Next season would be a wash, so I wouldn't be concerned with his salary. Unfortunately, he would be on our payroll for 2015 but considering how badly we struck out in 2010, is that such a bad thing? Considering the upside of Brook Lopez if he is healthy, I think it is a risk that I'd be willing to take.

BroPez's injury Im not sure is the cause for their turn around but certainly has to be looked at. The ball movement when Bropez and Iso Joe is not so Iso is really a thing of beauty. Good teams do this, and its something we did last year in stretches.

Iso ball has its place and if you watched the Nets/Rockets game last nite (they rested Pierce a good bit)its easy to see they can come at you with many different looks. Iso Joe was used very well last nite as they postioned him to succeed.

A big part of their surge is back court play. Livingston is the glue guy and has been wonderful. At the same time Deron williams looks quick and on his game. The Nets are managing their injuries and can do so because they are so deep. They went toe to toe with the Rockets in their running game but when the rockets got gassed (they only dressed 9 guys, and were dwightless)they were able to take control of the game.

A big part of their game is also Blatch is a very good high post passer and is taking less shots. He can certainly take it to the rim and hit the outside shot but last nite he was passing first.

While Im on record as being a closet Net fan, Im really not emotionally attached but they play a good style of ball. I really don't hate pierce unless he is destroying the Knicks. Same for Garnett. We don't have a rivalry just yet so these guys are not the devil they used to be. Maybe tonite that changes?

Teltovic has really improved which makes AK47 often injured game not as important as they just keep plugging in pieces as they need. Kidd has proved his leadership and its apparent he wanted them to play a certain way and stuck with it until they did. I suppose when it works its called "Players buying into the system". When it does not, its "Coach is stubburn!". Its the result that counts!

Unless they can make headway they will have a tough matchup with Chicago who in my opinion plays over its talent given its roster and injury. Thibs has done another great job this year.

Basically a guy like Iso Joe has his nites but when he is off, or the defense is taking away his game the Nets have other pieces. In contrast, the Knicks with the superior Melo has fewer options and rely on JR to be on his game. When so the knicks can play with anyone. When not we are in trouble.

Deron and Livingston are a very good pair right now when healthy.

While my hope is the knicks squeek in and Indy stays afloat, the knicks have a shot if they can stay healthy and some how Bargnani can return and give us some quality back up to Stat. Stat has to be the good Stat. In the clumsy roster Woodson era we seem to put the petal to the metal at times (last season we started great then faded)but then our parts wear out.

That said, the Knicks have to really play into the playoffs and that will wear us out as it has in the past as teams only have 3 days from when the season ends to the playoffs. We saw the fatigue set in last year during the boston series. Even mental fatigue counts demonstrated by JR and elbow incident.

My first preference is a knick-Net playoff series! Lets get this rivalry started! If knicks don't get there, I'd like to see a Net-Spurs final!

I'd be happy if either team won.

Also, its time for Lebron to get some Zen!

Oops, sorry tkf, not basketball-related!

SupremeCommander wrote:I wouldn't put 'salary dump' and 'the Nyets' in the same sentence

If we dealt Tyson Chandler, JR, Felton and Martin for Lopez and Thornton, I'm not sure it would be just a "dump", even though a major incentive would be more cap flexibility.

VDesai wrote:Bargnani should be able to give you whatever Lopez gives you (not the same player or style, but same results). Its not worth it for us.

I personally believe that Lopez has far greater impact on a game than Bargnani. Before his injury, Lopez seemed to reach a new plateau and became an effective help defender and was always a decent ball defender. His only shortcoming are his rebounding numbers but he's very close to being a superstar big IMO.

NardDogNation wrote:

fishmike wrote:no to Lopez... no no no.

Nalod.. very interesting post about iso-Joe. Kinda makes you think much of this is on Woody no?

It's becoming clearer to me that a lot of the offense we ran last season, was the brainchild of Jason Kidd. You notice how we stopped doing what we were doing from last year, while the Nets are running a lot of our old sets?

if I remember correctly, we stopped doing what we were doing, LAST SEASON! Remember after that great start we kind of changed the way we played?- it was pretty much iso Melo the rest of the way, though the difference was we actually went through longer spells when the other players made threes.

gunsnewing wrote:The less Kidd played because his shot was off and he was gassed the more we iso'd last year

It's quite simple

I don't remember that being the case- we went iso even with Kidd playing big minutes.