<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The lone national basketball writer to predict the Nets would win it all isn’t backing away from his crystal ball now that the Nets are one game under .500. Tony Mejia of CBS Sportsline tells a Celtic fan “the Nets you see now are not the team you’ll see come March”, adding that New Jersey already has received unexpected bonuses in the play of Sean Williams and Antoine Wright.</p> -netsdaily.com</div></p> Mailbag</p> </p>
The Nets are better than their record indicates, but no way are they championship contenders. This team is missing something. The sum of their parts is not greater than the individuals and that is not the recipe for success.</p>
Consistancy is one of the things we are missing. Also, players playing up to their potential would help too.</p>
If Kidd continues to play the way he does, if Sean Williams and Antonie Wright continue to play at this level, if Magloire finds a way to be an even better rebounder and defender, if Jefferson plays the way he is right now, if Frank gets better offensive sets, if Krstic comes back to the same way he was pre-injury, if Marcus Williams plays like what we want him to be, if Nachbar becomes the bench leader, if Collins gets released, and if Vince Carter plays with 100 percent effot and determination, we are a championship team. These are all real big ifs. We will win the Atlantic though. </p>
Yea, Mejia is reaching that we meet all our if's. The way the ball is rolling for the C's, it may be their year. Then again it's a 82 game season, anything can happen.</p>
On Carter's return we went from averaging 70 ppg to 106 vs Portland, Vince's whole stat line dosen't make up for that, so as a unit we can be a very good team. When Frank's roster equation is finished we might develop a little more chemistry as well.
