Should He Stay or Should He Go Now
Now that the Nets season is officially over, the drama has already set in. This offseason’s drama is once again surrounding Jason Kidd and whether or not he should stay in Jersey or demand a trade. Just another sequel to last seasons debacle (which may I add I don’t blame J-Kidd for wanting out of Jersey.) Bruce Ratner, the owner of the New Jersey Nets, dismantled the team last summer when it was approved by the league for him to own the team. First he got rid of K-Mart, in a sign-and-trade with Denver. Ok, we can deal with that. So who did they get? Nene? Camby? NOPE. No one. Draft picks. How do you trade the first pick from the 2000 NBA draft, who was also an all-star for just draft picks? I don’t care if you don’t know anything about the game of basketball, but in business you’re not supposed to get nothing for a BIG something. Then Ratner goes ahead and lets go of Luuuuuuuuu-cious Harris and Kerry Kittles “And Bits”, with again, trading Kerry Kittles, who was the longest tenured Net on the team, and their 8th pick in the 1996 NBA draft, for just DRAFT PICKS. This guy Ratner loves draft picks.
Ok, so during the season Ratner saw that fans were not showing up to the games. No matter how hard he tried to get the fans interested by putting game packages with $15 Screecher Seats which included a whole hotdog and soft drink (the least he could do is make it 3 beers because if you were sober, it was difficult to watch the team play), it just didn’t work out. So Ratner decides to splurge money and trade whining Alonzo Mourning (who somehow is all of sudden not injured once he was traded from the Nets and released from the Raptors), Eric Williams and fan favorite and defensive monster A-Train, Aaron Williams for Vince Carter. I was skeptical about the transaction for these reasons.
1) The Nets took on VC’s contract 6yr/$70 mil, which is much larger than K-Marts 6yr/$66 mil.
2) VC admitted to not playing hard all the time with the Raptors at the end of his tenure with the team.
3) VC wasn’t a prime time player. He never really hit big shots and never proved himself to be a top player.
But the trade ended up being pretty good for the Nets. They ended up going 33-24 once VC arrived. He hit some big buckets and he might have been the best player in the NBA during the final 2 weeks of the regular season. But he wasn’t the answer. They need a big man, a player like ken-YON mar-TIN. Someone who will crash the boards, play hard nose defense and someone who can also run the floor with Kidd, along with getting the crowd fired up and do a little trash talking and pushing and shoving down low. That’s what the Nets are lacking. So Ratner, if you are listening, sign a big man and draft a big man like Wayne Simien in this June’s draft. Make Kidd happy. If Kidd is happy, I’m sure Ratner’s fat pockets will be happy at the end of the day.
Ok, so during the season Ratner saw that fans were not showing up to the games. No matter how hard he tried to get the fans interested by putting game packages with $15 Screecher Seats which included a whole hotdog and soft drink (the least he could do is make it 3 beers because if you were sober, it was difficult to watch the team play), it just didn’t work out. So Ratner decides to splurge money and trade whining Alonzo Mourning (who somehow is all of sudden not injured once he was traded from the Nets and released from the Raptors), Eric Williams and fan favorite and defensive monster A-Train, Aaron Williams for Vince Carter. I was skeptical about the transaction for these reasons.
1) The Nets took on VC’s contract 6yr/$70 mil, which is much larger than K-Marts 6yr/$66 mil.
2) VC admitted to not playing hard all the time with the Raptors at the end of his tenure with the team.
3) VC wasn’t a prime time player. He never really hit big shots and never proved himself to be a top player.
But the trade ended up being pretty good for the Nets. They ended up going 33-24 once VC arrived. He hit some big buckets and he might have been the best player in the NBA during the final 2 weeks of the regular season. But he wasn’t the answer. They need a big man, a player like ken-YON mar-TIN. Someone who will crash the boards, play hard nose defense and someone who can also run the floor with Kidd, along with getting the crowd fired up and do a little trash talking and pushing and shoving down low. That’s what the Nets are lacking. So Ratner, if you are listening, sign a big man and draft a big man like Wayne Simien in this June’s draft. Make Kidd happy. If Kidd is happy, I’m sure Ratner’s fat pockets will be happy at the end of the day.
posted by Mark D. Miller at 11:23 AM
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