We will be breaking down the schedule, just like we did last year, starting tomorrow but here is a link to the Nets' 2010-2011 Schedule.  Some quick points:

• For the second year in a row, no nationally televised games.  Wasn't really expecting any, and to me it isn't a problem, because the Nets have some of the best announce crews around.
• First game is against Detroit, so hey, maybe we won't lose 18 in a row this year.
• We get our first look at Miami early, October 31st (3rd game of the season).  Not say the Nets will win, but I'd rather play them early before they get a real good feel for each other.
• We are playing two games in London.  No real opinion on those really...sure the Nets lose out on a home game, but is it going to really matter in the grand scheme of things?

Sebastian Pruiti

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We’ve already all heard the Nets organization declare “It’s All New” this year, and so far, despite striking out on the “big” free agents, that slogan has been true to form: a new owner, head coach, GM, arena (albeit temporary), and new scouts and assistant coaches. But what may be the most exciting “new” thing about this upcoming season – especially for those who thrive for communication in 140 characters or less – is the beefed up Twitter presence the Nets will bring to the social networking stratosphere.

With the additions of Travis Outlaw, Anthony Morrow, Johan Petro and Sean May (if his non guaranteed contract makes the cut), the Nets have more than doubled their presence on Twitter in the off-season. While this isn’t going to result in more wins or losses in the standings, this added presence does give fans more access to players, as well as more insights into their personalities – so at the bare minimum it should hopefully make this season a little more fun than last year.

While NJNETS.com superstar Ben Couch was fantastic working the Twitter account for the organization last year, the amount of social networking taken on by the players was about as disappointing as the team’s play on the court. In Devin Harris and later Kris Humphries, the Nets had two guys, who like Oprah Winfrey, seem to have a Twitter account in name only, infrequently updating and providing very little entertainment or flair when they occasionally did take to their accounts. The other two Nets on Twitter brought controversy on themselves at different points in the season with their tweets: Terrence Williams when he famously “wondered” how life would be if he was drafted by another team, and Chris Douglas-Roberts, whose tweets often focused on haters, women who stalked him, and the number of people who bought his jersey that day. This season, TWill is back and seemingly more mature with his tweets now, while the last tweet I (thankfully) read from CDR dealt with fearing the deer and how happy he was to be out of New Jersey. Good luck in Milwaukee Chris, yes yes.

I still think Brook Lopez and his quirky personality and pop culture sensibilities would be a perfect match for Twitter, but alas, Brook still seems to be focused more on other activities. Could you imagine Brook sitting at home with mono updating his Twitter page 30 times a day? It’s one of the bigger disappointments I have in my sports fandom life (outside of the Mets, every single year), but with this new cast of characters, maybe Petro or Morrow will just sign Brook up one of these days and get him online. Meanwhile, let’s take a closer look at the tweeting habits of the team’s newcomers:

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Mark Ginocchio

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Sebastian Pruiti did some good work over at his other site, NBA Playbook. He recently used some video to analyze whether or not Devin Harris can have a bounce back season this year.

I feel like the things that caused Devin Harris to have such a poor season are correctable (save the injuries), and he is shaping up to have a bounce back year because the Nets will be running more, and he is now surrounded by some pretty good shooters.

I think Devin's performance is really key for the Nets this year (duh). It's not coincidental that the team only collected 12 wins while he spent most of last year either injured or underperforming.

Mark Ginocchio

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This was probably the best question from the mailbag, and the one that got me thinking the most.  Would you rather see the Nets make the playoffs as the 8th seed (promptly getting swept by the Heat after) or would you rather them have another off year and enter the lottery.  Vote here, and explain your vote in the comments.  As you may remember, my opinion is that I would love to see the Nets play in the playoffs in an arena they can actually fill up.

This isn't to predict whether or not they will make the playoffs, just if you want them to or not.

