2010-2011 Finish: 36-46

What went bad

Time has stood still for New Jersey fans. Attracting some of the worst GMs the NLL has even seen, the Nets are usually without a skipper and the team has shared the same nucleus year in and year out: Emeka Okafor, Amare Stoudemire, Grant Hill, Dwyane Wade and Jason Kidd backed up by a bunch of role players.

Things have certainly changed. At the beginning of the season, Stoudemire demanded a trade, beginning the dismantling of the New Jersey Nets as we know them. He was shipped off the New Orleans in exchange for Andre Iguodala, Taj Gibson and Dahntay Jones. This move created an aberration in the Nets roster and suddenly things looked bad.


What went worse

After making the Semi-Finals the year before, the Nets stumbled badly without their star power forward. They finished the season down and out, looking for something good to come along.

Stars

- Dwyane Wade, G-

Wade stay healthy enough last season to play in 78 games and averaged 23.2 ppg and 4.1 rpg. With Amare gone, Wade needed to learn to play next to Iguodala, something that was somewhat awkward at first. The scoring burden will be on Wade's shoulders this season but he is easily one of the top five shooting guards in the game.


Looking to the future

Things started getting interesting in the offseason for the Nets. Tired of his Utah Jazz, GM Proid decided to take over the reins after an 11th meeting with Wade and some of the Nets staff. After destroying and then revitalizing the Jazz franchise will Craig do the same thing with these Nets?

It appears so. In his first trade, one that shocked fans and the NLL world, Proid sent Iguodala, Jones and Craig Brackins to the Blazers for Mehmet Okur, Josh Childress and Kyle Korver. The move angered fans and even Craig later admitted he could have gotten better than Iggy. He then sent off young forward to the Sixers for the disgruntled three-point specialist Rudy Fernandez.

In the draft, the Nets pulled in forward Jimmy Butler. He will likely get minimal minutes but his hard play will earn him a spot in the rotation. The Nets also grabbed two other players who will likely stay overseas in Bojan Bogdanovic and Ater Majok.

Things are just going to get more interesting in NJ. It is rumored that everyone on the current roster will be gone except Okafor, Wade and Maurice Evans. Who knows what Proid is going to do with this team. Rumor has it he will be getting a star point guard and a tough-minded forward. Will Proid ignore his bench and put too many eggs in one basket? Will he resurrect this Nets franchise? Only time will tell.