J.T. Labriola

You Don't Know Jack

J.T. Labriola - You Don't Know Jack

Brooklyn Nets Pre-season Predictions!

Alright, the first game in Brooklyn Nets history will be played tonight at the brand new $1-Billion Barclays center, against The Toronto Raptors. To say that I am excited is actually right on. I’m not overly ecstatic to the point that I can’t control it, because honestly, there are some things that I will miss about the New Jersey Nets, and I made an entire post about it that can be seen here: RIP New Jersey Nets, but I’m very excited to see this new team in action.

I’m going to show my projections for the starting five this season (the 2012-13 season). During the All-Star break I am going to reevaluate the stats of these players and how the team is doing so far, along with what bench players have really played a key role in the rotation.

(Pts = Points, Rebs = Rebounds, Asts= Assists — All are “per game”).

PG: Deron Williams 

Pts: 19.5 

Rebs: 3.0

Ast: 11.3

Deron Williams is an amazing point guard, and he unfortuantely hasn’t been playing with a very good Nets team since he has gotten here. Sure, he was injured on and off, but the biggest blow to a great season for him as a Net so far was last season losing his number one scorer and target for assists and lobs, Brook Lopez. Now in a season with Brook Lopez in full health, and great additions in Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace for a full season, Marshon Brooks off the bench, and a great back up in CJ Watson, i’m looking for D-Will to score a little under 20pts a game, but a nice jump in his assist ratio to definitely in the double-digits. Should finally be able to lead this team to a great winning season and make the playoffs.

SG: Joe Johnson

Pts: 22.5

Rebs: 5.0

Ast: 2.0

Joe Johnson looks to be the potential number one scoring option through this offense, along with Brook Lopez down low, and it’s just the kind of player that the Nets have needed ever since Vince Carter has left. A pure scoring option that can do a little bit of everything; drive to the basket, mid-range jumpers, and a 3-pt threat. Drawing some attention away from Deron Williams will be huge, as D-Will can now score at will, while the defense has to worry about Lopez down low, and Johnson practically everywhere on the court. I look that his scoring average will be in the 20ppg range, and look to be a huge asset to this new Brooklyn team, even if his contract is ridiculously overpaid.

SF: Gerald Wallace

Pts: 15.0

Rebs: 5.0

Ast: 5.0

I really like Gerald Wallace, and the way that he plays the game. Sure, his nickname “Crash” may not totally suit him anymore since he has gotten older, but he is definitely a great player that can do a little bit of everything. While some of the other starting teammates alongside Wallace may be getting the bulk of the attention from the defense, Wallace will be deceptive in getting some great open shots. On the defensive end himself, Wallace is a pro, and a great player to stop the opposing team’s flow. He’ll be able to score double-digit points, as well as grab a couple boards, and help Deron Williams dish out the rock, as Wallace is a pretty adept passer as well. A real good five-tool player.

PF: Kris Humphries

Pts: 10.0

Rebs: 8.5

Ast: 1.0

Kris Humphries has been a great asset to this Nets team and has definitely earned his starting spot. He plays a gritty game, doing the dirty work that nobody has seemed to be able to do. I’m not sure if he’ll continue to average a double-double (because I have a slight hope that Lopez starts to rebound again), but he’ll be darn close to one. He’s a great player who puts in the effort and tries his hardest, just loving to play the game. Looking for another solid season from him, and he’s going to need  it because supposedly this Mirza Teletovic is a real great scoring option as a SF/PF and could be gunning for Hump’s job if he slips up and Teletovic performs like he supposedly should.

C: Brook Lopez

Pts: 18.5

Rebs: 6.0

Ast: 1.5

Now that Lopez has made it through the preseason healthy, I’m looking for him to keep his scoring trend up there. Averaging close to 20 ppg and being a huge threat down low, along with Humphries. I’m hoping that if him playing in the preseason is any indication, that Lopez will be rebounding a little more than his declining numbers have been going for the past few seasons. It’ll be great to be close to a double-double and having a low post threat finally, something that the Nets haven’t really had besides Humphries.

 

Overall, I’m hoping for a team record of about 52-30. Some projections have the Nets winning more than that, but 20+ games over .500 seems like a pretty good season to me, considering I’m not sure how well the Nets will mesh right off the back with the team chemistry.

Definitely going to be an exciting season, especially for the Eastern Conference, and the Atlantic Division itself. Can’t wait for it to get underway!

Let’s go NETS! 

RIP New Jersey Nets

Now that the Nets have officially moved to Brooklyn and the season finally starts today (November 3rd) against the Raptors at the new Barclays Center, there are still things that I am going to miss from the good ol’ New Jersey Nets.

 

1. The back-to-back NBA Finals teams

Nothing was better than seeing the good ol’ Big Three of Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson taking charge of the games in 2002 and 2003. Unfortunately the Nets were never able to capitalize on those opportunities, but perhaps now with D-Will and Brook Lopez leading the charge, we can expect some more playoff appearances and contention going forward.

 

2. Being the “New Jersey” Nets

As great as it is that the Nets have moved to a new, bigger market, and new fans will be created, I still liked being part of that New Jersey Nets fan percentage. Even through the rough times (when the Nets almost had the worst winning percentage in NBA history) I still stuck it out with those true Nets fans. Now, being that they are from “Brooklyn,” it may bring a lot of fake fans out of the woodwork who just want to say that they like the team because of their new location. Hopefully they will remain loyal to the franchise going forward and aren’t just trying to be “cool” and I will find some more die-hard fans out there like me!

 

3. Players that will get lost in New Jersey Nets history

I remember back from 2004-2008 Nenad Krstic looked like the future of the Nets Center position for years to come. He was immediately my new favorite player and I even got a Nets t-shirt with his name on it. In his peak performance with the Nets in 07-08 season, he averaged 16.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.0 blocks a game. Unfortunately, he suffered a devastating knee injury that year, and he has never been the same since, travelling between the Thunder and the Celtics, and now ultimately playing in Russia.

 

That’s just a brief look at why I’ll miss the New Jersey Nets, but I am looking very forward to this exciting new era in Brooklyn! Let’s go Nets!!

 

Yankees eliminated 4-0 in ALCS against Detroit

And, well, here we are again. Another disappointing ending to what seemed like a promising  New York Yankees post-season. We pulled out of a tough series against an Orioles team, that at times I believe just really seemed to have wanted it more than us Yankees. Luckily with late inning heroics by the unlikely savior Raul Ibanez (multiple times I may add), we were able to pull ourselves out of there.

Our pitching had been superb, especially for this Yankees team who prides themselves on their explosive offensive power, one would think that the pitchers giving up such few runs in every game would leave us with easy wins every game. Unfortunately…I was wrong.

The typical A-Rod playoff story emerged as he continued to choke in the post-season as he seems to like to do (aside from 2009 when he played ridiculously good). However, as much as I may not love him as a Yankee, lay off the guy, would ya? Granderson, Cano, and Swisher all played just as terrible, or even worse in some cases, yet because Rodriguez is the guy that everybody loves to hate, they all jumped on that bandwagon as fast as they could.

Well, guess what everybody. You win as a team, or you lose as a team. A damn did we lose as a team. Jeter and Ichiro seemed to be the only ones constantly getting on base, and they can’t do it all themselves! Of course, when Jeter goes down with that devastating injury, we realize just have mortal the seemingly immortal Jeter of the post-season is, and honestly, I didn’t like what I saw when he went down. Nobody, I mean NOBODY stepped up to take that role. Nobody stepped up to try and lead this team back from being down a few games, getting ready to face impending elimination.
I was extremely disappointed in Robinson Cano especially, as it seems natural that he will be the one to take over the Captain’s title, or role as the face of the Yankees once Jeter unfortunately has to retire. However, as I’ve come to know in recent years, I don’t know that Cano can handle that responsibility. He’s a great player, don’t get me wrong. He can hit, he can play the field, the can hit for power. He’s a great all-around player…talent-wise. But where’s that fire? Where’s that spark that says “I’m a Yankee.” I just don’t see it. Whether it’s the lackadaisical fielding, where it seems that he jogs over to the ball as the man is barreling down the first base line, then (lucky for him he has amazing arm strength and accuracy) whips it to Tex to make the out just in time. Or maybe it’s the ground ball in the infield that you obviously know is going to be an out, so he just jogs down the first base line. People like Jeter sprint their ass off down the line, regardless as to where the ball was hit. But hey, that’s just me.

We all know how it all ended, and we got swept at home, and then lost two on the road to get eliminated four games to none. But now what? What do we look to do this off-season? I’ve heard rumors of trading A-Rod to Miami. Does that solve anything? Or are we just looking for an excuse to get rid of him? What did he do any differently than Grandy or Swish besides the fact that the front office was a bunch of idiots and are paying him a ridiculous amount?

