Surging Brooklyn Nets at the start of the 2014 NBA campaign

The Brooklyn Nets just won its 11th straight home game and is now 36-31. Playoff spot is almost assured. Last year, many analysts saw the Nets as a joke and blunder. What made the turnaround and change of fortune for the Nets?

When the 2013-2014 NBA season began, the Brooklyn Nets had a new and rookie coach (Jason Kidd) and several new and yet veteran players in the team line-up (Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry, Andrei Kirilenko, among others). Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez were retained to keep the core of the team. The new line-up and hiring of new coaching staff cost hundreds of millions of dollars to the Russian team owner and billionaire, Mickail Prokhorov.

Salary cap seems not in Prokhorov's mind. His mind is all set for the championship now. To give you an idea of how the team payroll looks like, the first five (Williams, Johnson, Pierce, Garnett, and Lopez) combined salaries alone has exceeded the salary cap for an NBA team which currently stands at $58.7 million. Thus, the expectations for the 2013-2014 Brooklyn Nets are very high to give the defending champion, Miami Heat, and contender Indiana Pacers a run of their money.

When the 2013-2014 regular season began, the Brooklyn Nets started pathetically. Injuries and adjustments to new teammates were the logical factors in the poor start. The rookie coach, however, got the heaviest punch of blame in the lackluster performance of the team.

After 10-21 win-loss record at the end of 2013, many basketball analysts and enthusiasts counted out Kidd as competent to be a head coach in the game immediately after retiring from playing it. The loudest call at that time was for him to resign or be fired. However, the Nets stuck with him and continued to believe in him.

Then, the new year came. Kidd forgot his necktie and did not wear it during the team's first game of 2014. The Nets won. For the next games, the Nets found its winning ways. Kidd continues not to wear a tie believing that it has a correlation with winning. Now, the Nets is 26-10 this year. It is the best win-loss record in the Eastern Conference from the start of 2014. Kidd is even priming his team to go deep into the post-season and setting his sight to the NBA finals.

If the Nets continue to surge, it may find itself against the best in the Eastern Conference and ultimately against the best in the Western Conference.

Jason Kidd and the Brooklyn Nets

Source: http://www.streetball.com

The Brooklyn Nets is making a lot of buzz these days. In preparation for the next season, the Nets hired a new coach and got involved in major trades which will definitely impact on the team's fate in the next two to three years and team owner's pocket.

After being surprised and eliminated in the first round by the Chicago Bulls, the Nets decided to overhaul its coaching staff and line-up. It hired Jason Kidd, arguably considered as the greatest franchise player who brought the Nets to its only back-to-back finals appearances in 2002 and 2003. The team hopes that by having Kidd who recently retired as a player, the Nets will soar to new heights.

As a player, there is no doubt in the leadership skills and tenacity of Kidd. Some analysts doubt whether Kidd can bring the same leadership as a coach. Many though believe that Kidd may be what the Nets needs to compete effectively in the Eastern conference where the back-to-back champion, Miami Heat, is a perennial threat.

After the hiring of Kidd, the Nets again hug the limelight by trading its notable players in exchange for the three veterans of the Boston Celtics, a rival in the Atlantic Division. All-Star players, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry, will don the Nets uniform in the next season. The trade gathers an All-Star first five in the line-up and so as the sixth man in Jason Terry who won a championship ring with Kidd in Dallas - a very formidable team, to provide the Heat a dousing effect.