Fantasy Bulldog Bullish on Brooklyn
Here is an optimistic analysis of why the Brooklyn Nets will finish among the top 2 teams in the Eastern Conference and potentially win an NBA championship during this 2014-15 NBA season. Most of the “experts” have the same old conservative view on this team and predict they will finish somewhere between the 5-seed and out of the playoffs. People tend to forget that just a year ago Brooklyn was on the cover of Sports illustrated as a top contender to de-throne Lebron and the Miami Heat with the addition of three former All-Star players (Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Andrei Kirilenko) to play alongside their existing three All-Stars in Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, and Brook Lopez. Unfortunately for Brooklyn, Lopez broke his foot after just 17 games (while averaging 20.7 ppg on 57% shooting), Pierce got off to a slow start, Garnett looked uncomfortable in Kidd’s offense (maybe it was the spilled soda incident) and Kirilenko missed the first 2 months with back problems. But, although it is easy to blame injuries for the team’s slow start, all of these players were available by January and thus was largely the reason Brooklyn had among the best records in the NBA during that stretch.
So Fantasy Bulldog you might ask, what has changed since last season that would transform this team from a #6-seed to a top contender? Here are my top 10 reasons why Brooklyn will be a force this year.
1. To start, they got rid of their mascot, the Brooklyn Knight which was an epic fail. Although the Knight’s departure will not help Brooklyn play defense this upcoming success it is symbolic of the organization and Billy King making some good decisions this off-season.
2. Kidd out/Hollins in – Kidd was just not a good fit for Brooklyn as he was way too lax of a leader from the start and seemed to settle for mediocrity way too often (by allowing the starters to get the night off if they were down big in the 2nd or early 3rd quarters) and made minimal half-time adjustments as evidenced by the slow starts in 3rd quarters. He lacked intensity when the team needed it, and even Joe Johnson admitted during this pre-season that the team rarely practiced under Kidd. Some people will argue that Kidd did a nice job in his rookie season by turning the team around in January. But I will say he should have done a better job preparing a dream team from starting 10-21. Truth is, Kidd had very little to do with that turnaround as the team’s success coincided with the return of Kirilenko who is known to be an excellent facilitator of ball movement and freakishly good defense due to his length. In the NBA where margins are slim between victory and defeat, having a top-notch coach that can communicate a game plan and infuse toughness is critical. Brooklyn seems to have this with Hollins.
3. Deron Williams “D-Will” with his two new ankles. D-Will had off-season surgery on both ankles and appears to have the same hop and confidence that he had during the glory days when he was on Utah. When he is on, he can be a bulldog among dogs when compared to the other elite point guards and his performance is largely contingent on his health, confidence, and ability to land well when he shoots his jump shot (knowing that his ankles will not give out). He went through similar doubts from fans during his early years in Utah, and I expect he will return to being a premier point guard again this season. D-Will is off to a good start with being selected as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week in the first week of November.
4. The return of the best offensive center in the game in Brook Lopez. He is a throw-back player (similar to Al Jefferson). There are not many teams that have an interior offensive post presence any more.
5. The emergence of Joe Johnson as the team’s closer. Last year, the team had too many unselfish egos looking to just share the ball. They needed somebody to man-up and just put the ball in the hoop. “Joe-Cool” has emerged as that person when needed.
6. Bojan “Bbbbbboo-yah” Bogdanovich. Was sad to see Paul Pierce go, but the team needed another pure shooter and a guy that can close out games with his near 90% free-throw percentage from his European days. There were too many games that Brooklyn couldn’t close it out because they didn’t have that Reggie Miller or Ray Allen type guy at the end of a game on the free throw line. With Bojan, you have that guy that can just nail 10 free throws in a row, if necessary (this puts a real dagger in any potential comebacks).
7. Departure of Andray Blatche, who was known to be a lazy player (and actually took a personal leave during the season to address his conditioning) opens the door for more playing time for Mirza Teletovic. Although Blatche was talented and fun to watch, he (like Marcus Thornton) just launched balls whenever they got the chance. This led to the second unit either being hot or cold depending on how Blatche (or Marus Thornton) were shooting that night which led to inconsistent results.
8. Mason Plumlee has added a post-up game and some added confidence by being able to run with Team USA this past summer. When he comes into the game, he reminds me of a young Blake Griffin, just looking to dunk, block and make some noise when he gets in the game.
9. The signing of Jarret Jack allows Brooklyn to shutdown those fast little guys that gave Brooklyn so much trouble in the prior year (players like Rodney Stuckey, Marcus Thornton, Nate Robinson). Now they are able to bring in Jack to stay with these guys and he is just a solid all-around player and provides a little more perimeter range than Livingston who was really more of a scorer from within 15 feet.
10. Brooklyn’s versatility to play big (real big) can create mismatch issues for other teams, and with the addition of Jack playing along-side D-Will can also play small ball. Brooklyn can give teams several different types of looks due to their depth and there are several players on this team that can go-off for 30-points in any given night.
For the reasons noted above I believe Billy King did an excellent job in adding the right pieces and allowing certain pieces to leave (including the Brooklyn Knight). This team is well suited to be a force this year, and although there are teams like the Bulls, Cavs, and Raptors that are very good and also improving, Brooklyn is as deep or deeper than these teams and has an edge because of their interior post presence with Brook Lopez.
Also, not noted above, but worth mentioning is that the Brooklyn chant “Broooklyn, Broooklyn…” has to be extremely irritating for opposing teams at the Barclays Center.
Predictions: Although Clubber Lang would say “Pain” this Bulldog is predicting 55 wins and a solid run in the Eastern Conference Finals.
For full disclosure, the Fantasy Bulldog is a biased Brooklyn Nets fan and season ticket holder and has even placed a bet with Vegas that the Nets will win the Eastern conference (odds are 35 to 1).
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