The New Jersey Nets

I understand what they are trying to do.  I get it.  They want to land one big, super star player and hope that more will follow.  It happens all the time.  The Heat, Bulls, and Knicks just did it.  The Celtics, Lakers, and Mavericks have done it in the past.  The difference between those team, and the Nets is that those teams are not the Nets.  They don't play in New Jersey.  They aren't second fiddle in their big markets, and they are themselves in big markets or desirable locations.  The Nets need to stop pretending they are closer to being the Lakers than the Clippers, or the Heat than the Cavs.  They are more like the latter, are competing with the latter in terms of standings and attracting free agents, and should act accordingly.

The rationale for going after Melo was 1) to land the superstar, 2) to drive up the price for the Knicks, 3) to show the league that they are willing to spend a lot to land a big time player, and 4) to show that they are in direct competition with the likes of the Knicks.  They may have driven up the price for the Knicks, and they did show the league that they were willing to spend, but overall they failed miserably.  These were not important factors for them.  More importantly, they didn't land the superstar, and they showed the league once again that even when they offer a better deal, players prefer other teams.  Amare, Lebron, Bosh, Wade, Boozer, Joe Johnson, Melo, and many other superstar players have turned down the Nets in favor of other teams.  When players see other players turning down a team, the image of that team decreases.  No one wants to play for a team that no one else wants to play for. The Nets wants to look like the Celtics, Bulls, Knicks, Magic, Mavs, and Lakers with at least one superstars.  But, they should try to look more like the Hawks the past few years, or the Billups, Rasheed, Ben, Tayshaun, RIP, Pistons with a balance of good, not superstar, players from top to bottom.

What the Nets have going for them is that they have a lot of cash, are moving to a new stadium in Brooklyn, draft picks, and a few good young players.  They can play up Jay-Z and the Russian billionaire, but players don't really care about the owners, or want the owners to be more popular than them for unbasketball related things.  They will always be the Knicks little brother.  They don't have MSG, Spike Lee, or New York in their name.  The only shot they have is to stop going after the big time players and either get lucky in the draft, or target a few 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier players because if the keep going after superstars against real NBA teams, they will finish runner up every time.  And that is what Rubes is ranting on today.