NBA Preview: New Jersey Nets

Jason Kidd enjoys a bubble bath with his wife, twin daughters and Kevin Mench.

Changes:
The Nets have four rookies joining their 06/07 squad: Marcus Williams, Josh Boone, Hassan Adams and Mile Ilic, who Nenad Krstic is in talks with about borrowing one of the "i"s from his last name. That's two Connecticut alums to be paired with a third, Cliff Robinson, who could have fathered one or both of the rooks while he was at UConn. I like the Marcus Williams pick almost as much as I hate the Josh Boone selection. Williams is going to turn out to be one of the top 5 players from that draft, and while I can see the need for an inside banger on this team, could anyone ever really take this mug seriously? Good thing you got rid of those goofy cornrows and replaced them with those goofy tendrils. They also signed gun-for-hire Eddie House, who will be joining his 7th team in 7 years (The Tony Massenberg Ratio) and should provide a nice shooting-, but not necessarily scoring-, punch off the bench. We here at SU have used our state-of-the-art imaging equipment to capture Lawrence Frank's future reactions to House's fadeaway 27 footers.

Style of Play:
With Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson, it's obviously a guard-heavy, run-and-gun team. Jefferson plays sort of like a '00 version of VC, whereas VC now plays like the wiley 29-year-old veteran that he is. Tough to get on him for it though, b/c he's still putting up solid all-around numbers. Kidd will push the ball at every opportunity, and Marcus Williams will ease his load so that Kidd can spend more time finding custom-fit hats for his son. The team lacks any sort of inside presence, though Krstic has a nice outside touch and should have a breakout season for a skilled Euro bigman (meaning 15 pts, 5.5 rbs a game, and 4.3 whiny looks to officials).

Impact Player:
Even at the age of 33, it's Jason Kidd. Everyone feeds off his energy, and he still sees the court better than anyone in the league. He should be able to impart some of his knowledge on the young Marcus Williams, who will store it on his new iBook that he got at a "crazy discount, yo."

Player you would most like to be arrested with and where:
I don't know about you, but I think behind that Stanford mouth, high waistline, pudgy body and bright smile lies a derranged Jason Collins. I could see the two of us enjoying a couple white wine spritzers and doing something crazy - run a red light, jaywalk, take the tags off some mattresses - who knows? The possibilities are endless.

Prediction:
I've got to say, with that backcourt, I think the Nets are going to be pretty tough this year, as long as they all stay relatively healthy. With the emergence of Krstic, along w/the addition of Marcus Williams, I see a 49-33 record, good for fourth seed in the East.