New Jersey Nets still prime fade material
There's a misconception that a salary cap in sports creates parity throughout the league. One only has to look at the NBA's Eastern Conference to realize such a notion is hogwash. While a cap might prevent one franchise from buying one chapmpionship after another, it does nothing to guarantee front office smarts. Case in point, the New Jersey Nets who are still excellent fade material on the professional hardwood.
Don’t be fooled by the NBA’s cottony-soft salary cap. It may help keep expenses down, but parity? Not a chance.
The Eastern Conference has four elite teams, five decent teams, five awful teams, and the historically bad New Jersey Nets. And the gap between the rich and the poor is only going to worsen as we get closer to the end of the season. It’s Tank Time again.
Mind you, the Nets appear to have tanked the entire season. They’ve been so brutally bad this year that sharp handicappers have been lining their pockets just by automatically fading every game. Will the good times continue through the month of March?
Fade: New Jersey Nets
The Nets are so bad, the betting odds have yet to catch up at 6-53 SU and 22-36-1 ATS. Only the Boston Celtics are worse in the East at 21-35-1 ATS, and while I’ve been beating up on the C’s for a while, you never know when they’re going to go on a tear. The only tear the Nets have been on this year is when they recently put together an 8-2-1 ATS run. They’re 1-4 SU and ATS since then – the lone win coming against Boston (-10.5 at home) of all people.
Teams this awful just don’t come along every day. The Nets have a point differential of minus-10.7, easily the worst of any NBA team over the past nine seasons, East or West. But New Jersey has been more than a 10 ½-point underdog just 17 times this season. Center Brook Lopez is the only starter on the team with a positive Roland Rating at plus-3.3. New Jersey has the worst offense in the league at 96.2 points per 100 possessions, and the second-worst defense (Toronto’s is last) at 107.9 points allowed per 100 possessions. That’s horrible basketball.
If that weren’t enough, guard Courtney Lee (13.3 points per 36 minutes) is out with a sprained ankle and is considered day-to-day. Chris Douglas-Roberts (13.7 points per 36 minutes) started in his place Sunday and scored just four points in 31 minutes against the thinned-out Washington Wizards, losing 89-85 as a one-point home dog. The Nets do better when veteran Jarvis Hayes (11.3 points/36) is on the floor instead of Douglas-Roberts. But that’s a fairly rare occurrence; youngsters like CDR are getting their opportunity to learn on the job, and handicappers are reaping the rewards.
Follow: Milwaukee Bucks
I can’t say enough about the appropriately named Bucks. I was on them about a month ago as a follow team, and they responded by going 10-4 SU and 11-3 ATS in the month of February. Besides being a small-market team with a deep roster of anonymous players, Milwaukee made a brilliant move at the deadline by acquiring John Salmons from the Chicago Bulls as part of an exchange for Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander.
Salmons has already become the leading scorer on the Bucks with 18.8 points per 36 minutes, five more points than what he was giving the Bulls and much closer to his excellent numbers in 2008-09.
The Bucks are also getting quality play from veteran Jerry Stackhouse. He’s played 19 games now for Milwaukee, providing 13.5 points per 36 minutes and hitting 41.7 percent of his three-point attempts. Stackhouse is no longer the defensive player he once was (at least, occasionally), but he can still shoot the ball, and the combination of Salmons and Stackhouse is a major upgrade over what the Bucks were getting from Michael Redd (11.9 points per game, 35.2 percent from the field) this year.
Milwaukee is just as pleased with the improvement Luke Ridnour has shown this season. He’s been moved to the bench due to the arrival of Brandon Jennings; however, Ridnour is now scoring a career-best 17.5 points with 6.5 assists every 36 minutes. His Player Efficiency rating of 17.7 is well above the league indexed average of 15.
The gives the Bucks a stash of young talent in reserve, including former starter Ersan Ilyasova (16.2 PER) in his return from playing overseas. There is no shortage of fuel for this money train.
