Weekly Wind Up: In the world of the Brooklyn Nets, 'it is what it is'

We're quickly approaching the All-Star break in mid-February which means the bumpy ride across the foggy bridge is more than halfway done.

It's become a season of accepting losses for what they are and just hoping the guys in black -and-white put up a good fight. With the unprotected pick headed to Boston, this is unacceptable, but there's really nothing they can do at this point.

The trade deadline is less than three weeks away. Make a trade?  What for? To win a few more games in a lost season? Doubtful. They don't even have a GM yet.

The season has turned into a waiting game for ... waiting for vacant GM and head coach positions to be filled, waiting for the ribbon-cutting at the HSS Center; for the trade deadline, for the end of the regular season,  for the horrors of the Lottery and free agency, still five months away.

Speaking of head coaches, we're 11 games into Tony Brown's tenure here and he's 2-9. Nobody expected them to start miraculously winning games under him, but it's safe to say his temporary stay as head coach isn't going the way he would've liked.

As we've said all season and we'll continue to say from a Nets perspective: It is what it is.

Where we stand

The Nets are 12-36 on the season after winning one of four games this past week. The Nets started the week off with an impressive victory over Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder in a postponed snowy battle in Brooklyn.

Then, they reverted to the team we're used to and lost three straight to the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans. They lost to the Heat without Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic and lost to the Pelicans in heartbreaking fashion.

We're used to this by now. Thing is, the Nets are in danger of falling behind the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles Lakers. They're only five games better than the Sixers and three games better than the Lakers. Ugh.

We continue to root for the Los Angeles Clippers because if they finish top-5 in the league, the Nets get to keep their second-round pick. Right now they're in sixth overall.

Game of the Week

It's by default like most weeks.

The Nets scored a season-high 116 points against OKC behind a 31-point, 10-rebound performance from Brook Lopez. It was arguably the best performance from the Nets this season, whose beaten .500 or better teams in nine of the 12 wins.

They didn't trail at any point of the game and were never really in danger of squandering it. The Thunder cut it five in the fourth, but the Nets put their big boy pants on and finally closed one out.

Weak of the Week

It's gotta be the bench scoring TWO points against the Mavericks in a 91-79 snore fest. They finished 1-of-14 from the field and didn't score in the first three quarters of the game. You figure with a 12-point loss, some help from the bench and this thing may have ended a little differently.

Let's not forget four of the reserves, namely Thomas Robinson, Shane Larkin, Andrea Bargnani and Bojan Bogdanovic, along with Wayne Ellington, will likely be back next season. Everybody excluding Bogdanovic has a player option.

Who's Hot

Ya know, Brook Lopez. We saved this for a separate piece.

Who's Not

The week represented Bojan Bogdanovic's inconsistency in a nutshell. He started the week with 18 points in the win over OKC, followed up by an 11-point performance in the loss to Miami. He hit three crucial three-pointers.

Then on the two-game road trip, Bogdanovic scored zero points at Dallas and three points at New Orleans. For a few games, Bogie looks like a real weapon and then suddenly he disappears the next few games.

Highlight of the Week

You be the judge:

or...

Last Call

Let's be honest. It really couldn't get much worse than January.

But at least things should be a little brighter in February and so on. Not saying many games are to be won or anything like that, but there's a total of six games left until the All-Star break, which means we'll be seeing Rondae Hollis-Jefferson return and Chris McCullough make his debut sometime within the next few weeks.

Not to mention, the new practice facility is set to open sometime over the All-Star break. Maybe they'll even hire a GM in the time being.

This is the last call for the month of January and a cheers to what should be a much brighter February for different reasons. Hopefully.