A-Rod isn’t the problem per say. In all honesty, the Yankees have become too engrossed in the idea that they can never be in a “rebuilding” stage. God forbid they have a season or two in a row that they don’t make the playoffs. Honestly, I wouldn’t care. Let’s build on some young talent. Stop buying expensive players in their prime, or past their primes. Look at Cano; homegrown guy. Jeter, Pettite, Rivera, Posada. All homegrown players. Look at what we have right now from home grown as starters. Aside from Cano and Jeter? Brett Gardner. And I love Brett Gardner. I love how he plays, his speed, hitting for singles, stealing bases. That’s the gritty kind of player I want on my team in the future. Why go out and buy all these Grandersons, Swishers, A-rods? Why can’t we have a year or two where we aren’t the “best team in baseball” and grow for the future so we can have another run like we did with the “Core Four?”

I looked and we have two amazing outfield prospects who are 21 and 19 years old that are going to move up from Single-A to Double-AA in the minors this year. Give them two years and our Outfield will be all homegrown all-star caliber fielders. As far as the infield goes. Tex, Cano, and who else once Jeter’s gone and/or A-rod is gone? Maybe not even Tex, I don’t know. Cano is the only constant. But hey, I honestly love what Eduardo Nunez brings to the table as the next Yankee Shortstop. A lot of people don’t think so but he’s got a pretty good arm. Sure he may need to work on his fielding a bit, but hey, don’t count him out. He can hit for average (and power with that unlikely homer he got in the 9th in the ALCS), and he’s got some speed so that he can steal some bases. I know we have some great Catching prospects like Sanchez in the minors, and we have some great young pitching prospects in the “Killer B’s” in the minors as well as pitchers like Hughes, Nova, Chamberlain, Robertson, Phelps, etc.

The Yankees have the pieces for the future, but if they continue going out and buying players, these guys won’t see the light of day, or they’ll get traded like Austin Jackson, and hey, look at that, he’s going to the World Series with the Tigers.

My message is this. Be patient for once, New York. I know we want to be the best and win all the time, but it can’t always be like that. Let’s take the time now to start growing some young talent with the likes of Jeter and A-Rod and others that are going to be done soon, and be able to replace them with some young talent that can help us. Let them learn under the veterans we have now and play for the future. I’m all in. I’ve got your back.

Until then…let’s see what silly moves they make this off-season, and hope for the best in 2013.

 

Lopez Out for Last Nine Games

Lopez on the bench watching his team play

Well, looks like the New Jersey Nets aren’t getting any more help down low for the rest of the season.

Starting Center Brook Lopez who has missed all but five games the entire season will be “shut down” for the last nine games of the season. There’s no reason to bring him back now, where he’s been so injury prone this season. There’s nothing to gain by putting him back in the lineup, as the Nets are too many games behind the 8th spot in the conference for the playoffs.

If Lopez was healthy the entire season, it would have been an entirely different season altogether, that can be assured.

It will be interesting to see if Deron Williams deicdes to stay or leave the Nets organization at the end of this season, as the team has shown some life the past couple of games, even going on a 3-game win streak, the first of the season. They are showing that even with a rag-tag group of guys, they can still find some ways to win. Hopefully Williams may decide to stay, and if he does, perhaps Gerald Wallace will choose to follow.

A starting five of Deron Williams, Marshon Brooks, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, and Brook Lopez? That’s a pretty solid lineup, that I definitely think could make the playoffs when the Nets move to Brooklyn next year.

Lil’ rant on ‘Melo

My mini-rant I made to my friend Dan about the apparent option of trading Melo:

“I honestly think the Knicks would be better without him. He plays the isolation game, and the way that the Knicks offense is set up, is not able to handle it, because it’s more of a fast-paced flow. If there was a different coach with ‘Melo, they could make it work, but you don’t get all these other pieces for D’Antoni’s system, then get rid of him and start over again. If they can get some good role players to fill the SF position, just like a Wilson Chandler, I think that’d be perfect. They ended up getting ‘Melo for the wrong reasons. They failed in the Lebron sweepstakes, and this was there piece to make up for it. Melo is an amazingly talented player, but just doesn’t work in the flow with the Knicks system. I’ll say it a million times, the Knicks had a much better record before they got ‘Melo, and even when ‘Melo’s been injured this year. He’s a great player, but he’s just not working out, unfortunately. If they could go back in time, they should have kept Galinari, Chandler, Felton, Mozgov, etc.”

