The season is approaching (but not quickly enough), so that means it’s NBA preview time. Starting with the league’s worst team and working our way to the top, we’ll preview one team per day.

This picture must have been from two seasons ago. Last year, there was nothing for Harris to celebrate.

New Jersey Nets

Last year’s record: 12-70
Head Coach: Avery Johnson
Projected Starters: Devin Harris, Anthony Morrow, Travis Outlaw, Troy Murphy, Brook Lopez

Outlook:

It’s impossible to discuss next year’s New Jersey Nets without talking about last year’s New Jersey Nets. Because the Nets were supposed to be decent, last year, but were instead bad. Hideously bad. Almost historically bad. After their 12-win season, pardon me if I’m no longer sold on the star potential of a Devin Harris-Brook Lopez combo. Still, shouldn’t there be improvement there? Shouldn’t the Nets be a lot better, just by default? Who knows. I’m just happy I no longer have to listen to Avery Johnson’s voice on TV.

X-Factor:

Heart. Remember Vince Carter from his final days in Toronto? Mailing games in, milking injuries and generally acting like he didn’t enjoy playing basketball? Multiply that effort by twelve players and you get the ’08-’09 Nets. In my 20+ years of watching professional basketball, I’ve never seen a team play with less energy. Avery Johnson’s got a big job ahead of him.

Biggest Question Mark:

What the hell happened to Devin Harris last year? Talk about falling off the face of the earth. I know he was injury riddled, but damn. Look at the statistical drop:

’08-’09: 21.3 ppg, 6.9 apg, 43.8% field goals, 8.8 free throw attempts
’09-’10: 16.9 ppg, 6.6 apg, 40.3% field goals, 6.0 free throws attempts

Nagging injuries or not, 27-year olds NBA All-Stars aren’t supposed to jump off a statistical cliff. Harris’s return to form would go a long way toward repairing the Nets’ respectability.

Most important newcomer:

For this year, Troy Murphy. Any time you can add a 6’11″ player with three-point range who gets a double-double every night, that’s a nice addition. Even if it’s just Murphy. Another thing about Murphy? He plays hard and should be a breath of fresh air. Don’t sleep on Travis Outlaw, either. That man can play.

Key loss:

Can you possibly have a key loss from a team that won only 12 games? Almost any loss is addition by subtraction, right? If I had to choose somebody, I’d pick Courtney Lee. But only because I had to.

Most compelling storyline:

The Nets aren’t going to win 60 games. They aren’t going to be contenders. They aren’t going to pick the world up and drop it on its head. We all know that. Hell, they’re already talking about 2012 free agency. But I’m interested to see whether Avery Johnson can turn the attitude around. If he does, he’s a miracle man. I’ve always suspected that his work in Dallas was underappreciated.

Player to watch:

I could say Brook Lopez, but that’d be too easy. (And yes, I just went through an entire Nets preview without discussing Lopez once. Sue me.) Watch Derrick Favors, folks. The first post move he learns will be his first, but Favors can jump into the stratosphere. If I were a betting man, I’d wager on Favors becoming an All-Star before long. Then again, if I were a betting man I would have written the same thing about Kwame Brown.

Descriptive movie quote:

“I play for the Indians.”
“Here in Cleveland? I didn’t know they still had a team.”
“Yup, we’ve got uniforms and everything, it’s really great!”

- Jake Taylor and some other lady, Major League

Yup, the Nets still have a team. They’ve got uniforms and everything. And if you squint your eyes hard enough, they even have some talent. Squint a little harder and you’ll see a bright future. You know, as long as you use your imagination.

Projected Record: 25-57. But more wins wouldn’t surprise me. Jersey’s got a little talent. And I stress a little.

I guess it pays to be rich.

I was reading NBA Fanhouse this morning and came across an interesting piece by Tom Ziller. The jist of the story? NBA owners were forced to shell out all the big bucks they spent this offseason. They HAD to remain competitive in order to make money, so they HAD to overpay for a decent team that will win a few games.

According to Ziller, the huge money owners are spending isn’t ammunition for the players in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Rather, it’s an indictment of the times, a sign that penny-strapped owners are trying to win and earn money at any costs. These outrageous signings aren’t sure-fire ways to lose lots of money, they are desperate attempts to maintain a fanbase and earn a buck or two in the process. But there are problems with Ziller’s thinking.

