Around Mid-Season Review: For Better or Worse Edition

I made one of these in the early season and just decided to make another if anyone really cares. It's like my analysis on what's happened during this rocky season. Here we go, The New Jersey Nets Mid-Season Review, For Better or Worse Edition!

Record and Standings

What does it say about us? It says we have half as many wins as losses. It says that we are slowly fading from playoff potential into #1pick in the draft potential. How seriously should we take this? None at all really. The real Nets will show up soon, whether we obtain Dwight or not. MarShon has recovered and hopefully shakes off his rust. Stevenson may be coming back soon. And our big ol' goofy, underrated, cool center Brook Lopez is coming back. I don't know about you, but seeing that I haven't watched as many games as most of the posters here, we lack, and I mean severely lack, and interior presence. On offense, and on defense. Any team with a slasher or a big man always puts up big men. But that's for later talk. Do we deserve our position right now? Yes, unfortunately. However, our ranking for most potential this season is #1. Once the real New Jersey Nets come to town.

Injuries

You know I would touch upon this, (maybe you didn't). But what you do know is how unluckily we have been this season in terms of injury. This was totally unexpected. We had a nice young team that was developing. The more likely teams to have massive injury accounts would be teams with older players, like the Spurs. The Nets would not have been the first name to come to mind when discussing injuries in the preseason. It could be blamed on bad luck, the lockout, or having lazy players. The end is, we have had too many injuries. I believe we have tried 14 DIFFERENT STARTING lineups and once had a game with only 8 players! The only chemistry that is being developed is between Deron and Petro. Unfortunately, our injuries and our record have been intertwined, and it is the main reason why we have fallen so far behind. Not because of Avery, not because of Deron. But because of injuries. 2 of our Top 3 players have been out for the majority of the season. No coach could help us with that.

On another point, I believe our injury-plagued season has just been a sort of snowball effect. We started off unfortunate with a few injuries. This caused players to play more minutes. Without a real off-season, the players were not in basketball shape. These extended minutes prodcued more injuries. These injuries resulted in signings of FA. These FA, clearly, have not been playing for a while and need time to get back into shape. But because of our dilemma, they play more than they should be, thus resulting in another injury. And the show goes on.

Rookies

MarShon Brooks (Swag) has been doing beyond my expectations and probably beyond most of that of the posters here. Pre-injury he had been incredible for a rookie. Deron and him seem to have developed a chemistry and Deron seems to have taken a liking to MarShon's basketball abilities. What other superstar allows a rookie to wave them off to go into iso? Needless to say, our rookies have been impressive and have shown lots of potential.

Dwightmare

Almost over. Dwightmare is almost over. It's lasted thus far and it will end either within a month, or we will hae a huge gap of 3 months or so before FA starts and then the drama starts again. Where will he go, nobody knows... yet.

All-Star Weekend

We've got 3 players competing in 4 different event during All-Star weekend (Deron: ASG and Skills Challenge, MarShon - Rookie/Sophomore Game, Anthony Morrow - 3 point contest). Considering how bad this team has looked at times, I think its' safe to say this is quite an accomplishment. You'll be seeing a familiar Nets face in every single event aside from the Slam Dunk contest. Hopefully they come out with some wins or awards depending on they event.

This is just what I came up with reflecting on our season thus far. However, before I end, I'd like to mention that the season could be turning around soon. As mentioned before, Dwightmare could end, for better or worse, and now the return of MarShon Brooks and Brook Lopez could get this team flowing again. More players reduces the effects of injury, which we'd all be happy to see end.

Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments section below.