A quick note about Josh Boone . . . By pulling down seven offensive rebounds, he surpassed the high by EVERY Net in EVERY game last season, including the preseason. Only five times did a Net grab as many as six offensive rebounds in a game last season. I believe that Krstic pulled down eight in a game the previous April, but that no one else had as many as six during the 2005-06 season. Boone was drafted in part for his ability to get offensive rebounds, and from one game at least, it seems as though he’ll be able to produce at this level.

I agree that Boone has taken a good step forward with his performance, but look at who he was playing against. Not really intimidating if you think about it. Oh and Magloire sucks!!! He’s so slow!!! He better be better once the season starts.

It will be interesting to see how Boone—and Williams—do against the Charlotte front court. Charlotte has some bangers who are healthy. Boone will also be up against his former teammate at UConn—Emeka Okafor—so expect both will be motivated.

My satisfaction with the win over Philly is tempered however by the realization of what a bummer the 2005 draft was. Forgetting how disappointing Wright has been and that the Nets tried to move up to get Monta Ellis. Look at who they passed on for Ilic, who didn’t even play tonight: Louis Williams, Mikhael Gelabale, Andray Blatche, Ryan Gomes and Amir Johnson. Williams scored 33 points after halftime…and he’s 20 years old.

Not only the 05 draft, the 03 draft the nets picked Zoran and Leandro Barbosa was picked after him. That doesn’t make any sense. And the same year, they traded Korver for cash. They couldve had 2 great “pure” shooting guards right there. The 04 draft was practically the same. They chose Viktor Khryapa over Kevin Martin. 05 draft? well you already said it. But I’m very happy with the 06 Draft. So from the last 7 drafts, we’ve only had 3 good ones: 01, 02, and 06.

Kevin, I’m not really concerned about who he was playing against. Philly may not have the best frontcourt in the league, but they ARE NBA-caliber players. Again, I’ll note that last year, only ONCE did a Net pull down more than four offensive rebounds in a pre-season game, so it is impressive nonetheless. If a AA hitter slugs 50 HRs in a season, it’s a heck of a lot of homers, even against minor league pitchers. It’s not a valueless achievement.

NI, we’ve discussed this before, but the Nets really seem to downgrade their evaluation of young and/or short players (for their position). They don’t seem to want to have to nurture a young player that doesn’t have many skills and is unlikely to contribute for a year or two—the exception is someone like Krstic, who they can leave in Europe for a few years to develop on someone else’s dime. So what happened? The Nets felt pressured to bring Ilic over before he was ready, and, sure enough, he is sitting on their roster, waiting to be developed. Look at the bright side, though: At least they’ve successfully resisted drafting the Saer Senes of the world.

Nachbar was pretty impressive as well. I didn’t know a Nets sub could score 35 points. The game yesterday left a big impression on me.

Thorn and Stefanski are great at trades. There is an argument to be made—and a good one—that the trades for Carter and Kidd may be the two most lopsided trades of the past decade…if not longer. Getting RJ and Collins for Eddie Griffin ranks up there as well. Now we are looking at the trade for Nachbar as a steal. Even the trades for Cliff Robinson (picks that turned into Chris Taft and Stephon Lasme!) and Mikki Moore were first rate.

Draft picks are a different matter. You can give them credit for KMart and RJ and yes, Marcus Williams and Boone, hopefully for Sean Williams as well. But the 2005 draft was their worst. Take a look at who was left on the board after their first and second round picks. Very discouraging. Wright will not have his option picked up by October 31…and even if he has a good year, he isn’t re-signing with the Nets to back up Carter and RJ. And we know now that they wanted a high school player, Monta Ellis, in the second round and tried to trade up to take him, but failed. When their pick did come, they went with Ilic instead of Williams, Gelabale, Johnson, Blatche or Gomes. They each have some issues, but they can all play. I loved the idea of Ilic and unfortunately believed the hype about him…and not just from Stefanski. But Ilic will not be an NBA player.

Of course, their free agent pickups have been for the most part worse.

I love the NETS..!!! GO NETSSSSSSSSSS

Hindsight is 20/20. Drafts for every team in every year are littered with bad picks and shoulda woulda couldas. Why not bring it back to 1996? Kerry Kittles over the likes of Kobe, Nash, Jermaine O’Neal…