Interesting. In my opinion, the Nets should still be in the rebuilding mindset. The winning is a nice bonus, and is greatly increasing their bargaining power when they trade Carter. There is no real rush to trade VC, but if someone asks about him, Thorn/Kiki should listen.
That's funny because before this season started I said that these Nets reminded me of the 06-07 Raptors. The reason I said that was because that team was built around one star (Bosh) and the Nets were built around one star (Vince), although the emergence of Devin has really changed the team into a 2 all-star team. Nevertheless, the next reason I said these Nets reminded me of the Raptors was because of the depth off the bench which was a huge commodity that the 06-07 Raptors had. In the end the Raptors ended up going 47-35, a 20 win improvement from the following year. So far the main difference has been that the Raptors started 2-10 that year and then got really hot after the all-star break. Hopefully the Nets can keep a steady pace throughout the season.
Winning changes the picture in more than one way. We have recently moved up to winning at a 50+win rate, but it's still too early to judge whether that just translates to the second round of the playoffs. Why abandon rebuilding when the difference is not a possible run at the final? Injuries to the guards with this aggressive style of play is quite likely. So I'd be reluctant to lose VC unless a potentially similar caliber player replaced him. On the other hand, we are now starting to run up stats for players other than VC and DH, which will increase their value in potential trades. Perhaps we can now succeed in trading depth for another frontline player.
Management planned to rebuild before the season started. Let's stick with that plan. We do have some youngsters who are not ready to get thrown into the fire and perhaps get shell-shocked and/or traumatized by such giant expectations. Give our young players a window in which to grow. Vince still has some good years left in him and Devin isn't about to dissapear off the face of the earth. That will also allow management some time to fill in some holes on the defensive side. But if we are kicking b*tt, just go with the flow, don't expect to hit the bulleye in one shot.
There's no chance that Thorn is looking at it with this mindset. If he can get another Devin Harris for trading Carter, he's going to take it, playoffs be damned. If he can't, he'll roll the dice with this roster and see how far they can go in the playoffs That's the way he's played it the past 6 years, and it's the right way to play it.
We were a rebuilding team at the start of the season and we still will be a rebuilding team to th end of the season. This question is being brought up because no one expected the Nets to play this well aside from a few posters (Dumpy). Does "rebuilding" mean not being playoff contenders? No, we can have playoff hopes even though we're in the rebuilding stage. We'll just have to see as this season progresses, and see how our players do.
we should really just take it one game at a time and enjoy the positive growth of the rookies. The rookies are almost played as many games as they did in college. This is where Frank has to pay close attention to their development, and where the leadership of Vince Carter comes in. I think right now us nets fans are a bit spoiled because the nets are way ahead of the learning curve, thanks mostly to devin Harris...
