thousand times, this.

[makaveli]

The Nets are the only team to score a point per possession against Indiana, but the Brooklyn offense has been otherwise uninspiring. They're waiting for Deron Williams to get back his lift and for Andrei Kirilenko to get healthy, but Kevin Garnett has been a serious disappointment thus far. Not only is he shooting 32 percent, but his team has allowed 107.6 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.
woow

[guava_wrench]

A lot of the Williams hype a few years ago was people wanting to be smarter than everyone else by saying Williams was better then Paul. He never was.

On the other hand, he is really underperforming.

[guava_wrench]

Probably the coach's problem. He's got all that talent, but still can't easily win games...

Great talent if it was 5 years ago. Much more complicated now.

[hpantazo]

The Nets are the only team to score a point per possession against Indiana, but the Brooklyn offense has been otherwise uninspiring. They're waiting for Deron Williams to get back his lift and for Andrei Kirilenko to get healthy, but Kevin Garnett has been a serious disappointment thus far. Not only is he shooting 32 percent, but his team has allowed 107.6 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.
woow

WOW, maybe KG really should have retired but accepted the deal to help out Pierce and the celtics. Great trade by Ainge.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Yeah if you go and read some of the Nets forums, there are actual arguments where some of their posters think they should start Reggie Evans over KG.  We got how many unprotected 1st rounders from them? 

[fairweatherfan]

I hate to say I called it cause so did a lot of other people, but it's seemed likely since the trade that KG would have a lot of trouble moving back to PF, especially on D.  He's just not quick enough anymore, especially against mobile 4s.

The next thing I'm expecting are the inevitable personality clashes as the team continues to struggle.  I'm predicting Pierce vs Deron, KG vs Lopez, and Everybody Hates Jason (Kidd). 


EDIT:  I should add that they'll still make the playoffs, they'll just underachieve and bicker to a 1st or maybe 2nd round loss.

[LooseCannon]

The Nets are the only team to score a point per possession against Indiana, but the Brooklyn offense has been otherwise uninspiring. They're waiting for Deron Williams to get back his lift and for Andrei Kirilenko to get healthy, but Kevin Garnett has been a serious disappointment thus far. Not only is he shooting 32 percent, but his team has allowed 107.6 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.
woow

WOW, maybe KG really should have retired but accepted the deal to help out Pierce and the celtics. Great trade by Ainge.

Maybe we should treat that as circumstantial evidence that healthy Rondo>DWill.

[LarBrd33]

A lot of the Williams hype a few years ago was people wanting to be smarter than everyone else by saying Williams was better then Paul. He never was.

On the other hand, he is really underperforming.

Williams is injured and is on minutes restriction.  The Nets will be fine.  They will likely have one of the best records in the league when the season finishes.

And then all bets are off.  Deron Williams is a playoff superstar.

Rondo:  14.5 points, 9.2 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 45%/28%/65%

D-Will:  21.1 points, 9.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals 45%/40%/80%

[PhoSita]

I will say this again: it is a very long season.

This^.

A thousand times, this.

[perks-a-beast]

I will say this again: it is a very long season.

This^.

A thousand times, this.

I know it's a long season and I still have faith in the Nets but not Garnett, he looks horrendous out there. Imagine what he'll look like 75 games from now....yikes.

[BballTim]

A lot of the Williams hype a few years ago was people wanting to be smarter than everyone else by saying Williams was better then Paul. He never was.

On the other hand, he is really underperforming.

Williams is injured and is on minutes restriction.  The Nets will be fine.  They will likely have one of the best records in the league when the season finishes.

And then all bets are off.  Deron Williams is a playoff superstar.

Rondo:  14.5 points, 9.2 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 45%/28%/65%

D-Will:  21.1 points, 9.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals 45%/40%/80%

  Rondo played a lot of games in the 07-08 playoffs, when he was in his first year as a regular starter. Since then he's been good for 16/7/10 in 66 games (more than Deron's played in his career btw). in other words, over the last 4-5 years Rondo's had roughly the same production as a "playoff superstar" but with much better defense.

[hpantazo]

The Nets are the only team to score a point per possession against Indiana, but the Brooklyn offense has been otherwise uninspiring. They're waiting for Deron Williams to get back his lift and for Andrei Kirilenko to get healthy, but Kevin Garnett has been a serious disappointment thus far. Not only is he shooting 32 percent, but his team has allowed 107.6 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.
woow

WOW, maybe KG really should have retired but accepted the deal to help out Pierce and the celtics. Great trade by Ainge.

Maybe we should treat that as circumstantial evidence that healthy Rondo>DWill.

Yea, I'm sure the difference between Rondo and DWill is really affecting KG's ability to play defense 

Another poster made a great point, I think KG is just too slow to play PF on defense nowadays. It's tough to put him out there with Lopez, and you can't bench Lopez as he is at  the moment the best player on the team.

Kirilenko and Pierce are also shadows of their former selves, and let's not even mention how useless Terry is now. The Nets are in legitimate trouble. A rookie head coach doesn't help things either.

[D.o.s.]

A lot of the Williams hype a few years ago was people wanting to be smarter than everyone else by saying Williams was better then Paul. He never was.

On the other hand, he is really underperforming.

Williams is injured and is on minutes restriction.  The Nets will be fine.  They will likely have one of the best records in the league when the season finishes.

And then all bets are off.  Deron Williams is a playoff superstar.

Rondo:  14.5 points, 9.2 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 45%/28%/65%

D-Will:  21.1 points, 9.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals 45%/40%/80%

  Rondo played a lot of games in the 07-08 playoffs, when he was in his first year as a regular starter. Since then he's been good for 16/7/10 in 66 games (more than Deron's played in his career btw). in other words, over the last 4-5 years Rondo's had roughly the same production as a "playoff superstar" but with much better defense.

And much worse foul shooting, if you want to cover all the bases.

I know I'm on record already with this, but I think it bears repeating: I don't think very many NBA players have mailed it in as hard as Deron Williams has the last couple of years. Some of that is injury, but I really do think that once he got shipped out of Utah he stopped giving a Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline..