Suddenly, the Nets look ok.
Just past 7pm, Deron Williams tweeted his free agency decision, and it’s to stay with the Nets as their marquee players as they relocate to Brooklyn. The deal is worth a reported $100 million over five years.
Combine that with Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace, and the Nets aren’t exactly in prime position to get Dwight Howard from Orlando.
BUT…
It’s possible if Orlando is willing to accept a package that includes a couple of sign-and-trade deals for Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez as well as a bevy of draft picks that, considering how good the Nets would be with Dwight Howard and all these other guys, would be late first rounders and therefore virtually worthless.
The more likely scenario is Dwight Howard goes somewhere else. And considering how horribly he’s been acting, I wouldn’t be shocked if someone said later on that the Nets were just turned off by his behavior.
The Nets have a superstar point guard and a guy they can plaster all over the new Barclay’s Center as the face of the franchise. They have a pretty good shooting guard that is horribly overpaid but who will certainly be able to score in the space created by, and the passes coming from, Deron Williams. And Gerald Wallace and Brook Lopez will do quite well. The Nets also made a move for Reggie Evans today and, if they can get Kris Humprhies locked up, they’ll have a decent little team.
Like I said yesterday, I’m not expecting a defensive struggle with the Nets, but they’ll be able to score the ball and they’ll be fun to watch…. which is more than enough right now for the Nets to christen their new building in the shadows of Manhattan across the East River.
The Nets still have holes to fill, and they won’t have much money with which to fill them. They will likely have to become big spenders just to field a team moving forward, but having a gazillionaire owner who literally could pay that tax bill with a single day’s earnings makes life a little more comfortable for Billy King. The Nets have themselves a playoff team that will probably replace Atlanta in the standings as the Hawks rebuild. And if they can stay a step ahead of the Knicks… then the money will all be worth it.
