<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>In the closing minute of the TNT pregame show, Magic Johnson gave this assessment of the Nets’ problems this season: “Vince Carter…his knees are gone”, adding that Carter has gone from “superstar to regular player”. Charles Barkley added, “I couldn’t agree more.” At halftime, Johnson continued, saying Carter cannot play at “the superstar level anymore”. Barkley suggested Carter is in “a quick, rapid decline”.</div> Source Just in case someone missed it.
I didn't even really realize how fast it came on. Last year I didn't really notice it but this year it's so in our faces every single game.
I think its less his knees and more his bum ankle...he probably needed to sit for a few weeks earlier this year but couldn't as we sucked without him. I think we are seeing now though that Vince at 80% all season is worse than missing Vince for 15 games early this season. Also RJ has looked slowed by injury as well...it hurts offensively but what it really kills is our defense. Defensively both RJ and Vince have been getting burned as players have been able to blow by them on a drive with relative ease our stop and pop from the perimeter for uncontested jumpers as both RJ and Vince are slow on recovery time.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (jloc857 @ Jan 25 2008, 02:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I think its less his knees and more his bum ankle...he probably needed to sit for a few weeks earlier this year but couldn't as we sucked without him. I think we are seeing now though that Vince at 80% all season is worse than missing Vince for 15 games early this season. Also RJ has looked slowed by injury as well...it hurts offensively but what it really kills is our defense. Defensively both RJ and Vince have been getting burned as players have been able to blow by them on a drive with relative ease our stop and pop from the perimeter for uncontested jumpers as both RJ and Vince are slow on recovery time.</div> nah... its his knees... he cant jump no more its either he has to adapt and find another game (just like kobe, tmac, mj) or face being a regular player i really predicted this out of VC since he always used his jumping ability to score a lot of points next up is nate robinson
I'm not going to judge until I see Vince after some rest after the allstar break. I think its his ankles, not his knees. Even when he loses most of his leaping ability Vince will always have that quick first step and we saw that in full effect the past two games. In my opinion he can still be a premier scorer without his hops. his outside shot and quick drives are good enough to get it done. His lack of aggression is what's accounting for this bad season.
if it's knee tendinitis...hopefully not the chronic type...he should have better games coming off long breaks and should have started the season strong then tapered off... so i'm inclined to think its his ankles...much like what rj suffered through after tweaking both of his...lost his explosiveness...
You know it was a bad sign when even Michael Jordan didn't want him on the Bobcats and he just signs random UNC players for fun
We better make the best out of the situation because he is a Net and here to stay. Carter is still a good shooter and if he can adjust to being a catch and shoot guy with good passing skills instead of the focus of the offense then I think he could be a contributing player. Oh and its $85 mill not 60.
yea but the last 18 mill is a team option that the Nets or whoever will clearly opt out of. Anyway, I'm pretty amazed that Vince is playing while his knees are gone. He has set a precedent for handicapped people and the nba. This is what Vince is playing on: WARNING: It's not nice looking Vince's knee
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (GM3 @ Jan 25 2008, 11:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>We better make the best out of the situation because he is a Net and here to stay. Carter is still a good shooter and if he can adjust to being a catch and shoot guy with good passing skills instead of the focus of the offense then I think he could be a contributing player. Oh and its $85 mill not 60.</div> That's what he should have been all along since he got here.
Good luck with those ticket sales, boys. I can see the ads now: Come on out and see the Nets with superstar Vince Carter! "He's done." - Magic Johnson "I couldn’t agree more." - Charles Barkley ::insert pictures/videos of a dunk contest from nearly a decade ago:: Season tickets still available... get yours today!
Anyone can see that Carter's explosiveness (particularly in the vertical direction) is substantially diminished this year. As for whether that's because of his knees, his still-ailing ankle (remember RJ last year?), or something else, that's pure speculation. Magic Johnson is hardly a guy who has any personal experience with the kind of athletic ability Carter was blessed with, so he's undoubtedly purveying naked assumptions based on what guys like James Worthy felt when their athleticism started to decline. And, of course, he was making the case as sensationally as possible to entertain a national TV audience. Even if Johnson is correct, however, and Carter's loss of leaping ability is due to some chronic degeneration in the knees, he's selling Vince WAY too short to say he's "just another player". Show me "just another player" who can finish the kinds of drives he did last night (or in Sacramento) or make the kinds of drive and dish plays he did (if Boki and Boone could finish AT ALL with a defender in the same zip code, Vince would have had another 4 assists easily). If "just another player" can get you 29/6/4 on only 20 shots (with several Sportcenter hilights thrown in for icing), then I'll take 12 of those in a heartbeat. Carter's overwhelming athleticism has always blinded certain people to how versatile and fundamentally sound he is offensively. He may not go over people anymore, but the last two games alone show that, when he maintains an aggressive mindset (which farouq710 nailed as the REAL key), he can still go around and under people. Yes, he always dazzled me with what he could do in the air. But as someone who's watched every televised game he's ever played in the NBA, I've always been equally amazed at the creativity, variety of releases, and touch he exhibits in finishing other kinds of plays around the basket. Put that together with the fact that his midrange jumper is probably better this year than at any other time in his career (save early in the season when he was suffering from the injury to his shooting hand), and you are still talking about a guy who, with proper emphasis in the schemes, is a top 10-15 scorer in this league and one who also brings far better playmaking skills than most others in that category. He is also still one of the best rebounding guards in the league. What I sense has been happening with Carter this year, and what partly accounts for the ups and downs in his style of play, is that he is still adjusting mentally to the new limitations of his body. He is clearly making a better effort than ever before not to "force" his offense and has curbed his shot selection considerably, to the detriment of the team, in some cases. (Of course some in these parts claimed to have wanted only that from him for several years.) But the reality is that he still needs to be the number one offensive option for this team to look competent offensively, and he NEEDS to shoot more than he has been. I would love to see more quick hitting, catch and shoot curls run for him, because I think the midrange part of his game is the part that most needs to be expanded and exploited at this point in his career. Of course none of this is going to make any difference in this team's success unless they acquire at least one legit shooter and learn how to defend again as a team.
How is this even a newsflash, because capt. Obvious Magic says so? Everyone's been saying it on here all year. All you need to do is look at how many dunks he has. I don't think he's had one true highlight dunk all year. Of course the legs are gone, they disappeared last season if anyone was watching - he just shot the jumper extremely well last year. Against the Cavs he looked like an old man and pretty much cost them the series. He's still crafty and can find ways to score, but it's a struggle, a struggle that will kill this team for years to come.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (footswalker @ Jan 25 2008, 12:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Of course the legs are gone, they disappeared last season if anyone was watching - he just shot the jumper extremely well last year.</div> No way. You obviously missed incredible dunks against the likes of Atlanta, Chicago, and Toronto. The reverse alley oop in game 3 of the Raptors series was one for the ages (and is part of YES' Nets promotionals). His head wal literally in the net at one point, just a few inches below rim. That's what's remarkable about this decline: the suddenness of it.
The legs are gone. <div><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3zIULG3IbiE&"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3zIULG3IbiE&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350" /></embed></object></div> -MaxaMillion711 (s2's own...I believe?) You might say that he's more of a complete player now, but he can't do the things he did in Toronto. Normally on a fastbreak he would throw it down and now he just settles. (hence why he passed on the ball to Wright during a fastbreak yesterday.)
