We Need Carter
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Check out the frustration in Jason Kidd's face. It's one thing to be in a slump (which the Nets are, losing their last 6 games, placing them at 4-7 so far); its another thing entirely to be the lowest scoring team, with the highest turnovers. That combination's deadlier than North Philly streets. The thing that kills me is, we don't need to be losing 102-75 to the Jazz. I can stomach a loss, but damn near 30 point differential? Something is not right. Then I gasped and, if I was a coffee drinker, I would have dropped my mug...
We need Vince Carter. I hate to say it, because I've never been a fan of his work ethic as it comes to performing for a team. He has hops, is a dazzling dunker, and can shoot the lights out... when he wants to be. He will post up his 20+ points a night, for himself, but imagine if Vince was there last night, and posted just 20 points - that's a 7 point defecit that could have been worked on in crunch time. Think of the possibilities! And when someone like that is hot, it helps their teammates (especially newcomers like Eddie Gill, who did work with 10 points in the 4th), pumping them up, and when the Nets get on that roll... they are seemingly unstoppable in their run game.
Richard Jefferson was the only Net starter in double digits, scoring wise, which is to be expected, but it's not enough when a guy like Kidd can't make a shot to save his life (but he can, and does, voice his disgust for how the team is playing as of late).
One thing I did notice was Kirilenko only dropping 2 last night. Dime recently spoke on how AK is definitely not happy, but kind of keeping it on the low. I wonder how long he's going to chill on a team that's almost keeping him on the low. We'll see how this develops...
In the end, the Nets need to get rid of some of that waste and cop a scorer. Not a shooter, but a scorer, so they can at least keep up with some of the true Beasts of the '07-'08 season.
Is it too late to say "it's still early"? John Hollinger doesn't seem to think so, but it looks like both he and mad other journalists are saying the Nets are only declining in the power rankings... One can only hope Hollinger is right. Dime said it best in today's "NBA Hit List 11.20.07" post:
20. New Jersey Nets (4-7) — They haven’t won since Vince went down with an ankle injury, and were just embarrassed Monday night against Utah. Jason Kidd is still leading the team in rebounds, followed by RJ and Vince. That’s three perimeter players, if you didn’t know. Forget character issues; they had to draft Sean Williams, and he needs to play a lot.
I've been saying the same exact thing, especially about the rebounding from their top three perimeter players. So true.
Posted bykhal at 12:04 PM
Labels: NJ Nets, recap, Utah Jazz