Sebastian Pruiti

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Alright, really impressed with the amount of questions we got, and we weren't able to get to them all this week.  If we didn't get to your question this week, we will get to it next week.  Onto the questions:

Andrew Cho:

I just wanted to know what your prediction on our record is. And will Prokhy keep his word? (ship in 5)

Without knowing the schedule, I think the Nets could possibly win 30-35 games this upcoming season (Keep in mind this was my prediction last year).  The Nets improved at every spot, and I still think they weren't as bad as their 12 wins indicated last year.  As for Prokhy keeping his word, that got a lot tougher with the Heat throwing three top players together and building a nice roster (Mike Miller especially) around them.  I definitely see the Nets going deep in the playoffs by year five, but I don't know about the championship.

John Katehis:

Do you think it will be better if the Nets make the playoffs (8th seed) and get knocked out in the first round but Brook Lopez and Derrick Favors get playoff experience, or not make the playoffs and maybe get a top 5 even top 10 pick in the 2011 draft.

To me, this is a pretty simple question, and the answer is I'd rather see the Nets in the playoffs.  The atmosphere of playoff basketball is just so amazing, and to see playoff basketball played in an arena where people can get to, will be amazing.  I understand that the Nets have a chance to get a real impact player if they don't make the playoffs and are entered into the lottery, but the Nets don't really need that much more young help.  Plus, there is so much talent in college and overseas now, you can get a really good player a couple picks out of the lottery.

Keenan Milbourne

We need a SG who can actualy shoot.  Are we still looking for someone??

In Anthony Morrow, the Nets got one of the best shooters in the league, and the best shooter on the market.  The Nets now have a knockdown shooter on their roster.

Scrapin 240

In every trade scenario, I see that Devin Harris is the player that is chosen as the main chip from the Nets, as he should be.  But, if he goes, who plays the PG position? TWill?  And if both of them are traded?

If Devin gets traded, Jordan Farmar will most likely slide into the starting position with T-Will backing him up.  If the Nets trade both Devin and T-Will, the Nets are in a pretty tough spot.  They are going to still use Farmar as the starter, but they are probably going to have to pick up someone from the D-League to take the back-up minutes (If the Nets don't get a PG in return in the deal).

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Sebastian Pruiti

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As has been reported by multiple news outlets, Avery Johnson has been in Russia visiting with new owner Mikhail Prokhorov. NJNets.com, has some selected quotations and video from the experience.

While the "Blueprint for Greatness" billboard featured Prokhorov and Jay-Z, it's become clearer and clearer that the Nets are the Avery and Prokhorov show right now. Not bad for someone, who wasn't even seemingly Prokhorov's first choice for head coach.

Mark Ginocchio

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Sup guys, we got a pretty good response for our first weekly mailbag, but we are hoping to get a few more.  Sunday is going to be the last day to get your questions in with the mailbag getting posted on Monday.  So if you have any questions about the Nets, type them up and send them over to mailbag@netsarescorching.com.

Sebastian Pruiti

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Obviously, this is a New Jersey Nets blog, however, the NAS crew absolutely love the NBA in general. So, every week, Sebastian, Mark, Devin, and myself will answer questions regarding the L.

1) The rumor goes that Carmelo Anthony won't sign the $65 million extension offer from the Denver Nuggets and become an unrestricted free agent next year. Of the rumored teams and teams that will have cap space, which is the best fit for Melo?

Sebastian: I am going to be biased here and say the Nets. The Nuggets just aren't going to give Carmelo away for expiring contracts like Eddy Curry (despite what Knicks fans will try to tell you). The Nets have the most tradeable young talent, and I can see the Nets sending over Devin Harris, Terrence Williams, and picks for Carmelo. This gives the Nets a real solid front court in Brook Lopez, Derrick Favors, and Carmelo Anthony. Not too shabby.

Mark: I'm going to let the NYC media influence me and say either the Knicks or the Nets. Unless Pat Riley found a way to create more cap room for talent in South Beach, both NY-area teams will have the cash on hand to make a big push for 'Melo and as Brooklyn native, I can see him being sold on either franchise. That's why I think it's important for the Nets to become a functional franchise this season because as we learned this past summer, the all-stars aren't just looking for money... they want a good shot of winning it all.

