Yep, prostitutes. Russian and French ones. Everywhere.
That’s what you can expect in Jay-Z’s home borough in 2011. They’ll be high classed and coked out of their mind. They’ll be wearing skimpy Dior napkins as dresses and look like furnishings in the luxury suites. They’ll be the finest 45 minutes of self-deprecating pleasure the New Jersey Nets can provide for you as you sit back in the dimmed glow of your luxury box, trying to time your own self explosion with that of a thunderous tomahawk dunk from Terrence Williams.
This will be life with a Russian billionaire as the owner of an NBA team. All foods provided will be marinated in the finest vodka. There will be a clothing rack dedicated to only Ushanka hats to brave those northeastern winter nights. No one will be allowed to mention anything pertaining to Val Kilmer’s movie The Saint and while we’re at it, we should probably leave out any mentions of Mike McD beating Teddy KGB at the end of Rounders.
Does it seem like I’m playing into all of the Russian stereotypes and just assuming they have no tolerance of being defeated in Hollywood movies? Absolutely. I think we should all have fun with this. The Russian billionaire NBA owner market is new to all of us. We need to embrace it. We need to love it. This has the potential to turn the Nets into the biggest franchise in all of the NBA and make them a global success.
If anybody can revolutionize not only the art of owning a team but also the world of prostitution at the same time, it’s Mikhail Prokhorov.
Record Last Year: 34-48 Players Welcomed: Terrence Williams, Courtney Lee, Tony Battie, Rafer Alston Players Kick to the Curb: Vince Carter, Maurice Ager, Ryan Anderson
1. Is this team THAT bad? I’ve got to be honest with you; they’re pretty awful. Sure, we all want to pretend that Devin Harris is good enough to be the best player on a playoff team (more on that later) and we want all of this young talent to come together and make them worthy of being the future home of LeBron James next summer. But we have to be honest. This is not a very NBA-talented team. They have loads of potential and some nice pieces going for them. The acquisitions of Terrence Williams and Courtney Lee assure Nets fans they’ll be watching highlight dunks and inspired play from the shooting guard position for many years. And with a young frontcourt like Brook Lopez and Yi Jianlin, there’s plenty of promise of an effective inside-out game from their two big men.
But they’re constructed entirely wrong if they want to compete on a nightly basis this season. Two of their three best players (Rafer Alston and Devin Harris) are the point guards of the team. They have role players that are best suited for complimenting a winning club that needs an extra push in the playoffs, not a young team trying to learn how to be successful. Their long-range shooting is completely suspect. And you’re relying on guys like Josh Boone and Tony Battie to be presences inside on a consistent basis. With one or two big acquisitions in the next off-season they’ll be extremely dangerous. But they have yet to replace the loss of Vince Carter’s scoring and it will be felt on most nights.
2. Is Yi Jianlin long for this league? I get the feeling we’ll be witnessing a perennial struggle of whether or not the country of China will allow Yi Jianlin to kick his obligations back home to start the NBA season on time. We’re starting to get a true sense of what he is as a player. He’s not as effective as Yao Ming was and he’s certainly not making the same type of impact on his team. He struggles to create his shot against anybody with better quickness or height than a folding chair. His outside shot is adequate but not quite good enough to implement it as a main weapon in your offensive attack. He doesn’t pass well or often. His rebounding is pretty good but his defense doesn’t really help anybody but the opposing team. So where does this leave him? He’s only 22 years old (if you believe the Chinese government) so he has room to grow but he seems like there isn’t much more of an NBA ceiling than what he has already shown us.
I would be shocked if he spent five more seasons in the NBA. Not because he isn’t talented enough to do so – if there’s room for guys like Adam Morrison and Collins brothers then there’s plenty of room for someone like Yi Jianlin. But I’m starting to wonder if his handlers and promoters from the Far East will let him toil as an NBA afterthought when he could be a star over in China. When the 2012 Olympics start creeping up on us, the Chinese National Team will want him able to participate in order to get them ready for the games in London. He’ll need to get more and more familiar with his fellow countrymen as they try to continue their progression through the international basketball ranks. And if he is not starring over here, wouldn’t it make sense that the Chinese powers that be ensure he remains a star in China?
