Way back in November, the New Jersey Nets lost to the Miami Heat on a Saturday evening. It was Jersey’s tenth loss to start the season, capped by a dagger from Dwyane Wade at the buzzer. One of those incredible shots that only the top players in the league can usually hit. And while we knew Wade had it in him, the shot itself was still incredible. That’s when I knew the Nets were in trouble.
See, the Nets had a lot of talent. Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Yi Jianlian, Terrence Williams. They had enough talent to where they shouldn’t be the worst team in the league. Bad? Sure. The worst? Unlikely. The worst of all time? No way. But that game represented a microcosm of their problems. Injured, outmatched, out-coached? Those will pile up the losses, but as long as you’re not snakebit, you can avoid history. The Nets were snakebit on top of it.
Last night the Nets won their ninth game of the season, tying the ’73 Sixers, avoiding history as the worst ever, and with three weeks to go, an excellent chance at fading into just anotherbad team.
But what’s more, the fact that the Nets are improving as the season goes on (two wins in a row!), combined with that talent means something more. It validates the theory than not only is this not the worst team in history, theyr’e not the worst team in the league this season.
You see, while the Nets have been piling up losses with a stable core of talent, multiple picks in this year’s draft, watching their rookie Terrence Williams develop, and zeroing in on John Wall who many feel may be better than his Calipari predecessors, the Minnesota Timberwolves are putting in a truly horrible season.
Talent, sure, but much of it isn’t playing the right number of minutes, with Kevin Love inexplicably in the doghouse. None of it seems to fit together, their star point guard is in Spain, they brought in Darko Milicic as a big mid-season acquisition, and they’re trying to run the triangle which has been a disaster. The Wolves have multiple picks, and cap space. They have some legit talent, most notably Al Jefferson. But if you look at the Nets, snakebitten, talented, a raw mold waiting to be shaped by a new regime, and you look at the Wolves, inconsistent, not bad enough for the top pick, not good enough to compete, with questionable management and coaching, the idea makes more and more sense.
The Nets aren’t the worst team in history. Hell, they’re not even the worst team this season.
Oh, and by the way, the Nets finish the season against... the Miami Heat.
