The Nets were 22-44 last season. This season, they've opened up the owner's wallet to the tune of $12M in LT and their starting lineup is: Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez, Gerald Wallace, and Chris Humphries. Their bench may be a little thin with Reggie Evans, CJ Watson, Marshon Brooks, and Shelden Williams seeming like the most viable players. Barring injuries, this could be a playoff team. "I'm willing to spend the money to build a championship team. Not a playoff team, but a championship team," Prokhorov told Massey. "I am only interested in what will bring us a championship team. That is the sole criterion."
They have improved and he is not afraid to spend. They may be better than the Knicks, if Lopez is 100%.
I'm not a huge fan of their roster. The backcourt is great, obv, but who's going to guard the rim? Humphries is fine, I guess. I don't expect the Nets to be as good as the Bucks.
It looks to me like they traded places with the Hawks. Their starting lineup probably guarantees they make the playoffs if no one gets injured. Deron Williams is great, but he's not a guy who can lead a team to a championship on his back. He needs a decent amount of help. Over the next four years they have 190 million tied up in Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez, and Gerald Wallace. I don't think that gets them past the second round, and it all but guarantees that they'll be over the apron as long as those guys are on the books, which means their ability to improve the roster will be meager.
On a related note, the Nets will be an interesting case study for the dynamics of the new CBA. As far as I can tell one of the biggest consequences of the new one is that it puts a bigger stait jacket on financial largesse. Ie, even if you're willing to pay into the stratosphere, it literally becomes all but impossible to improve the team once salaries reach a certain point. The Nets look like their feet are firmly planted there for the time being, so we'll get to see first hand how much the new constraints effect their personnel moves.
I think the rules are still the same, but with a hard cap. They could trade Joe Johnson and his $19M salary for someone with a $17M salary. There will be a two-tier economy, if I'm correct. The teams that have those big salaries can swap top caliber players among themselves while the other teams can't trade for those guys without including several lower priced players to make the salaries work. The Nets will still get their taxpayer MLE and draft picks.
