Pump Up Music: Cake -- "Stickshifts and Safety Belts"
The Big Picture: The New Jersey Nets are the most boring bad team in the NBA today, which might sound crazy if you'd only watched their games against the Charlotte Bobcats. The Cats are 1-2 against the Nyets (maybe not!) this season, and had to come up with a huge comeback to win that one game, 79-68, in which Gerald Wallace pulled down 20 boards. Their collection of talent isn't so bad that we should pity them, but they're not good enough to warrant more than a passing interest if our team's not involved.
But to be fair, the Nets have a lot going for them right now, even if they don't have any must-watch players. Brook Lopez is very good, Devin Harris is good enough to play point for a title contender and good enough to land some pretty big fish should they use him as trade bait after drafting John Wall, Yi Jianlian is finally scratching the surface of his tremendous upside potential, and they've still got Rod Thorn calling the shots. When they move to Brooklyn, they'll sell more jerseys than the rest of the NBA combined, and even if that doesn't benefit them directly (it doesn't, because the league and players split jersey revenue evenly, if I recall correctly), it'll go a long way to capturing hearts in the Tri-State area.
Key to Victory: I really don't know. They should be competitive or clearly better in every area of the game, so I don't know how the Nets have had such success against the Cats. Specific ideas, anyone?
Detail That May Interest .08% of You: Josh Boone was a 1st round draft pick despite averaging only a 10/7 in his final year of college ball.