bobby simmons - terrible in every aspect of bball. slow,bad defense, horrible offense, non athlete. a waste! ager- shows me nothing hassel - overrated defender! horrible shooter. hodge - just not good enough hamilton - havent seen him gill -there is a reason he cant find a home in this league. he stinks! I hope thorn can package some of the mentioned players with stromile and get us a rebounder and defender at the 3-4. someone like kirilenko or nocioni. i cant wait to see what hayes and najera offer. we need help on the defensive end and on the boards. especially if boone is going to be out. swat looks lost again and is a huge dissapointment so far to me personally.
i dont think you can get any offers for swift thats really an upgrade for the team. Maybe a pick but not any lottery picks. Most likely they best option is to cut them and sign some guys that would be nice practice players.
I agree with everyone but Ager. He is fine as a third stringer who can come in and fill some time when there are injuries. He plays with energy on defense and he can shoot. Just needs to be more confident in himself when he's open like Yi has been so far this preseason. So yeah, a better starting SF would be nice and also an experienced center who can board and defend. Also, Anderson has looked good even with the 3 point struggles. Very polished offensively where he can put the ball on the floor and shows some ability to mix it up around the basket a little. If that 3 point shot starts going down then look out. I always thought he would have been a super fit if he slipped to Orlando and played along side Howard. Sean played better today against Boston but overall so far he seems to be behind Yi, Boone, Lopez, Anderson and even Swift.
Nocioni and AK are also my dream SFs... but AK's salary would totally kill our 2010 FA plans. Nocioni would be totally perfect for us at SF though.
SUPERB overreacting to a game thread is like Rod Thorn evaluating a game based on a certain amount of personnel: "You can only gain an advantage based on 10 people, but fuck it...lets [fire everyone] and/or [play everyone]."
I really do think that somehow, some way, that Ryan Anderson is the true x-factor this season. Maybe Brook gets it together, maybe, but I gotta think that RA is the off the bench scorer we need. And I don't like Bobby Simmons.
Simmons has decent jumper and can knock down three. If we get rid of him, next thing is we're going to ask Sean Williams to shot threes Relax, guys. And let Bobby to play at least full season before writing him down as a junk. Oh, and I'm absolutely excited about Ryan Anderson! If he only can improve his shot a bit he could be lethal! Boy, were we disappointed when Nets took Ryan at 21.
(1) Only one of Ager/Gill/Hodge/Hamilton can possibly make the team. You are whining about the Nets' 15th player here. If the Nets go with a 14-man roster (which is unlikely, in my view), then NONE of these players will make the squad. Relax. (2) Barring injuries, Hassell will likely be inactive, or at worst be the 12 man and play 5 minutes a night (if at all). Again, relax. Regardless, he is untradable; he is the one cost we have to bear for getting rid of Jason Kidd. (3) Simmons's performance so far is worrisome. Two players on the team will always suck beyond expectations, and this year one could very well be him. However, if that's the case, hopefully Jarvis Hayes and/or Najera will step up and fill the gap. At any rate, Simmons is virtually untradable unless you bundle him with a real asset like a first round pick or Lopez. No thanks. Finding a capable SF is obviously the big remaining piece for the rest of preseason. Not including crossing one's fingers that Boone, Najera, and hayes will be OK. On the plus side, it looks like the three rookies are all capable of being rotation-quality players. Yi will start and looks capable of averaging 15 points a night. Things are not as dark as they appear.
WoW!!! I thought I was overreacting after last game. I wanted to start the Fire FRANK thread early. Most of the guys you mentioned most likely wont be on this team by next week. As I said before, Simmons is what he is - A contract that will be expiring in two years. He doesnt deserve to start. Either on opening day we go with - Harris, VC, Yi, S.Will, Boone/Lopez OR Harris, VC, Anderson, Yi, Boone/Lopez OR Harris, VC, CDR, Yi, Boone/Lopez. Hayes, Najera, or even simmons deserves to start. Hayes and Najera are hurt and missed most of the Preseason. And Simmons is just not head strong or hurt in the head. Let the rookies start, FRANK. Dont be a wuss like all the other beginning of the past seasons. Dont wait 10+ games into the season to realize that they should have started from the get go. Let the one that deserve to play PLAY.
