After failing to land Dwight Howard in a pretty dubious deal to begin with, the Nets have to get set for a reality check: Deron Williams is going to leave town.
The All Star point guard who has lit it up this season with games of 57 points and 38 points in recent weeks is set to leave his misery behind in New Jersey and head for greener pastures.
"I'm not going to opt-in. It's not monkey-see, monkey-do," Williams told the New York Daily News Friday morning. "Wherever I go is, hopefully, where I'm going to retire."
Williams has been miserable in New Jersey since the Nets acquired him last year. He is the only legitimate NBA player on the team, and with all of the boasting from the front office of Jay-Z, Mikhal Prokorov and GM Billy King that the Nets would be serious players for top free agent talent, they have come up snake eyes time after time. What Williams has realized is something this front office fails to realize: It doesn't matter whether the Nets play in Brooklyn or New Jersey, they are still the Nets, a loser basketball program with fringe NBA talent.
The fact that the Nets even pursued Howard with any real conviction that they could convince both star players to stay in New Jersey was laughable, especially with the Nets 14 games under .500 and 4 1/2 games out of the playoffs. Howard is on a playoff team, and for him to leave it for this disaster on the Hudson River makes zero sense. The Nets instead settled for Gerald Wallace of the Portland Trail Blazers, and, again, tried to sell the idea that they are playoff team. Yuck, Yuck!
The Dallas Mavericks have been rumored in pursuit of Williams heavily, so expect him to either go there, or elsewhere to a team that has a legit shot of competing for a title.
The All Star point guard who has lit it up this season with games of 57 points and 38 points in recent weeks is set to leave his misery behind in New Jersey and head for greener pastures.
"I'm not going to opt-in. It's not monkey-see, monkey-do," Williams told the New York Daily News Friday morning. "Wherever I go is, hopefully, where I'm going to retire."
Williams has been miserable in New Jersey since the Nets acquired him last year. He is the only legitimate NBA player on the team, and with all of the boasting from the front office of Jay-Z, Mikhal Prokorov and GM Billy King that the Nets would be serious players for top free agent talent, they have come up snake eyes time after time. What Williams has realized is something this front office fails to realize: It doesn't matter whether the Nets play in Brooklyn or New Jersey, they are still the Nets, a loser basketball program with fringe NBA talent.
The fact that the Nets even pursued Howard with any real conviction that they could convince both star players to stay in New Jersey was laughable, especially with the Nets 14 games under .500 and 4 1/2 games out of the playoffs. Howard is on a playoff team, and for him to leave it for this disaster on the Hudson River makes zero sense. The Nets instead settled for Gerald Wallace of the Portland Trail Blazers, and, again, tried to sell the idea that they are playoff team. Yuck, Yuck!
The Dallas Mavericks have been rumored in pursuit of Williams heavily, so expect him to either go there, or elsewhere to a team that has a legit shot of competing for a title.
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