It is down right scary how good the nets can be without even signing a tier 1 free agent next summer.
We will have a draft pick in the top 10 and in the teens next season. Then we will have the most cap space for next season. We are setup better than the Trailblazers of 2-3 years ago.

As well as current talent that will still be with the team after singing a FA.

@ronnie
and if all goes well, an owner richer than Paul Allen.

the Nets are in a better situation. I dont even think its close. Both have money but i think Nets have a little more. Even tho they beat us in the preseason we still are the more talented team and I think we will win more games this season. plus with the whole Russian owner and the Brooklyn plan, i think guys would want to come here now. Nets are setup nicely..hopefully guys play hard and give players something to look forward to when joining the team

@Sean

I agree 100% with you. But you also have to look at the situation the Knicks had all there players playing meanwhile we didn’t. The Nets didn’t use B-Lo nor Harris in the second half Lee did not play and they barely beat us. Same thing with the Sixers and the Celtics which all of these where close games. If the Nets play with Harris, Lee, and Lopez I think we would see a different outcome other then that L column.

no good free agent will come to new jersey…by the time you are in brooklyn it wont even be close as to who is further along in the rebuilding stage. This is a classic case of counting the chickens before they hatch, come to new york first before you try to stack up to the big boys.

*if you ever get to BK

The biggest difference between the Knicks and the Nets regarding cap space is who is using it. Thorn is 10x better than Walsh.

If you have an owner worth $14 billion, many things are possible. And I cannot imagine a player saying “I won’t play a year and a half in New Jersey” if the Brooklyn arena is going up, he is getting paid a max contract and likes the Nets’ core.

Arenas designed by Ellerbe Becket normally take 24 to 26 months to erect. Do the math. If ground is broken in December, then Barclays Center could be complete by February 2012. That in fact is the plan: move during All-Star break 2012.

Great job again by NetIncome. I have no issues with the analysis. However, this season, the Knicks “could” win more games. The Knicks are way better at the forward positions than we are “unless” YI and TWILL have awesome years. Also, the Knicks have a better coach, with a long term contract therefore not being a lame duck. But I still take our team, because of our youth, talent, potential and draft picks over the next two years. Walsh vs Thorn is a toss up, both are just great GMs. But I am a NETS guy, so GO NETS!

Good numerical analysis, NI but, I suspect the arena, attendance, branding and coaching style issues will make a bigger difference(all in favor of NYK) than you think.

@Paul
Even if the Knicks are better at forward and win a few more games this year, it’s not because of the core they can move forward past 2010 with — it’s because of guys like Harrington, Lee, Nate, etc. Their post-2010 core is only Gallinari, Jeffries, Curry, Douglas, and Hill. Guys in that group accounted for under 15% of team minutes played last year, and they may be able to get that up to 20% or so this year depending on how the young’uns develop. Meanwhile the Nets post-2010 core played about 50% of the minutes last year, and tht’a going to go up by a lot this year if Lee can take most of VC’s minutes. No comparison, really.

The Knicks are a mess. They will need to sing a big FA or two just to stay afloat. The Nets on the other hand do not need to sign a big FA. They can sign lesser free agents to fill holes and still have a great up and coming young team. On top of all this are all those draft choices which are so valuable in building a great contender for years to come. Even with all the uncertainty surrounding the team the future looks bright. Lets go Nets…

Oops, forgot Chandler in the post-2010 Knicks list. He’s still part of the 15% though.

Does anyone else think the Nets would consider playing a year and a half in Newark if it meant being able to attract an elite free agent? I have been thinking perhaps that is why they are playing a couple preseason games at The Rock. The Nets have a year to year lease at Izod, they are not contractually obligated to be playing there next season, nor would they have to pay a monetary fine if they played elsewhere. If ground is broken in Brooklyn sometime this season, the Nets would not be compromising their long term interests by playing in Newark next season and the atmosphere there would likely be much better. They should get creative, do some community events in Brooklyn and offer special mass transit deals to get Brooklynites to attend some games in Newark. Everyone says no superstar would play in the swamp, in the worst venue in the NBA so playing in Newark would alleviate that concern. They could even change their name to Brooklyn Nets. Honestly, in the NFL the NY Jets and Giants have no trouble attracting free agents with their stadium in NJ, what would be the difference if the Nets were playing in Newark?

The Nets belong to the tri-state area. I feel bad for NJ area fans that attend Nets games on a regular basis, if the team moves, and makes it impossible for them to attend as often, but that’s life. If you are a true Nets fan you will follow and root for the team where ever they end up in our local regione. I have no doubt that the biggest anti Brooklyn Nets fans on this posting site, and you know who you are, will still end up loyal Nets fans when all is said and done.

