Welcome! Yeah, I was sad when that sick dunk by Yi didn't count. Good eyes and pass by Brook and awesome finish by Yi. He threw that down with quickness and authority. Too bad it was half a second too late, according to the refs.
The Wizards play-by-play guy mistaked Hayes for Carter once. I laughed, even though I can sorta see the similar body structure. Sorta.
I finally got around to watching the game, here are a few (and hopefully new!) thoughts: 1) If Javale McGee is 7'0", and Yi is 7'0" then Brook is at least 7'2". I think we've found Sean's replacement for the "Guess my real height" game. 2) It was so refreshing watching the team run the offense and play defense as a team. There were no plays that were iso's from the onset, and only on a very rare occasion did our sets run stagnant. It's going to be a fun year to watch the team. 3) Remember how in just about every game thread last year we took bets if the team could score through the 60's? 4) Brook could have easily come off the bench to have a 15/8 night. There were a lot of forced/wild shots along with some flubs right underneath the basket. This just looked like he lacked the focus, polish, and experience that comes with being a rookie, that's all. He'll be a player for us. 5) Speaking of wild shots, how about that first quarter? Once we settled down we were pretty impressive, but it looks like the biggest immediate impact of playing a young unfamiliar team will be a couple more airballs in the following months. 6) I'm not sure why anyone could say that CDR had a bad game. He gets a grade of N/A, since we apparently decided to hold on to Jacyee Carroll and give him Jabari Smith's old jersey. CDR had zero impact on the game because whenever he played Dooling was running the point, and was throwing up as many shots as he could. 7)...he was still a huge upgrade over Marcus though! 8) Yi is a beast. It was getting ridiculous how good his jumper looked, and how automatic it was for long stretches of the game; range from 3, too?
He is capable of it, but he needs to have a more consistent three point shot. If he can do that, his range will only increase, and he is faster than alot of big men or taller than most people at his position. Good thing going yeah? I'll be keeping a close eye on Yi. Go Chinese players!
Yi also put up an inspiring effort when guarding Butler. It confirmed that he can't stay in front of SF's, but his effort and quickness was still very impressive for a 7 footer.
i cant wait for game 2.... against GSW.... omg... if we play like that everynite we will compete every nite... and that makes me happy
we'll compete every night, but we won't win every night. The shooting displays by Yi and Hayes won't be duplicated every game. Also, there are still obvious weaknesses containing offensive rebounds by the opposition, and we'll get punished by a team with a more skilled inside scorer. Also, if Brook and/or Boone get into foul trouble, we'll struggle. Despite all these reports on how "deep" the Nets are up front, there are just four players capable of playing center--and that includes Swift and Sean, who are there out of necessity. Brook is the only one that can stand up to a big center. Also, we could easily get abused by big and strong PFs with an inside game, at least until Najera returns. We'll get beaten every time out by the top ten teams--the teams that are deep AND experienced. I can see the Nets being slightly above .500 against everyone else. 39 wins.
From what I remember, I think they actually ran at least 3 or 4 straight ISOs for Vince late in the 4th. They were nearly all successful though.
What was really encouraging about how they used Vince in the second half, though, was that they had him in the post, back to basket from 12 feet and in. A few times they had him mid-wing (15-17') facing in an isolation situation. That's a much different and better way to use him than having him catch from 20' closer to the middle. He is forced to be aggressive (which hasn't been a problem since the Kidd trade anyway) when he gets the ball in those areas of the floor. And now that he has teammates that can actually shoot long range, Vince in the post should be a staple of the late offense.
