Nets-Pacers Round 2

Last night's game was a disgrace, didn't watch all of it cause I couldn't bear to and decided to flip over the Country Music Awards instead (a good choice I made). The Nets couldn't get anything going offensively or defensively all game against a Pacers team missing 3 of its top scorers (Troy Murphy, Danny Granger, and Mike Dunleavy). Observations:

1) All the critics were lining up this year saying in no time VC would be giving up on the team and his teammates, well it seems like the opposite has happened, Vince seems to be the only one playing with conistent energy and effort, and producing night in and night out. No other teammate has been able to match his intensity on a game-to-game basis yet this season except maybe Keyon Dooling and Jarvis Hayes.

2) The lack of depth in the backcourt is killing the Nets. As L-Frank said after the game the Nets are relying on VC and Dooling to play 39 minutes a game at both ends of the floor, not something you want to see especially this early in the season. Again I will recommend calling the Grizzlies to look into one of their young point guards for one of the Nets young bigs or a future draft pick maybe the draft pick they acquired for Marcus Williams because if Harris, Carter, or Dooling has to go out for an extended amount of time this year the Nets are finished. I don't want to see them give away any of their young bigs (anderson, yi, williams, lopez) but they need to fill this need and getting a young guy like Lowry or Crittenton helps them not only short term but long term as well.

3) I understand L-Frank wants to play veterans because he believes he needs a presence out there on the court with the rookies, but the truth of the matter is the veterans are less effective on the court than the rookies who they are taking minutes from. Ryan Anderson provided nice shooting and a few rebounds in some minutes last night and Sean Williams impact could be felt instantly when he came in the game, he did take 2 stupid jump shots but that comes with the territory he's not going to learn to play the right way if he's not playing. Najera and Simmons continue to be ineffective, the Nets went to Simmons early on where he had a bucket and an assist in the first minutes but after that he became invisible once again, and glad to see Najera only play 5 minutes because since replacing Ryan Anderson in the rotation he certainly didn't make a case to be there. I'd advocate starting Trenton Hassell for the time being at SF because he provides high quality defense and decent shooting ability with Simmons and Hayes coming off the bench. Hayes should be the starter based on numbers but I like what he provides to the second unit especially with CDR out and Dooling now starting. They won't bench Simmons though because Net management is intent on trying to justify the RJ trade and justify actually saying they believe Simmons could be a 3rd scorer for the team. They will do the same thing with Yi, i think Yi should be starting right now but even if he starts playing horribly the Nets won't bench him because of what they gave up for him.