@Chris2
I know that I and some of the other people here have been suggesting the Nets play out their time in NJ(If they ever do move to BK) at the Prudential Center. It’s basically been a case of Ratner’s foolish pride that has kept him from putting the team at the Rock in the interim. Being in the Prudential Center could have cut some of the team’s losses and may have even attracted a bigger fan base to come to games and show support. Ratner had BK on the brain and never stopped to think about all the time he was wasting at the Izod and bleeding more money than necessary. If he hadnt been so pig-headed against the Rock the Nets could have already been there and giving fans a true entertainment experience, even if it was just a taste of more to come at Barclay’s.

NYN:

Al Harrington:..20-6-1
David Lee:……16-11-2
Nate Robinson:..17-4-4
Chris Duhon:….11-3-7
Larry hughes:…11-2-2
Eddy Curry:…..13-5-0.6

Even when NY is the team that blocks less shoots in the NBA, their offensive Roster cant be Denied to be good. Now with Eddy Curry back on Practice that team must be taken seriously.

Nets:

Brook Lopez:….13-8-1
Courtney Lee:…8-2-1 (based on Orlando’s stats)
Rafer Alston:…12-3-6
Keyon Dooling:..9-2-3
Devin Harris:…21-3-7
Jarvis Hayes:…8-3-0.7

Even if our team is one of the Youngest around, specially in the east, we arent as offensive as NY but we work more on Defense. Our scoring Roster isnt as tall as NY’s.

But since we Have Twill as Rookie, Yi’s improvement and a new year full of surprises i wont say this as my last words.

Right now for me NY has better Rebuilding even when Hughes and Harrinton of NY are +10 years Pro they still have lost of energy to Kick A_S_S_E_S

It just seems like the Nets do a really good job defending the rim a lot of games, and then teams give up on trying to penetrate, but end up winning the game by shooting from deep. frickin irritates me!

Did someone just mention Eddy Curry as a reason to take the knicks seriously…….I dont even know how to respond to that.

Sorry a few points that have to be made from reading these posts:

@Kobe24 – I could care less about the Knicks – honestly are they still an NBA team? Walsh passed on a legitimate franchise big man in Lopez for Gallinari. Then he took most bust potential in this years draft in Jordan Hill. Hill looks absolutely lost out there. His upside is Mikki Moore – at which point he will be playing elsewhere. The Nets have the cap space, the future draft picks and an actual young core of talent that free agents will value. Oh and having JayZ as an owner probably carries some clout as well.

@my main man Pau – Giving Walsh and Thorn an equal grade as GMs is wrong. Thorn has not always drafted well in the past (Wright, Planinic, Marcus, etc) but in the past 2 drafts we have smoked the Knicks.

And the Knicks are not a more talented team than us. Look at the style that they play – they play no defense – and put up 120 a night – while losing by 20. Its the same style Phoenix ran – but Phoenix actually had real players.

And anyone who considers Eddy Curry to be a factor is insane.

Not to mention that half the Knicks team will be unrestricted free agents in less then a year.

lmao the knicks make me laugh lol. it is really funny hearing anything about the knicks lol. We are better then them in every aspect of a basketball franchise, from the the business side of things to on court. We have an all star point guard, a potential all star cent (maybe he might be one this year) they have no one close 2 being an all star. we have draft picks, they have like 4 in the next three years lol. and last but not least, we have more cap space and much more stable locker room.

The reason the knick players have better offensive stats than us is because they play with an offensive coach. That team cant play defense if their life depended on it.
If D’antoni was coaching the nets, Harris would average 25ppg with a player like Simmons averaging 15 a game.

The nets are a better franchise than the knicks lol. Except the Knicks are 7 times as valuable, the marquee team in the triboro (despite having a worse record than the Nets for practically every year this decade,) and a better coach than Lawrence Frank will ever be. The Knicks will sign a free agent next year, the Nets won’t. I CAN imagine a player saying they won’t play in the Swamp for one and a half years. Chris Sheridan said it best in his chat yesterday, Brooklyn probably won’t even happen, and even if it does, the no free agent is signing with the Nets.

And the Nets have a slight amount more cap space but the Knicks have WAY more appeal to a free agent. No point of having cap space when you play somewhere nobody wants to sign. The Knicks will be able to get rid of Jared Jeffries this year (people said dumping Zbos contract would be impossible too) and they’ll be on par with the Nets in terms of cap space.

And Thorn is way better than Walsh? Since when? Maybe in 1995, but not now. That Carter signing was awesome, wasn’t it?

Also, every credible sports website has the Knicks as a better team than the Nets.

