Season Previews New Jersey Nets

[KG-MVP21]

As long as these are the last years in the Medowlands for the Nets, they might as well make them fun. As last year proved, the Kidd / Carter / Jefferson trifecta is definitely fun.

And that's about it.

First understand that I like the Nets. I enjoy watching them, I adore Jason Kidd, and I can even put up with Vince Carter and his motorcycle so long as he continues to attack the basket more than once a game. But this team is very poorly built and as long as the three of them are kept together they're not going anywhere in the East.

I'm not here slamming any of these three players or how they play together, though. Last year they lived up to all the lofty expectations set at their feet at the start of the season, and it got them both the Atlantic Division crown and berth in the second round of the playoffs. On top of that, barring injuries, I expect a repeat performance of that this year. Anytime you have a trio like that playing off of each other, you'll be in any regular season game.

The playoffs, though, are a completely different matter. No team that is three men deep is going anywhere in the playoffs, no matter how good those three men are. Sure, you can get away with it when you suit up against a different opponent every night, but when the Nets face off against the same team for a seven-game series, all lot of their flaws rise to the surface.

First of all, this team has so little depth I challenge even the most ardent NBA fan to list off their 12-man active roster. Having Kidd, Carter and Jefferson comes at a very steep price, and the Nets are paying for it in several different ways. Two maximum dollar contracts and one near-max deal are keeping this team from acquiring anything resembling NBA caliber talent to flesh out the rest of the lineup. Their best bench player is Eddie House, a notorious NBA journeyman who can put up points at times in the right system, but has no right ever being called a team's best sixth-man. His inconsistency is his most consistent attribute, and he'll be called on to play heavy minutes every game, and is expected to perform. Not a recipe for success.

Marcus Williams, the UConn point guard selected in this year's draft, is a possible bright spot coming off of the bench. Jason Kidd is just about the best mentor any point guard could ask for, and he should really help Williams round out his game. The questions remain, though, about his work ethic and attitude. High-profile players like him rarely slip in the draft unless there is a reason. Williams wasn't a sleeper - nearly every team worked him out at some point - yet he slipped into the early-20's, past several teams looking for a point guard, and that has to raise some eyebrows. Sure, it could turn out to be nothing, but I can't stress enough how rare it is to have a potential top five pick slip to the end of the first round and live to tell about it, especially one as highly-touted as Williams.

The biggest issue for this team, though, has been the same for years: There is no frontcourt. At least when Kenyon Martin roamed the paint they had one legit power forward on their roster. Today, Nenad Kristic is the closest they come to having an NBA pivot-man. Now, I know that statistically he had a good year last year, but this guy is a fraud. He isn't nearly as good as he's been made out to be, and Indiana and Miami made that abundantly clear in the playoffs. He has absolutely no command of his man on defense, and his entire offense exists of sticking twelve-foot jumpers. He is allergic to the paint, averaging six boards and three free throw attempts per game, and even then he shot below 70% from the stripe. He can't handle the ball, he can't rebound nearly well enough to carry a fast-break team, and he's the best they've got in the middle. After him is just an embarrassing assemblage of bodies that will get routinely destroyed in the playoffs by teams like Detroit and Miami, and even potential first round match-ups could include forwards like Chris Bosh and Dwight Howard, both of whom routinely abuse the Nets.

The thing is that Nets management is well aware of this disparity, which is why it'd be virtually impossible to imagine Vince Carter in a Nets uniform next year. He has an opt-out in his contract that he will undoubtedly exercise next summer unless he has a terrible season, and the Nets have made no ovations towards Carter about extending his contract any further than this year. It isn't an indictment of Carter as a player so much as Carter as a contract. Everyone knows that Jefferson and Carter are nothing without Kidd, and that it'd be a lot easier to spread some of Carter contract money around to flesh out the team than it would be to replace a playmaker of Kidd's caliber or a defender of Jefferson's.

But not to worry, Nets fans. You're still a lock to win the Atlantic and probably sneak out of the first round again, but when this team goes up against some real competition in the second round…well, you'll see why teams that are three-deep don't win championships.

Probable Starting Line-Up

PG - Jason Kidd

One of the finest point guards of all time, he may be slowing a bit with age, but his mind is a sharp as ever, and he continues to make every person he plays with startlingly better by sharing the court with them. Any hope this team has had or has going forward lie in the lap of Kidd, and that's a very fortunate position for the Nets to be in.

SG - Vince Carter

Is he soft? Yes. Is he afraid of contact? Yes. Is his second year in the league still his best? Yes. But even still Vince Carter fits this team like a glove. Jason Kidd does all the hard work getting his players easy shots, where they like them and have the best possible chance of success, and nobody thrives from that as much as Carter. The two were made the play with each other, and it's one of the largest reasons that the Nets are able to overcome a lot of their depth and frontcourt issues. With Kidd at his side, Carter is a scoring machine, and when Carter is scoring he puts out an extra effort to rebound and pass. He won't lead a team to victory on his own, but in New Jersey, he doesn't have to.

SF - Richard Jefferson

Another player who would see his stock plummet were it not for Jason Kidd. Jefferson is a very good player who is made great by Kidd. When he is open, he'll hit the jumper, and he can drive into the lane and score, but he needs to be set-up to do both of these things. His defense is his real contribution to this team, and it should not be overlooked that he is a marvelous defender without a shot-blocking presence in the paint to erase any mistakes. He is an honest defender, and not enough people give him credit for that. His defense could keep him a starter on virtually any team, but Kidd makes his offense work as well for this team. In a toss-up between him a Carter, Carter will be the one who gets ousted first to make room under the cap for some depth help because Jefferson does the little things that are a lot harder to replace.

PF - Jason Collins

The Nets are the only team in the league that would start this guy. He has not improved one lick since coming into the league, and the only reason he's still an active member of this rotation is because he comes cheap and he knows the offense. So much of this team's woes begin with the fact that they have to start this guy, and they'll be constant playoff fodder until that changes.

C - Nenad Kristic

If this team had a more talented power forward, Kristic would probably be a far more dependable player on this roster. As it stands, Kristic is a good, but not great, centre for a team in need of toughness and rebounding, and he can provide neither. Between him and Mikki Moore, the Nets probably have the worst one-two punch at the five out of any playoff team in the league, but so long as he doesn't get in the way of the Big Three and keeps sticking those open jumpers, he'll be the starting centre for the Atlantic Division Champions.