Brooklyn Nets Highlights to Get You Pumped Up for 2014-15 Season

This time last year, Brooklyn Nets fans were living the life.

Having watched their team acquire two future Hall of Famers in Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett over the summer, supporters of the Nets told anyone with a pair of ears about how good their team would be.

The all-in gamble was going to pay off—keep in mind that last year’s Nets roster was the most expensive in league history. Brooklyn was going to slay LeBron James’ mighty Miami Heat. That was going be the first team in franchise history to win an NBA championship.

Nets fans were on top of the world. And then…the 2013-14 season unfolded.

The atrocious start to the year. The inescapable downpour of injuries. The surprising turnaround. The upset over the division champion Toronto Raptors. And, finally, the second-round exit from the postseason at the hands of Miami.

All that preseason buzz slowly escaped the fan base like the air of a balloon with a hairline tear.

The Nets lost some key guys this offseason, but brought in some new blood, too.

Jason Kidd hit the road after coaching for just a season and was replaced by a respected, accomplished coach in Lionel Hollins. Perhaps most importantly, Deron Williams and Brook Lopez are supposed to be healthy this time around.

So, now’s your chance, Nets fans. Rev up those trash-talking motors and get in all the bragging and chest thumping and “Broooooooooklyn”-ing that you can before your team takes the court and starts actually playing.

It was a lot easier to do that type of thing last year, though, wasn’t it?

Don’t worry—the highlights on the following slides will give you plenty of ammo.

Hollins: De-Fense! De-Fense!

Oh, you didn’t hear? The Nets moved to Memphis and became the Grizzlies.

Just kidding. Kind of.

In his seven seasons at the helm of the Grizz, Hollins consistently orchestrated one of the top defenses in the NBA.

Memphis made the playoffs three straight seasons—2010-11 through 2012-13—and went as far as the conference finals in Hollins’ final season before he was inexplicably let go.

"First of all, those guys weren’t All-Defense when I took over,” Hollins said of his former players like Marc Gasol and Tony Allen, per Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. “We were a collective defensive team, and I think because we were a collective defensive team, we won and they got awards for it."

The coach went on to discuss the Nets:

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We’re going to be a collective defensive team here, and when we win, we’ll get recognized for it.

…

It’s about [having the] will to want to stop the other team, your team trying to stop the other team. They’re going to score, but we want to make it tough for them. We want to make it so every possession is so hard that when we get to the last four or five minutes of a game, shots that may have been going in now start falling short because they’re tired, or because they’re getting lazy with passes, maybe they don’t execute as well and we get steals.

It’s a process for 48 minutes.

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Last season, Brooklyn ranked 20th in defensive rating, per Basketball Reference. Expect Hollins to transform the Nets—a team with some untapped potential on the defensive end—into one the league’s stoutest units.

Joe Johnson Puts 34 on LeBron, Heat in Game 5 of Conference Semis

If Joe Johnson can pin 34 on the best player in the world, he can light anyone up.

In Game 5 of the conference semifinals a season ago, Johnson erupted for 15 field goals on 23 shots, including three of six from downtown.

In a night-long battle with James, Johnson proved to many what should have already been a widely-known fact: He’s one of the best one-on-one players in the game.

Brooklyn will count on Iso Joe to continue getting buckets in 2014-15, especially after losing Pierce to free agency.

But the 33-year-old will be up to the challenge in his 14th year in the league.

He led the Nets in scoring last season and was honored with his seventh All-Star nod. In 2014-15, it's likely that Johnson will do it again.

D-Will and Lopez Dishing and Swishing at Full Health

Two years ago, Lopez and Williams were both healthy at the same time and combined to form one of the NBA’s best guard-big man combinations.

But Lopez broke his right foot 17 games into last season and needed his third surgery in two years. Williams, though he managed to check into 64 contests in 2013-14, was hindered by relentless ankle issues and underwent surgery on both of them this summer.

As relayed by Rod Boone of Newsday in mid-September, D-Will has his sights set on a huge bounce-back year:

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Now able to pronounce himself completely healthy after surgical procedures on both ankles in May, Williams has visions of again being one of the league's best playmaking point guards, elevating his game so he no longer feels he's letting people down as the face of the Nets.

"That's the plan. That's definitely the plan," Williams said Monday at Basketball City in Manhattan, where he was hosting his annual charity dodgeball event to benefit Point of Hope through his foundation. "When you can't run, can't jump, it's hard to play basketball, especially in this league. The only thing I wish is I would've got surgery earlier, but what can you do? I'm ready to go now and excited about the season."

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"When you go through what Deron went through, he wasn't just hurt last year, he was hurt the year before," Hollins added. "For him to get healthy from the surgical perspective, and to be able to work in the summer, and get your mind right and focus on basketball and not focus on pain, that is a tremendous asset to have."

Lopez, who was averaging over 20 points a night before getting hurt, will give Brooklyn a much-needed interior presence. He’s a guy who is able to play with his back to the basket as well as step out and hit mid-range shots.

If Lopez and Williams can stay healthy—and that’s an enormous if—the Nets will almost certainly be a playoff team.

Markel Brown Taking Flight

Fans at Barclays Center were quiet last season. Save for a few big moments, the crowd consistently sounded like it was trying its hardest to not wake a sleeping baby.

Why was that? Well, the Nets were pretty black-and-white last season—pun ever-so intended.

Think about it. There wasn’t a whole lot of glamor or flash emanating off the Nets in 2013-14, even when the team was playing its best basketball.