Hopefully if they do trade him before the deadline, or after the season, they can get some good pieces for him. The Knicks need some better role players off the bench. Considering they don’t use half their players (Bibby, Balkman, Douglas), having an extra SF or true C or PF or something to help out in any way, shape or form can always be utilized.

Nets Mid-Season Review

Well, it’s the “midway” point of the season. We had a couple New Jersey Nets represented at All-Star weekend in Orlando. D-Will in the skills challenge, Marshon Brooks in the Rising Stars game, and Anthony Morrow in the 3-Point Shoot-out.

Going off of my first post about the Nets before the season at my “Predictions” of how they would perform, I figured just before they start the second half of the season would be a good time to evaluate them so far.

Here’s my predictions post from earlier in the year.

I’m going to show my original predictions on the left in black, and on the right next to them, their stats from this point in the season on the right. The numbers on the right will be green if they are doing better in that category than expected, or red is worse. (Pts = Points, Rebs = Rebounds, Asts= Assists — All are “per game”).

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Happy February 14th, everybody!

Now, if you love Valentine’s day (aka February 14th), I do not suggest reading any further, for this may very well be a rant of “anti-valentine’s day” thoughts. You can choose to agree, or disagree, read or not read. These are just my thoughts, not some law laid down by majority. Just a man and his thoughts.

As some people may already know, I’ve never really been a huge supporter of the Valentine’s day festivities. When you come right down to it, what really is Valentine’s day now? At one point in time I am sure that there was such a great purpose for this day. Going back to good ol’ St. Valentine, and that whole story, there was true love involved in the actions of February 14th.

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Day 16: Photo of your Star Wars related things (books, action figures, posters, shirts, etc.)

Unfortunately I do not have too many Star Wars related memorabilia.

However, I did used to have a heck of a lot of Star Wars Legos that I loved to build and play with when I was younger. They were my favorite Lego sets to get!

Sadly to say, I kind of got too rough with them, and they would break and I wouldn’t bother putting them back together before I through them into the giant box of randomly assorted Legos.

I was never able to find all the pieces to put them back together, and I sometimes wish I had been more careful, because I would love to put them on display, almost like a bunch of models.

I do hope however, when I have a bunch of extra money lying around to buy a bunch of the Star Wars Lego sets–especially the mega-huge ones with millions of pieces to put on display somewhere.

Day 15: A scene that makes you sad/angry

Just like day fourteen’s “happy scene” there’s not really a specific scene that really angers me, but I guess there are scenes that are somewhat frustrating at the time that you are watching them.

Of course, after seeing all six movies, it perhaps puts it all into perspective for you, but a scene that stands out to be a bit that disappointed(?) me I suppose would be from Episode I: The Phantom Menace.

Now, we didn’t get to see too much of this character, or really know his back-story, but I really did grow fond of him over the course of one movie, and that would be Qui-Gon Jinn played by the always great, Liam Neeson.

Now the part that frustrated me when I was little and watching this movie was the battle at the end between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul and his epic double-bladed Lightsaber.

When Obi-Wan was stuck behind those red force-field things, while he watched his master take on Darth Maul’s extraordinary skill with the Lightsaber on his own, he could not advance close enough. Every time the forcefields would open and close they would get farther away and all Obi-Wan could do was watch. We could only watch too, hoping that Qui-Gon would hold off enough in time for his Padawan to come to his aide, but unfortunately he was slain. Luckily, Obi-Wan showed off some of his bad-ass skill and took down Darth Maul to end the scene.

Still, very frustrating at a young age to be screaming at the TV “C’mon Obi-Wan SAVE HIMMMMM!!!!”

Good times, good times.

Day 14: A scene that makes you happy

A scene that makes me happy? What kind of question thing is that?

I’m not quite sure what scene in particular makes me “happy”, but there are scenes (like the one I posted for favorite scene) that I particularly enjoy, or think are cool.

A scene that makes me happy, although it may be somewhat poignant are the scenes where Yoda is battling with his Lightsaber (seen in this video –> Yoda Fight Scenes)

We all knew that Yoda was wise, and the most powerful leader of the Jedi, but in Episodes IV-VI he’s old, and dying. We get to see him, even at his extremely old age kick some ass to the best of his ability. Loved getting to see Yoda duke it out with Dooku!