Devin: I'd love to see him on the Nets, obviously, but I doubt he comes to Newark. Personally, I think it's between New York and Denver. He's spent his entire career there and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to just skip town like that, but if he was going anywhere it would be to the Garden with Amare and potentially Chris Paul.

DV: If the Denver Nuggets go the trade route, I'd say the New Jersey Nets because they'll probably want Melo out of the conference and the Nets have some solid supply to meet the Nuggets' demand. If it's a free agency situation, the Knicks because they'll have the money after Eddy Curry comes off the books. With the Knicks, Melo would get to play in a high-scoring offense again and have a high-caliber (albeit with an injury history) big man in Amare Stoudemire and a very good point guard in Raymond Felton. Melo would fit right in.... MORE →

Dennis Velasco

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We scheduled this Carmelo to come out on Friday this past weekend, and our timing could be any better.  While most fans were hoping that Carmelo would be available to try and trade for, that possibility just got more real this past Tuesday when Alex Kennedy tweeted that sources close to the situation said Carmelo won't extend his contract with the Nuggets.  If the Nuggets are convinced that Carmelo will walk away from the team, they could trade him for young assets to try and rebuild their roster.  Out of all the teams with cap space to make a deal for Carmelo (and eat his salary), I think the Nets are the most attractive option.  Not only do they have young players to deal, they have plenty of draft picks and cash they can include (the best the Knicks can do is Eddy Curry's expiring contract!).

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Sebastian Pruiti

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Well, probably not the name at PF Nets were hoping for but the organization did acquire some frontcourt depth by signing Sean May to a 1-year-deal according to Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski.May will make the league minimum.

A former lottery pick, May's NBA career has been marred by injury and weight issues. He was actually quite good from a per minute perspective in 2006-07, averaging 11.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in about 24 minutes per game. But he missed the entire 07-08 campaign after microfracture surgery, was a disaster in 08-09, basically being way out of shape, and started to put it together a bit last year, averaging 3.3 points and 2 rebounds in 9 minutes a game.

I'd be shocked if May isn't anything more than depth for the roster, with hope that he has some kind of career renaissance similar to Mikki Moore in NJ a few years back. It's looking more and more like the organization is going for force feed the starting PF role to Derrick Favors, unless they decided to go with Kris Humphries.

Mark Ginocchio

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OK guys, I have seen the success that some blogs have had doing mailbags, and I figured that NetsAreScorching should get involved and do one too.  Every Monday, a NetsAreScorching writer is going to take your questions and answer them (I will be handling the first one, and we will try to let you know who is covering which we so you guys can ask more specific questions).

For this to be successful we need help from you guys.  I have been hesitant about doing these types of mailbags in the past because I am scared of not getting any e-mails, but with the increase in comments, I am confident that this can be successful.

So send any questions you guys may have to mailbag@netsarescorching.com.  Thanks guys!

Sebastian Pruiti

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I know what you guys are thinking, "Why would we trade for an oldish injury prone point guard when we have our own (Devin actually played eight more games than Parker last year)?"  Well, this trade would be one that the Nets make during the season if the whole "Devin Harris-Avery Johnson:  Take 2" doesn't work out.  We have heard both Devin Harris and Avery Johnson say that they have matured since their days together in Dallas, but we aren't going to know if things truly changed until the games are played.   Both Devin and Coach Johnson are fierce competitors and if they can't keep a working relationship during competition it isn't going to work.  As Nets' fans, we have seen how a split between the players and the coach can hurt the individual's (and most importantly the team's performance).  CDR and T-Will both had their problems with the coaching last year and when they deal, their play was negatively bothered by it.  With Avery basically running things (I still think Billy King is just a figurehead), if Devin and Avery butt heads, Devin is going to be the one on the move.

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Sebastian Pruiti

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