<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Right, the same stuff all execs worry about. "From an offensive standpoint, it's probably the deepest team we've had since the second year," the Nets president said at a media luncheon yesterday, referring to the 2001-02 season. "We have more offensive power from the standpoint of making outside shots than we've ever had. "The key to our team obviously will be how we rebound, and how we defend. Those are the areas we obviously have to play well in if we want to get deep back in the playoffs. We've got to do it. I'm sure our schemes will be fine, but we have to have players who will do it. That's the key to our team." Even with their best perimeter stopper (Richard Jefferson) on the shelf for 49 games, the Nets still ranked sixth in overall defense last year, but they are adding two players (Jeff McInnis, Lamond Murray) who are considered weak defenders to their rotation. Rebounding is even more iffy. The Nets were the second-worst rebounding team in the league a year ago, and Jason Kidd led them with 7.4 boards per game. Their starting center and power forward -- Nenad Krstic and Jason Collins -- averaged only 11.4 rebounds between them. And the only addition to their power rotation, Marc Jackson, has a 4.7 career average. In other words, losing out on Shareef Abdur-Rahim and his double-digit rebounding tendency is going to show. Thorn says that Krstic is likely to play more power forward this year when Jackson is in the game, which makes the Nets a very big team. But he knows that none of his power players is likely to grab as many rebounds as, say, Jefferson (7.3 rpg), or even as many as Vince Carter (5.9). Still, here's his bottom line: "We have to get good play out of our big players. That's going to be the key thing," Thorn said. "We need Krstic to keep getting better, we need Jason (Collins) and Jackson and Cliff (Robinson) to play well for us. I think that's a real key to our season, to see how far we can go." </div> Source
The Nets seem old and creaky to me. They might have the all NBA bad knee squad. Injuries will be the key to their season. If they stay healthy they make the first round of the playoffs and then head for the golf course and a long summer.
Nets will make second round and lose to a surging Miami. Jefferson and Carter running alongside Kidd, yeah 5 years ago that wouldve won championships lol! Lets see if Carter will give 100% in New Jersey lol!
