Zo: <div align="center"><div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"If Alonzo Mourning, is going to play tonight in his first game since Nov.22" the former All-Star Center wasnt saying, yesterday "</div></div> Darius Rice: <div align="center"><div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"The Nets released F Darius Rice and F Damone Brown, leaving the roster at 16."</div></div> DailyNews.com (link to both stories) ------------------ I know that alot of fans still dont want Zo to return due to the financial situation that comes along with the return. But it looks almost 100%, Zo will be playing this year. Its time to look at best case situation with his return. And for me best case with Zo, is that in his return he becomes an excellent on court teacher for guys like JC, & Nenad Krstic. And also he will bring the passion for basket, that K-Mart brought to the table last year. Production wise, I am not expecting much from Zo, if he can play about 60 games around 15-20(at most) and provide us with 7 or 8pts per night. Then best case scenario, he will be a solid backup at the 5. And if he becomes solid backup at the 5 then that means Aaron williams will be able to shift over to the 4 spot. Darius Rice was a major dissappointment for me....going into training camp I figured he was pretty much a lock to make the team, because he could provide one of the things we desperately need, a perimeter shot. But watching him during the preseason, clearly showed me he isnt ready for this level. He looked extremely stiff out there. And seemed to not want to get involved in any of the action. The Nets have to make one more cut before the start of the season, i think its going to be Audree Storey, he has played well during the preseason. And they say coach franks loves the effort he gives....but Jabari Smith has played well to and he has size, which is something we need, so I think he will get to stay& make the team. And Travis Best has to stay, despite no doing much during the preseason, because we have to have a veteran pg on the bench just incase Zoran really struggles at the pg spot once the season starts. And Jacque Vaughn just isnt productive enuff to be the only other PG on the roster able to play, so that means Storey will get cut. But I think if J.Kidd was healthy, Audree Storey would probably make the team over Best.
I hope that Alonzo does return. He'll bring experience, defense, and strength to the team. If he can contribute off the bench, then that'll be enough to help the team. Coach Frank just has to be careful not to overplay him, at least not for this season. About the releasing, I was pretty dissapointed in Rice too from what I read and saw in the box scores. Damone Brown was on the team roster for a few days last year, and saw only a few minutes of play time. Neither of them is ready to play consistently on a pro level yet.
I think Alonzo may end up starting, or atleast in my opinion he should. He could do what the Spurs did for Robinson in his final year; allow him to start, and then rest him early. He deserves that, for overcoming so much...he deserves to start
Zo return's in a successful manner tonight <div align="center"><div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"Alonzo Mourning had 12 points and five rebounds in his first game since unergoing a kindney transplant in December to lead the New Jersey Nets to a 96-94 preseason win over Philadephia 76ers on Thursday night." </div> </div> Espn.com/Boxscore ---------------- Good to see Zo decided to return tonight instead of just returning on Wednesday amd jumping right into regular season pace action. He got to get a feel of where his level of conditioning was at & things like that....He look a bit slow on defense trying to keep up with those young cats on Philly's frontline. But his defense will get stronger as his conditioning gets stronger. He played 19 minutes, that was the # I was projecting he would average per game over the course of the season. And I still feel that the minute per game action he will be around for most of the year. It probably will go up later in the season's 2nd half but from now until about febuary 19-22 minutes a game seems about right. And I doubt Zo would play in very many back to back games. But its just good to see big Zo back in the niddle. A few side notes: Rodney Buford continued to impress dropping in 20 tonight as a starter. It seems like he is trying to make the decision as hard as possible for coach frank to give the starting job to Ron Mercer out right. Every time Mercer seems to have the job locked up Rodney comes back and makes his statement. Ron Mercer still probably has the edge because he has the history of being a starter in this league. But there is talk that Mercer's knee may be starting to act up again, that the reason he sat out tonight. If he has to sit out a game or two at the start of the year because of it, he may see his spot gone in the starting lineup. I like this little inner squad battle for the 2-guard spot between Mercer and Buford because it keeps the pressure on these guys to perform consistently, I hope neither on feels safe as a starter all year, its goning to force one of them, maybe even both to really step up. Also JC had another good game despite being in foul trouble as usual. He has been alot more aggressive so far this year. He still cant score on the low block area but he is more willing to take his 10-15 foot jumper from the high post. And Iam willing to live with that because thats the one shot JC can hit with at least a little consistency. Anyway the season starts in less then a week so he needs to continue once thge games start to matter.
This was both a good and bad move, like Durvasa pionted out Zo had 8 turnovers but that could be just because its his first game back also Darius Rice this years Marquis Daniels was released because they brought back Zo. Zo still has it, but they should bring him off the bench or limit him to 25-30 minutes max.
^Darius Rice looked horrible during the preseason, so to say he this years undrafted sleeper was a stretch. He clearly isnt ready to play on this level. BTW, Zo return didnt take Darius Rice's spot on the team because when Coach Frank had high hopes of D-Rice making the team at the start of training camp, he knew Zo was returning. Darius Rice got cut because he didnt perform and Jabari Smith came into training camp & the preseason and played extremely well. And earned the open roster spot that Rice would have had, if he was ready.
