Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Atlantic Division: First Team To 40 Wins, Wins

With Marcus Williams joining Josh Boone and Eddie House on the shelf, the Nets look to open the season with three excellent starters, two average starters and no good bench players. They may be giving up their margin of error in the Atlantic without Kidd, Carter, or Jefferson missing a game.

Antoine Wright (whom I was high on prior to his disappointing rookie season) figures to spell both Carter and Jefferson. Soon-to-be 40-year-old (and three years removed from his last good season--four if you're not feeling generous) Cliff Robinson and Mikki Moore should take the leftover minutes in the post. Ersatz feel-good subject Jay Williams will attempt to follow up on his predictably disappointing rookie season of four years ago as Kidd's backup. He could even see some minutes alongside Kidd at the 2 if Wright fails to show improvement once the games start to count.

It is not unreasonable to wonder if Bostjan Nachbar, Hassan Adams, Mile Ilic, and/or Matt Walsh could make this team's rotation. It wouldn't be a bad idea for Lawrence Frank to keep his resume updated should he ultimately take the fall for Rod Thorn's poor roster construction.

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