There's a misconception that a salary cap in sports creates parity throughout the league. One only has to look at the NBA's Eastern Conference to realize such a notion is hogwash. While a cap might prevent one franchise from buying one chapmpionship after another, it does nothing to guarantee front office smarts. Case in point, the New Jersey Nets who are still excellent fade material on the professional hardwood.
Don’t be fooled by the NBA’s cottony-soft salary cap. It may help keep expenses down, but parity? Not a chance.
The Eastern Conference has four elite teams, five decent teams, five awful teams, and the historically bad New Jersey Nets. And the gap between the rich and the poor is only going to worsen as we get closer to the end of the season. It’s Tank Time again.
Mind you, the Nets appear to have tanked the entire season. They’ve been so brutally bad this year that sharp handicappers have been lining their pockets just by automatically fading every game. Will the good times continue through the month of March?
Fade: New Jersey Nets
The Nets are so bad, the betting odds have yet to catch up at 6-53 SU and 22-36-1 ATS. Only the Boston Celtics are worse in the East at 21-35-1 ATS, and while I’ve been beating up on the C’s for a while, you never know when they’re going to go on a tear. The only tear the Nets have been on this year is when they recently put together an 8-2-1 ATS run. They’re 1-4 SU and ATS since then – the lone win coming against Boston (-10.5 at home) of all people.
Teams this awful just don’t come along every day. The Nets have a point differential of minus-10.7, easily the worst of any NBA team over the past nine seasons, East or West. But New Jersey has been more than a 10 ½-point underdog just 17 times this season. Center Brook Lopez is the only starter on the team with a positive Roland Rating at plus-3.3. New Jersey has the worst offense in the league at 96.2 points per 100 possessions, and the second-worst defense (Toronto’s is last) at 107.9 points allowed per 100 possessions. That’s horrible basketball.
If that weren’t enough, guard Courtney Lee (13.3 points per 36 minutes) is out with a sprained ankle and is considered day-to-day. Chris Douglas-Roberts (13.7 points per 36 minutes) started in his place Sunday and scored just four points in 31 minutes against the thinned-out Washington Wizards, losing 89-85 as a one-point home dog. The Nets do better when veteran Jarvis Hayes (11.3 points/36) is on the floor instead of Douglas-Roberts. But that’s a fairly rare occurrence; youngsters like CDR are getting their opportunity to learn on the job, and handicappers are reaping the rewards.
Follow: Milwaukee Bucks
I can’t say enough about the appropriately named Bucks. I was on them about a month ago as a follow team, and they responded by going 10-4 SU and 11-3 ATS in the month of February. Besides being a small-market team with a deep roster of anonymous players, Milwaukee made a brilliant move at the deadline by acquiring John Salmons from the Chicago Bulls as part of an exchange for Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander.
Salmons has already become the leading scorer on the Bucks with 18.8 points per 36 minutes, five more points than what he was giving the Bulls and much closer to his excellent numbers in 2008-09.
The Bucks are also getting quality play from veteran Jerry Stackhouse. He’s played 19 games now for Milwaukee, providing 13.5 points per 36 minutes and hitting 41.7 percent of his three-point attempts. Stackhouse is no longer the defensive player he once was (at least, occasionally), but he can still shoot the ball, and the combination of Salmons and Stackhouse is a major upgrade over what the Bucks were getting from Michael Redd (11.9 points per game, 35.2 percent from the field) this year.
Milwaukee is just as pleased with the improvement Luke Ridnour has shown this season. He’s been moved to the bench due to the arrival of Brandon Jennings; however, Ridnour is now scoring a career-best 17.5 points with 6.5 assists every 36 minutes. His Player Efficiency rating of 17.7 is well above the league indexed average of 15.
The gives the Bucks a stash of young talent in reserve, including former starter Ersan Ilyasova (16.2 PER) in his return from playing overseas. There is no shortage of fuel for this money train.
