Still a gag order on specifics in the NBA Lockout negotiations, though mediator George Cohen says that the talks are “direct and constructive” as he continues to force the two sides to talk to one another. Ken Berger reports that there’s been mild progress on the BRI revenue split, which depending who you believe is either mildly important or the crux of the lockout. Meetings reconvene today.
A reminder: our first live episode of Nets are Scorching TV (#NASTV) is tonight at 7:30 PM. We’ll be talking about the top 44 Nets of All-Time list we’ve been compiling. Stop by, ask questions, and be merry.
Larry Coon, using NBARank as a guidenline, ranks Brook Lopez as one of the ten most underpaid players in the NBA, but that doesn’t stop the Nets from ranking as the worst team in average NBARank among the top 12, 4th-worst among their top 5, and the worst “bang for their buck” in the NBA.
SLAM has ranked Deron Williams #10 in their Top 50 NBA Players list. Brook Lopez is ranked 40th. Ahead of D-Will (in some order): LeBron, Wade, Howard, CP3, Derrick Rose, Carmelo, Kobe, Durant, and Dirk. It appears to me, having seen a few of these rankings, that there are distinct tiers in the NBA: The “top 3” of LeBron, Howard, and Wade (usually in that order); the “next 5” of Dirk, Durant, Kobe, Rose, and CP3 (usually not in that order);
and then the “secondary stars tier” with Deron Williams, Melo, Gasol, Amare, et al. D-Will’s usually near the top of that third tier, though it’s there where these rankings tend to diverge from one another.
Jameer Nelson is not worried about Dwight Howard’s recent comments.
In this article about contracts, a little tidbit near the end cites people in the Utah organization that felt Deron was ready to bolt to a bigger market had they not traded him.
Totally unrelated note: did you know that Brooklyn, if it were its own city, would be the third-largest city in the country?