Nets vs. Pistons Recap

Nets
In the historically bad 12-win season last year, Devin Harris looked like a shell of his former self. He was banged up all year long and it looked like he might have permanently lost a step on account of his injuries. He looked much better tonight though. He seemed to have all of his quickness back and was getting in the lane at will. In the first half he was a little too passive but he came out more determined to score in the second half and it really made a difference. There is no reason to think he can’t be a top ten PG this year.

Despite his 25/9 game, Brook Lopez was not very good. He was bullied by Ben Wallace all game and was pretty harmful to his team outside of one really nice stretch in the third quarter. The broadcaster mentioned that he caught mononucleosis in the summer and lost 15 pounds. He was already a finesse (soft) big coming into the season and that type of weight loss certainly won't help.

Terrence Williams made a ton of mistakes, but he also is a really dynamic player who can make it just as hard on the defense as he makes it easy. If he can knockout even just 1-2 turnovers per game, it will help immensely. It was interesting that he pretty much ran the point even with Jordan Farmar out there. If T-Will can pass more selectively he's a pretty effective creator. These are all huge ifs though. Farmar had a pretty good game. This will sound cheesy, but I feel like there is value in playing championship minutes like Farmar has the last two years. It just brings a different type of culture into the team and it kind of radiated from Farmar as he played with a lot of confidence. He hit a really big three in the middle of the Nets 9-0 comeback run at the end. Anthony Morrow hit the game winner and was solid throughout while Travis Outlaw was terrible on both ends.

I was pleasantly surprised with Derrick Favors. He looked very raw in the preseason and I thought it would be a while before he could be effective. He made me look wrong last night though. He crushed on the offensive glass and really played well in his limited minutes. It seemed like the annoying case of coaches just hating rookies and keeping them on the bench just because they are rookies. It was crystal clear that Favors is much better than Joe Smith and Kris Humphries and it was foolish to not let him play more.

Pistons
They still don’t realize what they have in Ben Gordon. They used him better in the second half, but far too many possessions came and went without the ball touching Gordon’s hands. He looked healthy and should definitely bounce back after a down year last season. If they don’t use him better, they really aren’t going to win many games. They had a chance to tie the game with a three at the end and Charlie Villanueva took the shot instead of Gordon. The team seems poorly coached and too reliant on mediocre players like Rodney Stuckey to create offense. Ben Wallace really looked like he hasn’t lost much of his value. He played a fantastic game defensively.

Austin Daye looked stronger than last year (not saying much) but he was still in over his head as a starting PF. This team will miss Jerebko a decent amount. I don't know why Greg Monroe didn't play, but if he wasn't hurt then we have another case of irrational rookie hate from John Kuester. This team is going nowhere this year and they need to get Monroe some time to help his development.