An injured Williams wasn’t breaking a whole lot of ankles. KG played most of the year as if he was 75 years old. Mason Plumlee threw down a bunch of dunks, but if you’ve seen him dunk once you might as well have seen him do it 100 times.

Johnson’s outrageous scoring outburst were really the only thing that got fans on their feet.

Not anymore. Brooklyn, meet Markel Brown, the 44th pick of the 2014 draft.

The 6’3” Brown, whose max-vert tied for the highest at the combine, was one of college basketball’s most exciting rim-rattlers last season.

In 2014-15, he’s set to take his high-flying circus act to Barclays Center and get the crowd rocking.

KG Looks to Bounce Back After Awful Year

The video above does not feature Garnett in a Nets uniform. Highlights came few and far between for The Big Ticket last season.

KG had by far the worst year of his illustrious career in 2013-14, averaging a career-low 6.5 points per game to along with 6.6 boards, the fewest since his rookie season.

But let’s not forget who we’re talking about here. Watch the video if you need a reminder of how good this guy has been for so long.

Hollins has already named Garnett as his starting power forward this season, which is a huge testament of the coach’s faith in the veteran given Plumlee’s ascendance into one the league’s best young big men.

Garnett sat out in the tail end of most of Brooklyn’s back-to-back games last season, but Hollins has indicated that KG will see an increase in minutes this year. Per Boone, the 38-year-old is ready for the challenge:

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It's all good. We are not predicated to anything. I think what he's saying is he wants me out there. Times where I need the rest, I think he will provide it for me. But we are not going to preset anything. We are going to go through this thing as if we never went through last year, as if I'm still playing for Doc [Rivers] or Flip [Saunders] or whoever. I prepared myself for it mentally and I'm ready for it.

"

It’s crazy to expect Garnett to get back to his Minnesota Timberwolves-Boston Celtics days.

But it’s even crazier to think that one of the most motivated, intense athletes in the world will be as bad as he was last year.

Jarrett Jack Tears Up the Knicks

Jarrett Jack was not very good last season.

The journeyman point guard put up 9.5 points and 4.1 assists in his lone year with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which was a steep drop-off from the 13.9 points and 5.8 assists that he’d averaged in the two years prior.

Jack has looked great in the preseason thus far, and will fit nicely into Brooklyn’s rotation as Williams’ back-up. The Nets lost Shaun Livingston to free agency this summer, which makes the acquisition of Jack so important.

The 30-year-old Jack is a significantly better shooter than Livingston. Jack’s scoring prowess will greatly lessen the team’s dependence on D-Will to put points on the board.

The presence of another true PG also means that Williams won’t have to play as much, diminishing the prospect of more injuries.

Nets fans are going to love Jack. He pours his heart and soul out on both ends of the floor and is an electrifying scorer when he catches fire.

And of course, the fact that Jack is beating up on the rival New York Knicks makes that video a whole lot sweeter for Nets fans.

Plumlee Cements Regular Season Sweep of Miami

Last season, the Nets beat the Heat in each of their four regular season matchups.

But the series would’ve been 3-1 if not for Plumlee’s heroic block on James as time expired in the fourth and final game on April 8.

There was some contact in the air, but the referees did the right thing and let the players decide the outcome, not the whistle.

Plumlee has quickly gone from a player whom many thought would be a D-Leaguer into one of the NBA’s most promising young bigs.

The second-year man out of Duke got the chance to play on Team USA this summer. That experience will serve him well as he looks to build off a strong rookie campaign.

Though Plumlee probably should start, he’ll begin the year as Garnett’s back-up.

Despite the fact that he won’t be in the first five, Plumlee will be one of the Nets’ most important players in 2014-15.

Bogdanovic Lighting Up the 2014 World Cup

If you’re one of those fans who was devastated by the Nets’ decision to let Pierce walk this summer, here's a message: Relax.

At first glance, it’s perfectly normal to question why an organization that just created the most expensive roster ever would suddenly decide to become frugal. As explained by ESPN New York’s Mike Mazzeo, re-signing Pierce would’ve cost the Nets an additional $20 million in luxury taxes.

But this was a two-part judgment. It was as much a basketball decision as it was a financial one.

Bojan Bogdanovic, whose draft rights were owned by the Nets for three years, finally signed with Brooklyn this summer.

And in 2014-15, the Croatian sensation will be better than the 37-year-old Pierce would’ve been for the Nets.

The 25-year-old swingman finished as the third-leading scorer in the 2014 World Cup, and has put together an extremely impressive body of work overseas.

Here’s what I wrote about what to expect from Bogdanovic this year:

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Bogdanovic could optimistically finish 2014-15 averaging close to 13 points per game while shooting 40-plus percent from the field and around 35 percent from downtown.

It's reasonable to predict a well-paced jog right out of the gate, but expect Bogdanovic to hit full stride and really start lighting it up by December.

“Of course, it's not going to be easy," he said, per the New York Times' Andrew Keh. "I have to do some adjustments, especially because it’s a lot of games, much more than Europe. But I am ready, and I think that I can help immediately."

While he won’t be the megastar that he was in Europe, Bogdanovic will undoubtedly emerge as one of the premier role players on a team looking to shake up the Eastern Conference.

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Pierce’s leadership and toughness will be missed. But Bogdanovic’s versatile offensive game will help the Nets, and the fans, forget all about the Truth.

All stats are accurate courtesy of Basketball Reference.