No ones going to want to come here..
1. We dont have anyone on our team that wants to win a championship they dont want to put down an effort to go all out and get to the playoffs they are just doing whats expected of them.
2. We have the worst fans
3. We are cheated out of our money by having no name Courtney Lee shoved down our throats
Our franchise is a mess and you hypocrities keep backing up the nets and frank and thorn. We arent using this money to get free agents people! Maybe the best we will get is some one time all star.
Brook Lopez has developed the “Carter way” Which is just taking the vacation not wanting to win we showed that against the 76ers.
Anyone that disagrees is in denyial, The Nets team as in players, coaches, fans, are all gelatinous parasitic tapeworms.

There is one sure way to give the Nets the advantage, including for LeBron:

If it looks like the main Litigation will fall through and the subsequent litigation won’t threaten December groundbreaking, then hopefully Prokhorov will pass the word on to allow Rod Thorn to improve the Nets at their weakest position – PF. The reasonable assumption is that the Nets wouldn’t have such a good chance at attracting a top FA with the worst record in the NBA!

With his hands untied, Thorn might be able to make a three team deal to get Boozer (and his Bird rights as NI writes), using Simmons and Alston. Utah would have to save a few million on the deal (Prokhorov can handle that) and would have to get a “young player” from the 3rd team – since the Nets probably won’t give up CDR. Nets will have to use some of their 9 draft picks (will have to trade some of them eventually, anyway). Utah will get Nothing if they don’t trade Boozer, and they must think he is good enough to still be their starting PF, ahead of Milsap.

With Boozer and his Bird rights, Nets could be a playoff team and EXTREMELY attractive to a free agent Small Forward.
Nets could keep Boozer if he does well (offer about 10 million for 2010 season) or let him go if it might mean signing Bosh or Amare.

To answer your anticipated response – one of the reasons other clubs wouldn’t be as interested in Boozer is that no club in the NBA has such a sorry state at the Power Forward position. Nets have the worst Forwards in NBA, hands down (even assuming some improvement from Yi).
Nearly all competing teams already have a competent power forward.

Can’t wait to see Boozer getting traded to Chicago or NY or Miami so this nonsense stops…

The fact that trading for Boozer doesn’t make sense has little or nothing to do with Ratner.

It doesn’t make sense because the Nets are REBUILDING, it is not that hard to understand, for god’s sake! Trading for Boozer doesn’t fit the direction the Nets have taken, period. It’s that simple. Boozer would make this team what Kiki doesn’t want us to be, you have to understand that they don’t want to be the classic middle team.

EVERY team goes through a rebuilding process at some point, if you don’t like it go root for the Celtics or the Lakers!

We are not one piece away from contending so why should we feel the need to trade for Boozer when he’s a FA next summer and we ain’t winning anything, with or without him?

This year will be all about player development, we are in no rush.

And all this Bird Rights talk is OVERBLOWN. There’re cap holds that are equivalent to the max potential salary for players with Bird Rights. Those cap holds count against your cap space, until you either re-sign the FA or renounce his BR. If you’re under the cap, those cap holds actually reduce your cap space. The only benefit Bird Rights have to a team under the cap is that these teams can give their FA a better deal than other teams (one more year and higher raises).

@Chris2
The Nets lease with the NJSEA has a provision to make what you propose very difficult.

The NJSEA is in competition with the Devils. The Nets have a year to year lease at the IZOD that can be extended out to 2012-13. If they leave for any location other than one in Brooklyn (or Queens?), they must pay the NJSEA a huge penalty. The amount drops each year, but I believe the number is still quite high, maybe $8 million.

There are two ways around that, neither of which is likely: the state legislature can overrule it, but Bergen County lawmakers wouldn’t go along easily: they know if the Nets depart for Newark, the calls for the IZOD to be closed would get louder. The second way is for the new owner, a very rich Russian, to simply pay the penalty. I can’t see him doing that. Why should he pay out all that money?

@Andres
Bird rights give you an advantage in resigning someone, as you point out. Boozer would be a small risk if you can get him cheaply and every day this melodrama goes on, his price drops.

If he isn’t what expect or want, you dump him, renounce his Bird Rights. But assume if you will that Boozer has a great year for whoever he winds up with…say 74 games and 20 and 10. He has done that two out of the last three years. He is also a two time All-Star, a two time Olympic medal winner and an NCAA champion. He will be 28 years old next summer. He would automatically become one of the top five free agents, period, ahead of Joe Johnson for example.

@ Randy Oreens

The nets have three promising young guys and a team that is going to get better as the season continues. we have cap space and draft picks and people will want to play for a team that shows promise. No other team in the LEAGUE can say they have more cap space, young talent or drafts picks.