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| Brooklyn is getting what it deserved after back-to-back embarrassing losses to the T'Wovles and Heat |
The Brooklyn Nets, their majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov and their minority owner Jay-Z spent most of their summer trash-talking the Knicks, acquiring big name players and hyping up their beautiful new building in extravagant fashion. By all means, the Brooklyn Nets had literally escaped the doldrums of their New Jersey residence and had landed somewhere on the map. For all the talk and bravado, they believed they had landed in New York. When really they were still stuck out in New Jersey.
It takes time for a team to mesh and gel, especially when they acquire basically a completely new team in a single offseason. That's what the Nets are in the processing of doing, gelling, meshing, creating something for the future. I picked them to finish fifth in a strong Eastern Conference and I'm sticking by that place. But what we're seeing early in this season is a result of the cockiness they flung around like a gorilla in a supermarket. They've created their own mess already, and it's going to be a while before they clean it up.
Aside from surviving opening night in Brooklyn against the vaunted Toronto Raptors team, the Nets have played like every bit of the joke they were out in New Jersey. They assumed they had won the game when they took a 22-point lead in the third quarter against a Love-less, Rubio-less Timberwolves squad. Instead of stepping on their jugular, they took their foot off the gas and watched some no-name rookie, Alexey Shved and Chase Budinger led the T'Wolves to a furious comeback. What did they receive from their fans? A chorus of boos that should have humbled them on the spot. In New Jersey no one cared. In Brooklyn they care too much. The harsh reality of surviving hiccups had hit the Nets like a freight train and it only got worse. Watching the Knicks thump the Heat on opening night should have signaled to the Nets that beating the Heat was achievable if they played high-quality basketball. But unlike their crosstown rival, the Nets allowed Miami to run circles around them, beating them like they were a high school team. 73 points isn't going to cut it, especially when your defense couldn't stop a high school dance.
And this is where a problem lies within. The Nets are going to be an atrocious defensive team. Excluding Gerald Wallace, who on their squad can you call a defensive stalwart? Adding to their putrid defensive play is an inept front court. Let's be serious, Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez should be playing for the Charmin All-Stars, not the trash-talking, chin-up Brooklyn Nets! Humphries might be a great rebounder, and Lopez might have some nice low-post moves, but these guys are not going to carry you to a title, let alone the second round of playoffs. I'm not overly impressed by their trillion dollar back court either. Deron Williams seems to be heading in the wrong direction after dark years in New Jersey and Joe Johnson is just viciously overrated. Billy King said that he modeled this team after the Heat. Well Billy, I'm pretty sure Pat Riley would never trade for a guy like Joe Johnson or lock up a big teddy bear like Brook Lopez with a long-term contract. Stephen A. Smith and whoever else writes for ESPN can talk about how much better this team could be than the New York Knicks, but we don't take to potential very kindly in New York.
That's where we are right now with the Nets, potential, hype, buzz. All of their talking in the offseason is making them walk faster than they can. In the words of Boobie Miles, "Hype? Now hype is something that's not for real. I'm all real." The Nets are getting it "real" right now and they deserve every ounce of it.
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