Not much going on, only the most critical weeks in franchise history as the Nets try to acquire the second best player in the NBA and match him with the seventh best to form a superteam in a nearly complete billion dollar arena in New York City. Whew! In other words, hold onto to your authentic Nets seat cushion, which can used as flotation device.
On the other hand, Nets fans will be able to get a taste of how Deron Williams and Dwight Howard play together for the first time Sunday night. In fact, it could be a summer of love between the two with a full slate of international exhibition games for Team USA and of course, the Olympics.
Speaking of overseas exhibitions, the team owner is running for President in Russia, and control of 3,000 nuclear weapons! That's next Sunday.
February 25 - D-League All-Star Game and NBA Skills Competions. Coverage of D-League All-Star competition starts at 2 p.m. JamesOn Curry, Jerry Smith and Jeff Foote will play in the game. Smith will also compete in D-League Skills competition and L.D. Williams, defending champ, will compete in the D-League Dunk Contest.
February 25 - Anthony Morrow will compete in the Foot Locker Three Point Shootout and Deron Williams will compete in the Taco Bell skills competition. Both are part of All-Star Saturday Night. Coverage starts at 8:30 p.m.
February 26 - Deron Williams plays in NBA All-Star Game in Orlando. Coverage starts at 6 p.m. Williams is the first Net to appear in the game since 2009.
March 1 - First day teams can trade players they signed as free agents in 2011. For the Nets, that's Shelden Williams, Shawne Williams, Kris Humphries and DeShawn Stevenson. Magic management also says this is the day they will ask for Howard for a definitive answer on his plans for next season.
March 4 - Russian Presidential Election. Mikhail Prokhorov vs. Vladimir Putin. Prokhorov unlikely to win (or make the run-off if Putin doesn't get 50 percent of the vote). If he wins, Prokhorov has said he will sell all his assets, presumably including his Nets shares. No matter what happens, he is forming a political party and focusing his efforts on politics, not business.
March 15 - NBA trade deadline, 6 p.m. ET. The Nets will fly that day to Orlando for a game the next day.. Who's on the plane? Who's awaiting their arrival in Orlando?
March 18 - In the unlikely event Mikhail Prokhorov finishes second to Vladimir Putin and Putin get less than 50 percent of the vote on March 4, this would be the date for a two-man presidential runoff. Recently moved up from March 25.
March 23 - Last day to sign a player and have him be playoff-eligible
April 23 - Last regular season home game for the Nets in New Jersey, 7:30 at Prudential Center vs. the 76ers
April 26 - Regular season ends with Nets vs Raptors. in Toronto, last game for the New Jersey Nets unless they make the playoffs.
May 23 - Earliest completion date for exterior skin at Barclays Center
June 28 - NBA Draft in Newark. Number of picks currently owned by the Brooklyn Nets (and by this point they will be be the Brooklyn Nets): three--their own and the Rockets' (lottery-protected) first round picks plus the Heat's second round pick, which could very well be the last pick in the draft.
July 1 - Teams can contact free agents and this is often the day news breaks about free agents' intentions. For those thinking tours of the Barclays Center might be in order that week, the arena should be looking a lot like the finished product, with the scoreboard and other LED installation nearly complete and seating almost all in place. Players start announcing their
July 6 - July 11 - Team USA will train daily at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Deron Williams (and Dwight Howard) have been invited and both are viewed as locks to make the squad.
July 11 - Teams can begin signing free agents. Could be time for free agent signings, but top free agents will still be in the Pacific Time Zone.
July 12 - Team USA plays Dominican Republic (Al Horford, Charlie Villanueva and Francisco Garcia) in Las Vegas.
July 13 - 16 - Team USA training moves to Washington, D.C., concluding with an exhibition vs. Brazil (Tiago Splitter, Anderson Varejao). Top free agents an Acela ride away.
July 17- 19 - Team USA moves to Europe where it will stay through August 12. First stop is in Manchester, England, concluding with an exhibition game July 19 against Great Britain (Luol Deng, Ben Gordon) at the Manchester Arena.
July 22 - 24 - Team USA celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Dream Team with exhibition games in Barcelona against Argentina (Manu Ginobili, Luis Scola, Andres Nocioni) on July 22 and Spain (Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol and Ricky Rubio) on July 24.
July 27 – August 12 - 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Deron Williams likely to be only Net playing at the Olympics. France did not offer Johan Petro a slot on Les Bleus, its Olympic team. Mehmet Okur hasn't played for Turkey's "12 Giant Men" since the 2007 World Championships. Bojan Bogdanovic's Croatian team doesn't have an invite. Of course, trades could add to that list.
September 5 - Expected completion date for Barclays Center. Expect a couple of shakeout events in early September. Moved back from August 27.
September 28 - Opening Night, Barclays Center. Jay-Z will open the arena with a series of concerts.
October 2 - First sporting event at Barclays, a preseason NHL game between the Islanders and Devils.
October 17 - Arena construction documents list this date as first preseason game at the arena.
October 31 - Opening Night for the Brooklyn Nets, according to those same documents. Arena officials note that this is simply a target date, not set in stone.