Is it possible for a team to enter the 2008/2009 season already thinking more on the 2010 season than in this season? If that's possible, then the Nets are clearly doing that. The Nets were one of the biggest disappointments of the league last season, ending the season with a 34-48 record, when they were before the season one of the main candidates to win the Eastern conference, together with Detroit and Boston. As soon as the season started, it became clear that the team wouldn't be able to play as good as it was expected and the duo Kiki Vandeweghe and Rod Thorn made that clear in the mid season that the results weren't important anymore, when they traded Jason Kidd to Dallas, in exchange for Devin Harris and some other players.

This trade can actually be considered as positive for the Nets, as Jason Kidd was 35 years old and Devin Harris is a 25 years old guard, with a contract until 2013 and he has been improving his numbers season after season. Harris doesn't obviously has the level of Paul or Williams, but still he finished last season in New Jersey, with 15.4 ppg and 6.5 apg, which are good numbers. Harris will definitely be the future guard of the team, whatever it happens in the next offseasons.

In this offseason, Richard Jefferson got traded to Milwaukee, with the Nets getting Bobby Simmons and Yi Jianlian. This trade was another sign that the Nets are already thinking in 2010 (Lebron James) and they will let the team in the hands of Vince Carter.

Vince Carter is coming from a season with 21.3 ppg, 6.0 rpg and 5.1 apg and he will need to carry the team daily, if the Nets want to be competitive this season. This will be problematic, as we all know Carter's physical shape isn't the same from a couple of seasons ago. Besides that, the Nets will be a team this season with few offensive solutions, so their opponents will be more than ever focused in defending Carter.

On the frontcourt, the Nets have a lot of young players with potential but lacking experience. Will they be able to play well against Kevin Garnett, Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Bosh and Elton Brand? Yi Jianlian can be a good surprise this season. He is coming from a rookie season, where he averaged 8.6 ppg and 5.2 rpg. Now that he is fully adapted to the NBA, he will have conditions to show the great potential he has. There are very few players with 7'0 and such a perfect shooting technique and he will create problems to his opponents, with his great mid-range shots.

For the PF/center position, the Nets have 7 players! All of them with low salaries or expiring soon, which will allow them to manage the team very well, thinking already on the future of the franchise. Brooke Lopez is the type of player you don't see a lot of them on the drafts: 7'0 and 260 pounds. Naturally, he will have a lot to learn this season, especially in how to use his body to gain advantage over his opponents. Lopez has potential to be one of the most physical players of the league and it will be important for Lawrence Frank to help him on his development. As a backup, the Nets will have another very young player: Josh Boone, who was one of the very few players who had a good season in New Jersey last season, with 8.2 ppg and 7.3 rpg, in just 25 minutes per game. It is expected that he keeps developing this season.

Eduardo Najera is coming from Denver and he will be a player who will bring aggressiveness to the frontcourt of the team and also some experience to this unit. He has also some ability to shot from the outside and he will compete will another young player in the PF position: Sean Williams, who had some interesting moments last season and an impressive physical shape, with a lot of mobility. He is naturally a player with a lot of potential, but I don't think he is ready to be consistently good in the present, just like almost the whole roster of the Nets this season.

The Nets won't have a lot of expectations for this season and we can't really expect much from them, especially when they are in a division, who has greatly improved on the past two seasons. The quick development of their players or not will dictate how competitive will the Nets be this season, as Rod Thorn is more concerned with the future than with the present.

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