Welp......stupid Chicago and Heat loose at home to nets...smh
Nets are a not so pitiful 9-15 since the 0-7 start. I get the feeling we'll be watching in nightly pain in March-April as they slip past the post-january tankers. I would not be upset if Danny uses the asset in a trade over the next couple of weeks (depending on the return).
Luckily only 2 of their final 15 opponents are currently below .500. One is New Orleans, who might still have something to play for. The other is the Knicks, which doesn't control its draft pick and so has no reason to tank. If the top of the East remains as bunched as it is, this will not be a concern at all.
Furthermore, 18 of their final 26 games are on the road. They're 3-12 on the road this year. They don't have a lot of obvious wins after the all-star break.
So I think that these two posts go together nicely. I don't think anyone here would argue that the Nets are a particularly good team. They aren't. Yet they have this annoying habit of winning games that they just shouldn't, such as the two mentioned above. And they have fewer games that they lost that they shouldn't have (LAL stands out.). It's why, despite the fact that they aren't particularly good, I'm still not ready to move them to a 1-3 pick (assuming picks go chalk) from a 4-8 pick. I'm really, really hoping that the Lakers put something together in the back half of the year, particularly as their younger players improve. I understand that they are, um, coachedly-challenged and management wants the tank, but only the front office tanks. The players on the floor don't.
Now, having said all that, despite the fact that I get despondent if I don't have something to be miserable about, I think SL is right. No matter how much I believe that the NBA draft is out to get us, the rational part of me knows that the world doesn't work that way (It doesn't, right?). They will lose more than they will win. A lot more. And although Lopez shows absolutely no signs of slowing down, he can't keep playing like this for the whole year (He can't, right?). I think PHX passes them. I worry about Denver. I think we're looking at the 4th or 5th worst team and get the 5th or 6th pick. But I'm more excited about the pick that we'll get next year. And then the year after that.
Totally random thought: Draft picks make strange bedfellows. We're on vacation and I was wearing my Celtics shirt yesterday. A couple of guys walked past me and said, "Go Lakers" and then started laughing to themselves. Bet they thought they were gonna get away with a hit and run. Not so fast. I stopped them and explained to them that I, too, would be rooting for the Lakers (not against the Celtics, of course), since every Laker victory got them that much closer to passing Brooklyn. That's what they get for a smart-ass remark: a lecture.
Mike