The Brooklyn Nets are on the Right Path With P.J. Carlesimo Leading the Way

I have to give kudos to the start of the P.J. Carlesimo era for the Brooklyn Nets, as he has turned this team around and has them headed in a very positive direction. Carlesimo became the Nets man in charge at the end of December, and the Nets are an impressive 16-5 in his 21 games so far (6-5 vs winning teams).

What impresses me is that in his one and a half months on the job, Carlesimo has taken a scuffling 14-14 squad and has gained 3.5 games on the Atlantic Division leading New York Knicks (the Nets now just 3.0 back of the Knicks), plus they were tied with the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers and were behind the Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks but now all four teams are in their rear view mirrors. The Indiana Pacers (no.3 seed currently) are awesome at home, and the Chicago Bulls (no.4 currently) will get Derrick Rose back soon so the Nets will be hard pressed to climb into a top-4 seed in the Eastern Conference (they are currently no.5). There best chance to have home court in the first round of the NBA playoffs may be by winning the Atlantic.

A team looking to make the playoffs for the first time in six seasons would normally be thrilled just to qualify, but I think that the pressure is on as ownership did not spend massive money on Joe Johnson, Mirza Teletovic, plus the Deron Williams re-up (and also adding veterans like Reggie Evans, C.J. Watson, Keith Bogans, and Jerry Stackhouse) to not make a deep playoff run. Add the big contracts that Gerald Wallace and Brook Lopez have and we see a team that needs to win now.

New city, new logo, new roster, and now new head coach…finally things are rolling for the Nets. The parade of veteran free-agents added this offseason, plus the trade for Johnson and the re-up with D-Will set the expectations very high for the 2012-13 Nets and their fans have to be thrilled that they are starting to perform much closer to their potential.

Craig Ballard is a NFL/NBA/MLB writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow  him on Twitter @craigballard77, and you can find all of his articles HERE