On the surface, his contention seems like a possibility. Losers don’t make money. People aren’t going to buy tickets to see last year’s Nets, and they aren’t going to buy jerseys of the worst players in the league, so owners need to put a winner on the floor. Even if it means overpaying for mediocrity, mediocrity beats the basement any day of the week. Most markets can fill up a stadium with a playoff team, even if that team will undeniably get trounced in the first round. But what doesn’t fill a stadium is a loser. So it makes sense, kind of, for a team to overpay for mediocre players that will help the team win yet still keep the team short of contending for a title. After all, an owner’s got to put butts in the seats. Even if it means mortgaging the future for a few playoff appearances in the short run.

But what Ziller kindly fails to mention is that a lot of the players being signed this offseason to monster contracts don’t take their teams to the next level. In fact, one of Ziller’s main arguments is that teams like the Bucks HAVE to sign players like Drew Gooden and John Salmons to big contracts – that signings like those are the only way to make them contenders. But are Gooden and Salmons really making any team contenders? Please. Are they really even the pieces to take Milwaukee out of the first round? Probably not. Is Darko Milicic really going to help the Timberwolves get into the playoffs and put some rumps in the stands? Umm, well, they were 2-22 after they acquired him last season, so I’d say no. Is Travis Outlaw going to help the Nets become better than they were last season? Maybe a tiny bit, but will his addition alone make them a playoff team? No way. Is Wesley Matthews the player to bring the Portland Trail Blazers to the next level? I highly doubt it. Is Brendan Haywood going to win the Mavericks a championship ? Not a chance.

Do you see where I’m going with this? It’s one thing if the owners had been overspending for players that will really help their teams win or at least become formidable. That’s why the Joe Johnson and Rudy Gay deals are at least defensible. Without those two players, the Hawks and Grizzlies would have taken a big step backward. But these other deals? All this other money owners are spending out of their supposedly broke asses? They aren’t moves that help teams get much better, or even at all better. Substitute a veteran’s minimum guy for Darko and the Wolves would be just as good. Probably a bit improved, in fact. The same goes for all those other guys I mentioned. Can’t teams find cheaper replacements that would provide almost the same production?

Ziller makes the argument that small-market teams can’t attract the better free agents, so they have to offer mediocre players contracts they can’t turn down in order to field a competitive team. And maybe Ziller’s right. Maybe that’s why all this free agent nonsense is going on. But you know what? Rebuild in the lottery, develop your players, make smart signings and smarter trades. Even small-market teams can succeed that way. Just ask Sam Presti and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

So Ziller can keep talking about how the owners are forced into this, that they have no choice but to overpay scrubs in order to stay competitive and make money. But that isn’t the proven way to win. It isn’t the proven way to make money. Nobody’s buying tickets just to see Drew Gooden and John Salmons play basketball, folks. I promise.

First, rumors fly that the Celtics have been interested in Tiny Tim Nate Robinson.  Now, the Celtics might be interested in acquiring Portland small forward Travis Outlaw?

A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE reports the Celtics might have interest in signing the 6’9″ sixth man following the season.  According to Blakely, signing Outlaw would be a viable option due to the combination of the likely low price of his contract and the fact that he’s one of the premier off-the-bench scorers in the entire NBA.

Blakely writes that any potential deal with Outlaw would likely come with the loss of Marquis Daniels.  Daniels, who is still recovering from a thumb injury, makes the $1.9 million bi-annual exception this season but could be in line for a pay hike next season.  Outlaw would likely save the Celtics money while providing them youth and athleticism for the future.

Outlaw is an long and bouncy small forward who can get his shot off almost any time he wants.  Due to injury, he has only appeared in 11 games this season, but averaged 12.8 points per game last year while finishing fifth in the voting for Sixth Man of the Year.

After 48 straight hours of studying Hoopshype, ESPN.com’s NBA Trade Machine, nba player salaries, the salary cap, and the luxury tax, I finally feel qualified to write about the upcoming NBA trade deadline on February 18th. Read more »