No movement, but then again, the week was kinda blah. And so is the team. That's one theme running through the week's power rankings. The other is the possibility that the Nets will get a lot of trade offers for Thaddeus Young!
Bottom line: No one thinks the Nets are more than a bottom five team. To make it worse, their situation seems moribund, you know, like dead in the water. As Matt Moore writes, "There's just so little to say about this team, this season, this franchise at this point. It's just kind of there."
Here ya go...
John Schuhmann, NBA.com (28)
Joe Johnson has shown some signs of life, Bojan Bogdanovic has started to make shots, Andrea Bargnani is still in the NBA, and the Nets have scored more than a point per possession in three straight games for the first time this season. But their schedule is getting tough again. Saturday's loss to the Clipppers began a stretch where 14 of 16 games are against teams currently over .500. Twelve of the 16 are against top-10 defenses.
Marc Stein, ESPN (26)
In Brook Lopez, Brooklyn not only has a model for a Star Wars-themed bobblehead, but also a player on the brink of joining Blake Griffin, Paul George, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins on the short list of players at 20-plus PPG and 8-plus RPG. We'll see how the Nets cope with a rough schedule for the rest of the month before widening our lens.
Matt Moore, CBS Sports (28)
The thing with the Nets is that they always manage to be just good enough as to not be hilariously bad. They're just consistently not good enough to win. They won two in a row this week, which normally would bump them more, but a lot of the bad teams had good weeks, too. There's just so little to say about this team, this season, this franchise at this point. It's just kind of there. They play better than some of the worst teams, but it means so much less than it does for the others. They are the hotel art of the NBA season.
Kurt Helin, NBC Sports (26)
They are 5-5 in their last 10 games and they are playing much better of late (which is killing Celtics’ fans, Boston has the Nets first round pick this June). Thaddeus Young has looked good, it will be interesting to see how many teams make a run at getting him before the trade deadline.
Tim Bontemps, Washington Post (28)
It was tough to see one of the few bright spots in Brooklyn, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, go down for at least two months with a fractured ankle.
Jeremy Woo, Sports Illustrated (26)
Subtract the 1–9 start and the Nets haven’t been all that bad, with Lionel Hollins getting good effort out of his veterans, particularly Thaddeus Young who’s having arguably the best season of his career. It’s easy to envision him as an intriguing trade target for someone with more serious playoff aspirations.
Adi Joseph, USA Today (27)
They have the ability to score lots of points in bunches
Dan Devine, Yahoo! Sports (27)
I know that the Nets have fared better of late — 6-7 since their 1-9 start, a near top-10 defensive efficiency mark over the past 10 games, solid interior production from Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young, etc. But with no Rondae Hollis-Jefferson for the next 2 1/2 months, the most exciting Net is ... Shane Larkin, I guess? Well, at least he can levitate: