Schiffer: I have to say: that last line made me want to listen to some Poison. So … is 43 wins and a play-in home game with this core your idea of a good time? I’ve lived that life - it’s not fun.īut a lot of times in the NBA, it’s about the journey, not the destination. On the other hand, they can’t tank when the Rockets control their next four drafts, and they have what looks to be an absolute boat anchor of a contract with Simmons. That’s especially true since they could likely move one or two of their surplus wings for help at point guard or center. On the other hand, we saw what happened in the playoff crucible against Philadelphia, where the Nets’ lack of a leading man and shortcomings at point guard and center were exposed by an elite Sixers team.Īs you point out, they have some cap flexibility - not a ton, but compared to the last two years, it’s like a brave new world - and the assets from the Durant trade to possibly do some things in the trade market. And with a highly switchable center and lots of interesting wings, they are capable of playing the modern, five-out NBA game and causing problems for opponents on defense. The Nets have a possible All-Star forward in Mikal Bridges, based on how he played down the stretch. Do they have any chance of contending for anything important? No, probably not. Can they be a playoff team going forward with this core? Yes, very likely. Do they have some nice pieces? Absolutely. Hollinger: I think they are in Willy Loman territory - the basketball equivalent of being liked but not well-liked. Before we get into the specifics, what’s your pie-in-the-sky view of Brooklyn since we last did this? Looking ahead, this team has some 2019 vibes with some young guys to retool around, draft compensation as they’ve never had before yet mainly consisting of other team’s picks, and a Ben Simmons problem to the tune of two years and more than $77 million. Once again, it started with title aspirations and ended with a sweep. We have another wild Nets season to break down and their future to discuss. Urn:lcp:bookofbasketball00simm:epub:bcd7a449-8b58-428c-bed9-de805433de66 Extramarc Duke University Libraries Foldoutcount 0 Identifier bookofbasketball00simm Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t07x02w93 Invoice 1213 Isbn 9780345511768Ģ009022799 Ocr ABBYY FineReader 11.0 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.11 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Openlibrary OL23697577M Openlibrary_edition Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 23:36:58 Bookplateleaf 0004 Boxid IA1137404 Boxid_2 CH122701 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City New York Donorīostonpubliclibrary Edition 1st ed.

The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons