Preseaon: Nets vs Pacers

[Henacy]

Pacers @ Nets
Contential Airlines Arena, Oct. 11, 2005; 8:00pm


<u>Projected Lineups*</u>

Nets:
G Jason Kidd
G Vince Carter
C Jason Collins
F Nenad Krstic
F Richard Jefferson

Pacers:

G Jamaal Tinsley
G Stephen Jackson
C Jeff Foster
F Jermaine Oneal
F Ron Artest

*Preseason, so definately subject to change


<u>Team Outlooks Entering the 04-05 Season </u>

The Nets out look entering the 05-06 season is very different then that of a year ago. One year after entering a preseason training camp wheeling from the lose of all-star forward Kenyon Martin, veteran guards Kerry Kittles and Lucious Harris and project to finish last in the Atlantic divison the Nets find themselves back into a familar position during the Jason Kidd era. A position that has them projected by many to be the class of the atlantic divison. The Nets look at 05-06 as a legit opportunity to take another stab at reaching the NBA mountain top. A goal that comes from the fact they have one of the best perimeters in the entire league led by Jason Kidd and also includes perinnial all-star Vince Carter, a heathly rising star Richard Jefferson and a 2nd unit filled with depth like 1st round pick Antoine Wright and veterans Jeff McInnis and Lammond Murray. The Nets feel they have enough to changelle the best in the league..but many outsiders say a few question need to be answerd. Chemistry and bigman concerns are the things most glaring that stand in the way of New Jersey reaching that ultimate prize.

Goals For the Preason: Coach Franks clearly will be looking to mesh the different personalities and playing styles into a rotation that works for the long hall. Jefferson and Carter, two guys that like to operate with the ball in thei hands, have to find away to mix their strenghts as well as weakness together. Nets are also looking to see what their frontcourt can bring to the table to go long with the perimeter. How much growth has Nenad Krstic's game taken during the offseason? Marc Jackson most important bench player? Can these guys rebound and defend the post well enough to deter penetrators? just a few of the frontcourt questions that need to be answered as the preason as well as the regular season goes along.

The Pacers enter the 05-06 season the same way they have entered the last 3 seasons, on paper one of the Easts most talented teams. And the additions of guard Sarunas Jasikevous and rookie forward Danny Granger, does nothing but inhance the outlook of the Pacers been one of the conferences most talented teams. The concern the Pacers face is, do they have the mental capicity to get past the East elite. Every year it seems like Indy is ready to knock the crown off a fellow East elite then mentally they suddenly break down. It starts with the leadership, O'neal and Artest must prove they are focused solely on taking that next huge step. Also they have huge leadership shoes to fill after the retirement of Reggie Miller, the staple of the Pacers franchise for close to the last 20 years.

Goals for the Preseaon: Get everyone on the same page..Artest has new rap songs out, that isnt a good thing muisically or for the championship hopes of the Pacers fans. Everybody needs the attitude that nothing less then a championship is acceptable for 05-06. This attitude is establish right now..in traning camp. Also getting Granger and Sarunas adjusted to Rick Carlisle's system is important since both are expected to be a larger part of the Pacer's success this year.



<div align="center">Rookie Spotlights: </div>

The Nets and Pacers both have some high profile 1st year players looking to get their footing in this league starting with training camp/preseason. Antione Wright (15th pick overall) is looking to establish himself worthy of a consistent minute role on a crowded New Jersey perimeter filled with veterans. Wright known for his ablity to shoot at the college level, seems to be struggling to find his range so far during training camp as well as during his playing time during summer league. Wright needs to prove that he is a NBA shooter, as well as willing to work hard intangibliy(defensively, rebounding etc).

Danny Granger the Pacers first round pick in 05 draft(17th pick overall) enters the preseason with a bit more of a stranglehold on his minutes then Wright. But he is trying to fight the rumors of knee concerns which drooped him down from a early first round guy to the 17th pick. He is also looking to see how his all-around skills fit into the Pacers larger scheme. The Pacers also have a eroupean point guard standout by the name of Sarunas Jasikevicius, who is expected to be a key ingrediant. Sarunas, opened alot of eyes around the league due to his play against the USA dream team the last couple of olympics...as well as his play in major European championship tournaments. He is now tiring to translate that success into success in the league. The Pacers are looking for Sarunas to backup Tinsley..and replace some of the perimeter shooting lost with the retirement of Reggie Miller.

<u><div align="center">Trying to Make the Cut </div> </u>

The staple of the preseason has to be those guys with something to prove. Guys who are looking to fight their way onto a NBA roster as the last man off the bench. The Nets and Pacers both have one rsoter spot open they maybe looking to fill...and have invited candidates to goal all out for that one spot. Both teams invites clealry reflect their main need. Nets invited bigmen Author Johnson, Adam Chubb and Ben Handlegton because they still have frontcourt concerns...but guards Ricky Shields and Derrick Zimmerman are also competing for that open spot. The Pacers on the other hand went with more perimeter oreniated invites guard Desmond Farmer, Jimmy Hunter and swingman Damone Brown (known by Nets fans alike) to possibly answer some of their perimeter shooting concerns. NBA veteran Samaki Walker is competing to make the Pacers team. You should expect to see all the training camp invitiees from both teams to get legit looks and eat up most of the PT.

Anyway, now you have a better feel for what both teams are trying to get done in tonights matchup as well as the rest of the preseason/training camp.
Enjoy the game

 

[giftedvisionz]

Great analysis. Btw, will this be aired on television?

Edit: Never mind it'll be on YES.

I'm so excited to see these guys play. I know we can be a threat in the backcourt with Jefferson and Carter, and with Kidd manning the floor, there won't be any distribution problems. I'm mostly anxious to see the new pieces to the puzzle play. Hopefully McInnis will be healthy enough to play tonight.

 

[Mr. J]

Will the game on Saturday be held on yes, too?

 

[Mr. J]

At halftime, the score is pretty close. I liked some of Vince's highlights, but I was most impressed with Scott Padgett. He was shooting the ball well and made some great passes. On Indiana, Jonathan Bender was very impressive as well. I liked his versatility especially and that was giving the Nets a hard time as they sent him to the line. Should be an interesting game for New Jersey.

 

[Ma3oxuct]

A very good game for the Nets if we do not consider defense. I really liked the rebounding differential, and I really really liked what Padgett did out there. He looks to be vieing for the starting PF spot!
Murray played very well and it definitly looks like Zoran improved significantly.

 

[Bleed Green]

Lamond Murray has been playing very well in that game and Kristic started off hot. Nets made alot of very good additions like finally adding size. Marc Jackson, Cliff, and Scott P are really going 2 help their defense as well as the additions of murray and mcinnis who can give kidd some rest. LoL did anyone see VC get into the stands and sit on a chair with a fan reading that magazine. That was funny.

 

[NJNetz]

The game was exciting even though it was pre-season
These are the following guys that impressed me.

Nenad Krstic-For the first quarter he seemed amazing. He demanded the ball and made tough shots. Im hoping he will play like that in the regular season.

Lamond Murray- Man, he had a good game. Very impressive. He made tough shots Im hoping he can shoot like that all the time.

Scott Padgett- The guy can shoot but he can pass too. He made a lot of great passes that amazed me. If the guy can shoot and pass like that,it makes the Nets a whole lot tougher.

Marc Jackson- The guy was a monster. He was fighting for the ball like it was regular season. He hustled a lot and got to the foul line.

Overall the the 2nd unit was very good. I though Wright would do better but it's his first game and he seemed a little scared to get the ball.

I can't wait till Thursday when the Nets play the Charlotte Bobcats


<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LoL did anyone see VC get into the stands and sit on a chair with a fan reading that magazine.</div>

I was laughing when he did that. I wonder what he was pointing at when he was looking at the magazine

 

[eyes only]

bender is back, yes he looks really good (touch wood). even though they lost it still looks good plus, hunter looks like hes a keeper too. i wouldnt mind if they cut gill and kept both samaki and jimmie 'snap' hunter.To bad we didnt get to see granger thats the only disapointment, i garantee that if he played we would have won this match.ahn its only pre-season

 

[XSV]

I was surprised that Harrison and Granger didnt play. I thought Wright probably should have got more PT too. Krstic was in foul trouble, as was Murray, but we didn't look too bad defensively, and we outrebounded them badly, altough JO wasn't playing, same with Foster. We outplayed them in pretty much every aspect. Sarunas hit a few shots, but from what I saw he was burned bad on D, 4 fouls.

Lamond played well, almost remniscent of his Cavs days. Maybe he too just needed a scenery change like Carter. Carter probably had the best game, he was ridiculously efficeint with 18,3,2 in 19 min. Rj and Kidd (only a couple assts.) didn't play well, but they didn't play all that long together

I'd also say that Planinic has a rotation spot if he continues to play that good. The only thing is he is trunover prone.