3. Does Brook Lopez deserve to be the focus? I’ll tell you what; you could do a lot worse than making Brook Lopez the beginning of your offensive attack. And that’s coming from someone who used to think he was going to be the NBA equivalent of a Crash Test Dummy. In fact, I’m still not convinced that he’s going to be an All-Star or close to it but he is quite capable of being a viable option to start the offense by dumping the ball into the post and figuring out what you can get out of the eventual double teams that will fly towards him.
The great thing with Brook is (despite your instant reactions when you hear him speak) he’s actually pretty intelligent. He’s not going to remind you of Vlade Divac with his passing inability in the post but he can pass adequately enough out of the double to start some ball rotation to create an open shot or a drive towards the hoop. He’s big and strong enough to bully his way into deep position, giving him a great scoring opportunity with a half-hook or a turn around jumper. He’s a very accurate free throw shooter at almost 80% last season so you can’t just hack-a-Brook. Assuming you’re facing a decent defense that can set up and slow down the dribble-drive offense Devin Harris excels at, perhaps feeding Lopez early in the shot clock is the way to start the half court offense.
4. Will Devin Harris be a star? We all know that Devin Harris is a really good basketball player. And we all know that Devin Harris made the All-Star team this past season. And we all know that Devin Harris is the destined leader of this franchise until they go out and sign LeBron James or Amare Stoudemire or whomever will come to Brooklyn to christen the new basketball arena. But does Devin Harris have what it takes to warrant star status? Is he a real star in this league or one of those Kevin Martin, Michael Redd, Andrew Bynum fake stars that is built off of potential and box scores but not actual play on the court?
Devin Harris had a fantastic breakout year last season after having a breakout playoff performance in 2006. He upped his scoring to a career best 21.2 points per game and 6.9 assists per contest. But he also shot terribly with just 43.8% from the field, thanks to being asked to force the issue for a terrible team. He had plenty of times in which he made us stare open-mouthed in awe. Like this one:
Harris’ scoring numbers will be incredible this year but if he can’t shoot an efficient percentage from the field and the team doesn’t win 30 games, will he be considered star-worthy, let alone an actual star in this league? I think he’ll always be no better than a second gun for a playoff team. But that’s not a bad thing to be at all.
5. Seriously? Lawrence Frank? Lawrence Frank is one of the longest-tenured coaches in the NBA. Think about that for a minute. He’s been living off of the 14-game win streak that started his coaching career for a few seasons now and has posted back-to-back 34-win seasons. How can a coach like that survive on fading success when this industry is turning over coaches more than Dwyane Wade turns over the ball? Because the New Jersey Nets are a cheap organization in dire need of some saving money.
Under Larry Frank, the Nets used to be a great defensive team with a below average offense. Now? They’ve booted an aging Jason Kidd for a young offensive-minded Devin Harris and in turn sacrificed their team defensive ability. So were they a good defensive team because of Lawrence Frank’s system and coaching or were they good because Jason Kidd was a top-notched defender at the top of the key? It could be a mixture of both but the fact that Kidd left, the team got worst and the coach stayed the same seems to be enough evidence to prove the coach needs to go. With the new, rich owner who will be more than willing to spend what it takes to win, I think Lawrence Frank should start updating his résumé.
Prediction: 14th in East, 5th in Atlantic
I’m glad the Nets finally committed to gutting the team, starting the rebuilding process and working towards the future instead of putting a band-aid over the wound that needs stitches. The next step needs to be throwing the young guys into the fire this season and seeing who is worth a damn and who isn’t. My guess would be Devin Harris, Terrence Williams, Courtney Lee, Brook Lopez, and Chris Douglas-Roberts are the keepers. Guys like Sean Williams and Yi Jianlin need to be sold off for whatever you can get (even if it’s 60 cents on the dollar). So accept the terrible season, play as hard as you can, and look forward to Russian billionaires and packing up the moving truck headed towards Brooklyn.
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3. Does Brook Lopez deserve to be the focus?
Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 