Rebranding a Franchise: From Tampa Bay to Brooklyn

December 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

When Stuart Sternberg purchased 48% of Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2004, he approached the team with a “buy low, sell high” mentality. During the ensuing eight seasons, Sternberg who came from a finance background, was able to take the Rays from worst to first, winning the American League in 2008 and winning the AL East division in both 2008 and 2010, while completely re-branding the entire franchise. The Devil Rays were a team stuck in mediocrity, a mirror image of the New Jersey Nets of the NBA. Full Story…

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Attention Brook Lopez! Please Accept Ben Friedmans Friend Request On Facebook!

April 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

About a year ago, Rutgers University senior, Ben Friedman, requested to be friends with Brook Lopez on Facebook. Despite numerous efforts to convince Brook to accept his request on Brook’s twin brother Robin’s Facebook account, Brook continues to deny Ben his friendship. In a season in which Nets fans have had very little to cheer about, die hard fans need to take as many moral victories as they can, and Facebook friendships with the team’s stars are all fans can look forward to.

Despite the Nets’ move out of the swamp and into the beautiful Prudential Center in Newark, the Nets haven’t had such a great turnout this season. With a 24-53 record after Tuesday nights victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves, fans have already moved on from the exciting acquisition of Deron Williams, and have transitioned to the “next year” phase that involves evaluating potential draft picks and free agent acquisitions that will boost the team’s playoff chances for next season. Ben however, has remained a devoted fan. On nights when barely any fans were in attendance, Ben, left the comfort of his throne at home, to see Brook and the Nets play.

Unfortunately, Ben’s dedication has gone unappreciated by Brook. Ben went through rigorous preparation to make an incredible sign with a great color scheme, to try to catch Brook’s attention, in an effort to secure his Facebook friendship. Since only 65 other people were in attendance of that night’s game, Brook had to have seen Ben’s poster, yet he persists on denying Ben his friendship. Ben even went so far as to post a picture of his sign on Robin Lopez’s wall, directly under a post by Brook, and still hasn’t received his confirmation!

Brook, if this post reaches you, please accept Ben Friedman as your friend on Facebook. You may already have a sufficient amount of friends, but Ben is prepared to be the best of Facebook friends. For all the ladies who have been sending me messages, yes, Ben is single!

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An instant classic in London

March 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The New Jersey Nets and Toronto Raptors just capped off the NBA’s first ever regular season games in Europe. With back to back games at the O2 arena in London, the home of the 2012 Olympic Basketball games, the Nets and Raptors left a good first impression on those in attendance. Not surprisingly, both games featured a significantly more boisterous crowd than any seen, possibly ever, in New Jersey. With the NBA managing to sell out both games, it is very likely we will be seeing more NBA games played across the pond in the future.

The Nets should be encouraged about their planned move to Brooklyn, after the team’s first two wins with newly acquired point guard Deron Williams. With D-Will, the Nets should be an entertaining team in the future, and a move to a market that seems interested in basketball, should be a good move for the team. While it can be argued that the Nets struggles in the stands can be attributed to their lousy record in recent years, the Nets weren’t even a hot ticket when they were running and gunning with Jason Kidd (as a side note, the first dunk in that clip was at my Bar Mitzvah). In 2002, I went with my Dad to game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against Boston, where my Dad bought lower section tickets at the box office about 45 minutes before tip off. If a team can’t sell out a conference finals game when they are the number one seed, they probably should move.

While Friday’s win represented the first success in the D-Will era for the Nets, it was Saturday’s 63 minute thriller that stands out. David Stern must be doing back flips, after managing to turn a meaningless end of the season match up, between two struggling teams, into a trailblazing thriller that may go down as the game that brought the NBA to Europe. While the spotlight coming into the game may have been on Williams, as the lone All-Star, it was center Brook Lopez who made a statement with his play. After snoozing through the first 61 games of the season as arguably the laziest rebounding big man in the NBA, Lopez finally provided the presence he is capable of, going for 14 rebounds and a whopping 8 blocks, to go along with 34 points in 47 minutes. While the big man has been showing his shooting touch all season, it was delightful to see Lopez active and effective in the paint. Fortunately for Lopez, Nets fans may not have noticed his poor rebounding numbers after years of looking at box scores featuring another 7 foot twin from Stanford.

Aside from Lopez, it was Vujacic who stepped up big time. “The Machine” shot 6-9 from downtown, including a dagger in double overtime, on a brilliantly drawn up inbounds play, which featured Williams, Farmar and Vujacic all curling off screens, with Vujacic nailing a bomb, which brought the game into triple overtime.

Kris Humphries continued his stellar play with 20 points and 17 rebounds in 53 minutes of action. With rookie Derrick Favors now in Utah, Humphries is finally getting the playing time he deserves, and has not disappointed. My friend Ben has been claiming all season that Humphries is a light version of Blake Griffin. While I laughed it off at first, after seeing some impressive athleticism by Humph in recent games, it’s hard to argue with that assessment.

While the Raptors are easily the worst defensive team in the league, which is harsh criticism coming from someone who has been watching D’Antoni ball the last two and a half seasons, the Raptors showed they have some weapons to be excited about. 2006 number 1 draft pick Andrea Bargnani showed off his impressive touch going for 35 points off 4-7 shooting from down town. As a 7 footer who can play all three front court positions, Bargnani seems like he is on his way towards developing into a go-to player. While he will never rebound sufficiently for a player his size, with a young core featuring athletic players such as Amir Johnson and Ed Davis, Bargnani may be able to focus more on his perimeter strengths.

