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djsunyc
Posts: 44929
Alba Posts: 42
Joined: 1/16/2004
Member: #536
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Nothin' But Net
Shrewd Moves
Nets CEO Rod Thorn and GM Ed Stefanski have been positively Jerry West-ish in their running of the club. Their one black eye was the trade of Kenyon Martin, but that was mandated by new owner Bruce Ratner. Yet Thorn and Stefanski have even turned Ratner's admitted gaffe into a positive by adding Vince Carter and Shareef Abdur-Rahim to fill Martin's shoes. That gives the Nets a scary first five of Jason Kidd, Carter, Richard Jefferson, quickly improving Nenad Krstic and Abdur-Rahim.
Now, in another superb move, the Nets have added Jeff McInnis to back up Kidd at the point.
I believe Miami, especially with the addition of Antoine Walker, is the team to beat in the East, but I'm leaning toward a Heat-Nets conference final if Kidd stays healthy. With Abdur-Rahim and Carter, the Nets' half-court offense is far better than it was with Martin, and they can run just as well. Their defense is not as strong, but hey, you can't have it all.
I would be going gaga over these Nets if they had done things differently on draft night. Although it's hard to second-guess Thorn and Stefanski, I believe they should have snatched up Syracuse's Hakim Warrick instead of Antoine Wright.
Wright is a good player with very big upside, but his role will obviously be small behind Carter and Jefferson. While the postdraft addition of Abdur-Rahim would have had Warrick coming off the bench, Hakim would have been a terrific complement to Kidd.
With his length and athleticism, he would have been finishing Kidd's passes with above-the-rim gems the way Martin once did. I don't get too excited about summer league, but Warrick did average 18.6 points and 8.2 rebounds for Memphis in the SoCal summer tourney.
To move up a notch and be a legit title contender, I think the Nets need a frontcourt brute, an enforcer in the old Charles Oakley mold. Right now, they're pure finesse, which is pretty and fun and takes you far, but that won't get them past Miami.
They are in the same boat Phoenix was last year. The Suns' finesse got them past everyone but San Antonio. The Suns have done well in answering that problem by adding Kurt Thomas, who, ironically, would have been perfect for the Nets, too.
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