BTW, I noticed on Courtside LIve on nba.com that VC had a few dunks, but I couldn't pick it up on the highlights. Any1 happen to see if they were nice at all?

 

[Henacy]

Post Game Wrap-up....


Nets 105 - Pacers 103

Leading Scorers:

Nets:

Carter 18pts
Murray 13pts
Jackson 11pts

Pacers:

Croshere 11pts
Scott Polllard, Ron Artest, Jaskevicius 8pts

Summary....

The game was intense but sloppy from the start, as expected. Alot of fouls and turnovers. Players wise I think both coach were able to see somethings they needed. Coach Franks had to be impressed with the play of Lammond Murrray. Murray scored in a variety of ways. And looked particularly sharpe posting up the Pacers perimeter guys in the mid-range area. Zoran Planinic also played well, not only did he hit the bucket to win the game. But all night he looked sharpe getting to the bucket off the dribble...and a key for him was that he wasnt a liablity on defense. Zoran did a solid job keeping quick guys like Jaskeviciuos and Eddie Gill infront of him...he got beat a few times but you can tell the comment to working to keep the guy in front of him was there.

Scott Padget who was brought in to be a shooter...showed a little bit more to his game tonight...he showed the ablity to be a bigman passer, which is key in the motion style Sacramento offense coach franks plan on using. He found guys cutting backdoor all night and made smart decisions. Antoine Wright made a couple good moves, got to the free throw line one trip. And then made a nice move on the break to finish a pass made by Planinic in the 4th quarter, when the Nets 2nd unit made a nice little run to try and open up the score. Overall, you can tell that Planinic and Murray have both passed him in the rotation, which is something I didnt expect.

The thing overall that disappointed me was the fact that the guys fighting for the last roster spot didnt really play...Ricky Shields played late in the 4th(but only those 3 minutes for the entire game). Zimmerman played a bit in the 2nd quarter 4 minutes and that is it. And the bigs Adam Chubb and Author Johnson didnt play at all. I dont know if Coach Frank has already been sold on which guy is makiong the team or maybe that spot will be earned by the guy that works the hardest in training camp practices...I dont know but I expect to see those guys on the floor..between 5 and 10 minutes each..so the coaching staff could get a very good in game look at them. Maybe their minutes will expand later this week against the Bobcats.

Anyway the next televised game on Yes Network wont happen unit the 21st of the month against Philly, so no the Nets/knick game wont be on Yes.

 

[XSV]

Never mind, I just saw the dunks.

The first one was a nice almost oop off the Krstic miss, but he pretty much had a breakaway on the 2nd, and didn't really do much, kinda like Lebrons in the ASG.

Wright just has to do what he does:shoot. It'd be a shame if we took him with our pick and he din't end up even being in the rotation, so he better start showing some positives.

 

[giftedvisionz]

I liked what I saw in this game for the most part. I think offensively we've got it covered. Lammond Murray proved to us that he can still play, Padgett showed us that he can do more things on the court than just shoot, and Marc Jackson showed us that he can be a force under the basket. Krstic really impressed me in the first quarter, busting out an arsenal of offensive moves. It was also great to see the unselfishness between Kidd, Carter, and Jefferson on the court.

What i'm worried about is rebounding. They didn't have their two starting bigmen, and we still had a fairly hard time to rebound, and Pollard, Artest, and Croshere had a lot of tip-ins. Defense is suspect with this team, as a lot of players we're getting confused on defense and leaving players wide open. Hopefully we can improve on that in the following games.

I really don't see Wright breaking into the regular lineup unless he proves he's already in NBA form. He made some errant passes, and he had trouble on the offensive end because of the Pacer's defense. I'm sure he'll get playing time though, because of the new inactive list clause in the CBA agreement.

 

[Henacy]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting giftedvisionz:</div><div class="quote_post">

What i'm worried about is rebounding. They didn't have their two starting bigmen, and we still had a fairly hard time to rebound, and Pollard, Artest, and Croshere had a lot of tip-ins. Defense is suspect with this team, as a lot of players we're getting confused on defense and leaving players wide open. Hopefully we can improve on that in the following games.</div>

Very good points on the rebounding....I think that 2nd unit especially is going to struggle...Jackson can take up space and position himself for boards...but that 2nd unit PF spot is going to struggle on the boards whether its Scott Padgett or Cliff Robinson in there. And yeah we gave up alot of penetration but defense is really going to be a focal point for the rest of the training camp, so as guys get more familiar with Coach Franks defensive schemes, I think there will be alot less confusion on that end of the court...