What rookie "deserved" to start in the first game of a season and didn't? Marcus Williams played 23 minutes in the season opener in 2006. Frank plays who he thinks will win the game.
I hope you're right re Hassell, but I don't know. Frank is playing him an awful lot, and his reputation (a tough, veteran defender who does all the little things and plays within himself) is exactly the kind of player Frank will give every chance in the world to, even when the performance and the reputation don't seem to match (or, more accurately in this case, when the player's skills and the role he must fill don't match). Hassell has started two of the 4 games and has played significant minutes in all 4 of them. I know injuries have limited the other options, but I still would have expected a more subordinate role for a guy who projects as 11th or higher on the depth chart and when a little experimentation at the 3 (e.g., Yi, Anderson) would have been in order. Regarding a trade for a SF, if we assume the worst -- that Simmons continues to suck and Hayes isn't the answer -- and if the player acquired is of proven quality with good dribbling skills and decent shooting range and was either expiring or had a reasonable contract beyond 2010, I'd be in favor of trading one of our three first round picks over the next two years to get him. For example, if Minnesota sucks yet again and would entertain offers for Mike Miller near the deadline, I'd throw a first round pick easily to get him. He's perfect for what we need at the three in this type of offense and is a very underrated passer.
This is purely speculation on my part, but I suspect that Hassell is playing a lot because of the injuries to Hayes and Najera. Also, I suspect that Coach Frank would be willing to periodically go with Harris/Dooling/Carter simultaneously, but has been unable to try that out so far, first due to Dooling's injury, and now because of Carter's day off. If Hassell plays, it would as part of a "trapping" unit. Barring injuries, though, I can't envision how Hassell could possibly be active, unless Ryan Anderson or CDR is the odd man out.
How long did it take him to play Boone and S. Williams instead of Allen and Collins last year? All honesty, I dont want to bash Frank yet. It is too early, but I really dont think he knows what he is doing. But you know what, you are right. I got it. Maybe Frank needs to stop playing who he thinks will win the game and just sub in people he thinks cant. Reverse Psychology. Maybe he wouldnt play Hassel, Swift, and Ager. OR how about Flipping a Damn Coin!!!! Something else besides who he thinks will win. That hasnt worked. Wow!!! It is definitely too early to be bashing Frank. I will continue this when the Nets start with a 3-14 record and Frank has had 17 different starting lineups.
Boone was injured in the offseason. When he was healthy, he won the job and the others were traded. Allen played because Krstic was not available and Allen was the only big that could shoot well enough to play his role in the offense. That's who Thorn thought was a good contingency plan. He talked up Allen all preseason as a perfect fit. Sean Williams was not really an improvement over anyone last season, but he received tons of court time and chances to earn more. Any other examples?
Why can't we just start Yi or Ryan at SF? Yes defense will suffer there, but it won't be any worse than Simmon's defense and the rebounding from that position will be a lot better.
I will play devil's advocate, and argue that Coach Frank is very attuned to not giving them more than they can handle right away, not overwhelming them, and putting them in a position to succeed. They probably have their hands full trying to absorb everything that a PF is responsible for in the offensive and defensive sets. Why confuse them before they are comfortable at their primary positions?
True. I'll also assume that Frank wants to give Simmons his due chance. A few preseason games are probably insignificant to him (understandably). We'll see in a month or two how Simmons continues to fare.
Might be asking too much for young players to learn 2 positions. We can also have CDR play SG and move carter to SF. Also, Nets are paying Simmons a lot and he's healthy. Make him work.
Boone only missed 5 games. Who knows why he didnt play those games? As far as Allen if that was the case, why didnt Frank go small starting line up using Nachbar at PF? He loved that line up.
