Net Losses

Well, the new era of basketball futility is upon us, courtesy of the New Jersey Nets. I won't trot out the trademark hostility of this blog to beat on the woebegone Nets, who after all are not the team of my colleague (or, as it turns out, anyone, really). With the recent swoons of the Giants and Jets, teams that call New Jersey home are a collective 5-29 since October 1st. And the Nets are doing nothing to help.

Without a legitimate go-to threat and five starting players who would likely be backups on the league's elite teams, there simply isn't much to work with here. They all knew it would be a rebuilding year, but the problem is that there's no indication when this struggle is going to end. Is the rumored move to Brooklyn sufficient incentive to bring in the high-priced talent, when next season's attractive crop of free agents becomes available? Who wants to come to the rescue of this organization? Where is the revenue going to come from?

These are big-picture concerns that the patchwork team must do its best to tune out. The question for the moment is: when will the first win come? This weekend provides two decent chances, with home games against the Bobcats and Knicks.

What say you, comrade? When will the Nets break out? Will it be your Knicks coming to the rescue?

MILES:

Meh. I've always been, at best, ambivalent about the Nets. In my lifetime, the organization, even when at the top, has been kind of irrelevant, like the state of Delaware or Paul Tsongas. Does anyone, besides Jay-Z, really care about the Nets? The media coverage of the team's historic futility has been largely perfunctory, a collective shrug from the Frank Bascombes of the world. 

Even at 0-18, the Nets can't even lose with panache. Which is to say, they aren't entirely dysfunctional. These ain't the 1962 Mets. Before last night, for instance, the Nets, to their credit, have played hard in every game, losing four games by a combined nine points, including this back-breaker against the Heat. They lost to the Celtics by 10, and the Knicks by seven. And it's not like the team is without talent. Brook Lopez is averaging 18 and 9, and Chris Douglas-Roberts is putting up close to 17 points a game. At the same time, their best player, Devin Harris, has only played in eight games this season, while the mysteriously tantalizing Yi has only laced up his size 17s a whopping four times. I'm rambling, I know. My point is, I think, the Nets aren't charmingly hopeless or even lovable losers. They're not even as bad as their record. Granted, they're not much better, but they should probably have two or three wins this season. 

With that said, I still say they won't pick up their first win of the season until they host the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. Charlotte's just a better team, and the Knicks have actually been playing pretty well offensively in recent weeks, although the noon tipoff time worries me a bit. The Nets might steal one from the Bulls, who seem to have trouble scoring, but I think they'll end their streak against the entertainingly dysfunctional Warriors, who will be in the middle of a five-game road trip.