this Nets team has been an even bigger failure in these last two years than the Lakers. at least we can somewhat blame injuries whereas they have more talent and they play absolute crap.
there are parallels between us and the nets, but they've actually been better than us the past two years while dealing with similar issues. also, i'd say their immediate future is brighter, too, as they roll into next year essentially adding ben simmons for nothing, whereas we're trying to figure out how to dump nearly 50 million in salary and both of our stars have missed nearly half the last two years due to injury. i will say that if i were a nets fan, i'd be a bit worried about what kd looks like this year vs. last year in the playoffs. much like us with lebron--if he can't force the opposition to contort its defense, he ceases to be a superstar.
KD is clearly the center of that universe, but there's a lot to worry about with his costars. Where's Simmons at mentally? Does he still have the yips? And Kyrie isn't that durable when he can't skip most of the season because of covid
i agree. the nets aren't in great position. but they're better off than we are. the simmons yips are a concern, but he's also young and fits very nicely next to their two stars on both ends, imo. and yes, irving is another in a long line of folks who people conveniently forget whilst complaining about AD's health. so similarities: aging stars on the decline? check. second stars with availability issues and questions about 1a status? check. old role players who are useless? check. a couple young guys who hustle and do good things? check. 1 young streaky scoring guard with some talent? check. big difference: 3rd star who is 26 years old, can defend all five positions and run the pg vs. 3rd star who is 34 years old and defends zero positions and grumbles about everything.
They're definitely in a better spot and have a better front office. They don't have a Kurt Rambis and are willing to spend. We can close that gap depending on how we utilize RW's expiring, but this front office doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Both teams were the Vegas favorites to be in the Finals and it couldn't go much worse for either this year. I believe they were #2 in most lineups used. Nothing worked and injuries/covid eligibility really sent both spiraling. We didn't make the play in and these Nets have no business in the playoffs. Going to be interesting to see how free agents view each situation this summer and where both rank for the FA mercenaries. We competed a lot for some of the same guys, wonder if that'll be the case again. Speaking of the Nets... Tatum has been giving him the business
aside from their chemistry issues, the nets main problem is that they play zero defense nash is definitely a d'antoni disciple
They are mostly soft. Boston defense has been killing them. They don't have answers, Durant only shot 11 times with most of the game trailing. I must confess I find it lovely that this type of roster construction fails this hard. I don't understand this idea that just putting 3 superstars together without a system will give you a championship. Miami had a great coach and the 3 stars fitted. Warriors were coming off a 73-9 record. You need defense. Chemistry. Clearly defined roles. A system. Role players who give you the details. Grit
could be a blessing in disguise, though. he's scarier when he gets in the paint, imo. you want his physicality 25 ft from the basket on offense as much as possible.
This could lengthen Steph's career and expand the title window for at least 2 more years with this philosophy. Unreal selfishness from this guy. And they still have frontcourt players like Kaminga and Wiseman to develop
lol steph curry willing to come off the bench in an all-nba season, but russ be like...hell naw, gotta crunch that side of the backboard against the big dogs.
i know folks here are trae young fans, but i'm not. he's tiny harden in some ways to me. depends way too much on getting favorable whistles from contact he initiates and needs to be hidden on defense.
We had a discussion on this before: https://lakersball.com/threads/alex-caruso-discussion-thats-bull.2785/page-41#post-333886 I said -- Darren Collison and, at most, IT on D. You thought Lou + ... Yeah.
