When Jason Kidd was at the helm of his former team, the Nets, for just one tumultuous season, the 2013-14 campaign, it started off incredibly poorly.
Brooklyn, which had just traded for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry (yep, don’t forget about him) a few months earlier, won just three of its first 13 games and went on to go just 10-21 in its first 31 games under Kidd. Before they almost swept the month of January (went 10-3), the season appeared to be an unmitigated disaster and, deservedly, people wanted change and they wanted it quickly.
If the Nets were still in New Jersey, people probably wouldn’t care that much about what New York’s other NBA team was up to wouldn’t be surprised at the losing. But the Nets were in Brooklyn now and in the season prior, established themselves as a playoff team at the very least. Naturally, fans, players and upper management wanted to make the jump from solid team to legitimate contender. Even though the talent was definitely there, it’s never that easy.
Sitting at 10-12, the 2014-15 Nets appear to be in a much better situation than they were 365 days ago in the throes of a brutal stretch of losing. However, another poor start to the season–coupled with some, but not as many as last year, injuries–has the same doubters questioning whether or not this team can put the pieces back together again without a major trade.
As per usual for this time of the year, the rumors of the Nets trading any or all of the members of their Big Three–Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson–have popped up and they have even been linked to Brooklyn native Lance Stephenson in a deal with the beleaguered Charlotte Hornets. This trading hysteria existed last December and this one is no different, even if Stephenson is a player the Nets don’t need and probably don’t want.
Multiple stories discussing trade situations for the Nets that would allow them to escape from under the contract burdens of their best players have been posted in recent weeks, espousing the notion that Brooklyn has no chance of success without cutting their losses in an unfavorable move or series of moves.
To me, this idea is a load of crap.
Do I realize that this hasn’t been as good of a start to the season as it should be? I certainly do. But I also realize that only 22 games of it are down with 60–I’ll repeat, 60–left. For those non-math majors out there, the Nets have over 73 percent of their season left. Even though there are many smart people in basketball media out there, they seem to be forgetting this all-important fact.
Last season, the Nets took 31 games to reach 10 wins, nine more than this year’s team. What did they do after that? They were only one of the NBA’s best teams in the first half of 2014, finishing 44-38 as the No. 6 seed in the East. They also took down the No. 3 seed Toronto Raptors–whom many thought would crush the “old” Nets due to their insurmountable youth and athleticism–in seven games in the postseason before losing in five to the Miami Heat in the next round.
Pretty good for a team that started 10-21 and acquired Marcus Thornton in its biggest move of the regular season, no?
So yeah, I don’t think it would be wise for Brooklyn to ship Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson to Charlotte for Lance Stephenson, Gerald Henderson, maybe a 1st round pick and some other salary cap filler. Or, for that matter, do I think general manager Billy King should make, or even consider making, any major moves until the trade deadline is near.
He held off from pulling the trigger on a big trade last season and it worked out incredibly well for Brooklyn, even though Brook Lopez was injured for the vast majority of it. That was the smart move then and it’s the smart one now too.
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