DeMar DeRozan may be stepping up to be the running mate for Bargs that Toronto has been hoping for. The 21 year old swing man out of USC, frequently displayed his athleticism on the break, and helped keep his team in the game going for 30 points, including several clutch hoops and free throws in the three overtimes. What was most impressive about DeRozan, was that he was the only player on the floor who did not seem overly fatigued in the third overtime, despite playing a whopping 54 minutes.

Lost among the impressive statistics brought on by 63 minutes of basketball, was Deron Williams impressive play. The point guard led the Nets to their second win since the trade with his fifth consecutive double-double, going for 21 points and 18 assists. Williams has brought a presence at point guard that the Nets haven’t seen since the departure of Kidd, instantly making the Nets a watchable basketball team. While the Nets may be out of the playoff race, D-Will has given Nets fans a reason to get excited, and most importantly, a reason to watch the games.

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D-Will to NJ

February 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Just under two weeks ago, it was reported that Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan had retired after 23 seasons with the team. The aftermath resulted in speculation as to whether a half-time argument with Deron Williams pushed Sloan into retirement. There was talk how the situation had boiled down to the organization having to choose between Williams and Sloan. Now it appears the team is left with neither.

In Wednesdays deal, the Nets have re-energized their lackluster fan base, in an attempt to draw excitement prior to the teams expected move to Brooklyn. The Nets acquisition of Deron Williams in exchange for Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first round picks and $3 million dollars, can be compared to the Nets famous acquisition of Jason Kidd for Stephon Marbury and Soumaila Samake.Ten years ago, armed with Jason Kidd, the Nets moved from perennial doormat, to the top of the eastern conference overnight. Despite running with a sub par supporting cast, Kidd managed to bring out the best of everyone and propel his team through the leastern conference. With the move, the Nets  immediately become a more favorable destination for future free agents, playing in Brooklyn and having a point guard in Williams, who will put players in position to succeed. Regardless of the alleged arguments between Williams and Sloan, it is obvious to even the casual fan, that D-Will is a guy any basketball player would love to play with.

While Harris is a nice guard, who made the All-Star team two years ago for the Nets, he never quite meshed with head coach Avery Johnson. It was only a matter of time before Harris was moved, since Harris and Johnson had butted heads previously in Dallas. While Williams is a clear upgrade over Harris, was it worth it for the Nets to trade two first round picks and Derrick Favors to complete the deal? The answer is a resounding YESSSSSS!

The seven or eight folks out there who have been able to sit through Nets games this season, will tell you that Favors has a long way to go before becoming a difference maker. For every athletic play he makes, he finds himself out of position, or fouling, or fumbling the ball at least 3 times. He may blossom into a productive player, but I don’t see any justification for his selection over DeMarcus Cousins. As for those two first round picks, they can easily be recouped by having the Russian Mutant Mark Cuban as your owner. Just like Prokhorov was willing to spend $3 million to get this deal done, he will be willing to spend millions to acquire picks in the future.

After a summer filled with questionable decisions, including the selections of Favors over Cousins and the signing of Travis Outlaw, the Nets have finally made their big splash. Unfortunately the Nets currently sit 9 games out of the playoffs, with only 25 games remaining. This means Prokhorov’s plan for the Nets to make the playoffs this season and win a championship within five years may not be off to the greatest start, but this move certainly represents some progress.

The Jazz on the other hand, may have saved their future by striking this deal early. With all the current tension in Utah surrounding the departure of Jerry Sloan and the teams recent slide, it appeared very unlikely that Deron Williams would remain in Utah long-term. Rather than allow 18 months of speculation, and force the team into the same soap opera the Denver Nuggets just concluded, the Jazz came away with a deal that allows them to remain competitive in the future, and rebuild on the fly.

While Harris is not the same caliber player as Williams, he is good enough to help the team compete for a playoff spot. Realistically, this years Jazz team was probably not getting out of the first round, which is likely where the team stands after the deal. Now the Jazz can fight for a playoff spot, while picking up a young big man in Derrick Favors and a few nice draft picks. Favors should find Utah to be a more comfortable situation, as he can develop slowly behind Paul Milsap and Al Jefferson, while running Utah’s more simple pick and roll offense. Favors may be the real winner in this deal, as he no longer has to listen to Avery Johnson yelling at him to stop screwing up all the time.

In addition to this move, the Nets made another sideways trade with Golden State, sending Troy Murphy and a second round pick in return for Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric. Brandan Wright is a nice player when he’s healthy, but then again, if I had 1000x more talent and was 6″6 I’d be Michael Jordan. Gadzuric is a serviceable backup center in short spurts, and maybe he can remind Brooke Lopez that centers are supposed to get rebounds. Either way, this deal doesn’t do too much, since all the players involved are in the last years of their respective deals.

While Deron Williams may turn out to be angry that he was traded to a non-playoff team, this trade still represents a change in perception of the Nets. Even if Deron Williams walks in a year and half, Prokhorov has finally shown the NBA that he is willing to spend big to make his team competitive.

In these past two days, we have seen two of the NBA’s top 10 talents moved. What will happen next?

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