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This post, along with the other posts I will do in the Season-In-Review series, will take a deeper look at how all the Nets did last season on the court and possibly off of it. We continue with the team’s mid-season acquisition, Gerald Wallace. Brook Lopez was covered last.
On March 16th of 2011, the Nets definitely mortgaged their short-term drafting future by trading away their 2012 1st-round pick, top-3 protected, Shawne Williams, and Mehmet Okur to the Portland Trail Blazers for small forward Gerald Wallace. I was walking home from school when I saw the trade on Twitter and I was blown away: The Nets just gave up their 1st-round pick for the 2012 Draft, a draft class widely considered to be deep by most standards, for a very good, but not superstar player?
Ok, I thought, as I reasoned with myself to stop flipping out and cursing at Billy King, there had to be some reason why the Nets gave up their most-likely high pick for Wallace. And certainly, to my surprise, there was a massive silver lining to the trade. The first aspect of this was that made me make a sigh of relief was that Gerald Wallace brings so much more to a basketball team than solid rebounding, a decent 3-point shot, and athleticism.
Wallace also brought intensity, emotion, recklessness, and just pure effort to a Nets team that has been lacking that for years. The second part was that the 2012 draft class seemed to clear like a cloud of smoke in the days leading up to June 28th.
Obviously, we can’t take anything from this past draft until all the players have played NBA games in a few months but we can make our own educated assumptions and predictions about those drafted. In a near 180-degree turn from prior prognostications, experts covering the NBA and the Draft soured on the prospects in the draft class quickly, seemingly giving the Nets a relative free pass for forfeiting a high lottery pick.
And what did the Nets essentially spend their lottery pick (ended up being #6 overall) for the 2012 NBA Draft on? A grizzled veteran who brought to the Nets everything they expected and more: A talented and ridiculously athletic small forward who would be a boon to locker room chemistry and produce on both sides of the court, in offense and on defense. Due to being traded so late in the season (March 15th) and being hurt for the last 8 games, Gerald only played 16 games with the Nets in the 2011-12 campaign.
However, he showed in those 16 games that he can be exactly what the Nets need going into Brooklyn: A humble guy who does what he has to do on the court in order to help his team win. The perfect team player, which the Nets can’t boast to of having in the past few seasons. A player that I’m excited to see for an entire season.
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