To Fill Out Roster, Nets Are Working Out Hilton Armstrong And, Gasp, Eddy Curry

This is what Eddy Curry is associated with right now in his career. The only thing he could provide for the Nets is another mouth to feed, a hungry one at that.

Yep, Eddy Curry, seriously. In their seemingly desperate search for a back-up center, the Nets have tapped former NBA player Hilton Armstrong and Eddy Curry for work-outs. NBA fans in the New York City area should know both of these players well. Armstrong, a Westchester, NY native, was a star at the nearby basketball powerhouse University of Connecticut while Curry played on the Knicks from 2005-10.

Unlike the addition of Donte Greene to the team, I don't like Armstrong or Curry as potential members of the Nets. Both players have nice size but Armstrong just hasn't been able to convert his physical skills into solid performance during his NBA career while Curry has suffered from a myriad of injuries, weight problems, and even a heart condition in recent years.

Sorry Billy King, but neither of these guys would be a good fit on the Nets and certainly wouldn't be more than a benchwarmer at this point in their respective NBA careers.

Netlinked 8/28/12: Former Nets Edition And More

Oh boy do I miss that guy. Remember when we called him Veal Scalapini? No? Ok, maybe that was just my dad and I

Former Net, and current league-wide, fan favorite Brian Scalabrine is close to joining the Chicago Bulls' coaching staff as an assistant. I knew he was a good bench cheerleader but assistant coach? Kinda surprising.

Ex-Net point guard Jacque Vaughn, who played with the Nets from 2004-06, has been hired by the Orlando Magic to succeed Stan Van Gundy as their head coach.

Yet another former Net, forward Eduardo Najera, has officially retired from the NBA to serve as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks' D-League affiliate, the Texas Legends. He will also hold an ownership stake in the Legends and will serve in some capacity in the Mavs' front office.

Shelden Williams has signed with Elan Chalon, a French team. In 58 games with the Nets last year, the Duke product averaged 4.6 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game.

More links after the jump:

Brooklyn Nets Jerseys to Be Unveiled on September 28th

These depictions may or not turn out to be the Nets' legitimate jerseys for their debut season in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, but we won;t know for sure until the 28th, a month from today

It's official, one month from today, at the opening concert (and event) of the Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets' first jerseys as a team will be unveiled. That day, September 28th, is also the date of the first event at the Barclays Center which happens to be a Jay-Z concert. I can't even begin to describe how pumped I am to see the much-hyped and anticipated Nets jerseys end up looking like. I really hope they don't screw this up.

Deron Williams and Joe Johnson: A Match Made in Heaven

The two guys in the middle; pretty important to the future of the Brooklyn Nets

February 23rd, 2011 and July 11, 2012. Those are two dates that will live on in Brooklyn Nets history forever. The former, in 2011, was of course when the Nets traded Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, two 1st-round picks, and cash considerations to the Utah Jazz for one of the top point guards in the entire NBA: Deron Williams. Prior to the trade going through, the Nets were heavily rumored to be going after, and nearly trading for, Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets until he was dealt to the Knicks on the 21st of February.

The latter, occurring just last month, was when the Nets emptied their roster by dealing Johan Petro (thank God), Anthony Morrow, Jordan Williams, Jordan Farmar, DeShawn Stevenson, a 2013 1st-round pick, and a 2017 2nd-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for their All-Star shooting guard, Joe Johnson. Similarly to the D-Will trade, this deal went largely under the radar until it went through as JJ was not widely reported to have been on the Nets' offseason wishlist.

Appropriately so, a crazed and long-loyal Nets fan like myself was going mildly nuts after hearing of each of these blockbuster deals. In 2011, with the Deron deal, I was on vacation in the Caribbean with my family when my dad gets an email on his phone from the Nets' organization. When I read the headline announcing that my favorite NBA team had traded for a star, specifically one of the best points guards in the NBA, I flipped out.

No, I didn't care that we essentially gave up three 1st-round picks (including Favors, selected in the draft preceding that season) for D-Will, I only cared that the Nets had finally gotten the franchise point guard that we had been searching for since trading Jason Kidd to the Mavericks a few years prior. I immediately dropped my regrets about missing out on Carmelo and didn't even care he went to the most-hated basketball team in my mind, the Knicks.

Season-In-Review: Gerald Wallace

Crash

This post, along with the other posts I will do in the Season-In-Review series, will take a deeper look at how all the Nets did last season on the court and possibly off of it. We continue with the team's mid-season acquisition, Gerald Wallace. Brook Lopez was covered last.

On March 16th of 2011, the Nets definitely mortgaged their short-term drafting future by trading away their 2012 1st-round pick, top-3 protected, Shawne Williams, and Mehmet Okur to the Portland Trail Blazers for small forward Gerald Wallace. I was walking home from school when I saw the trade on Twitter and I was blown away: The Nets just gave up their 1st-round pick for the 2012 Draft, a draft class widely considered to be deep by most standards, for a very good, but not superstar player?

Ok, I thought, as I reasoned with myself to stop flipping out and cursing at Billy King, there had to be some reason why the Nets gave up their most-likely high pick for Wallace. And certainly, to my surprise, there was a massive silver lining to the trade. The first aspect of this was that made me make a sigh of relief was that Gerald Wallace brings so much more to a basketball team than solid rebounding, a decent 3-point shot, and athleticism.

Wallace also brought intensity, emotion, recklessness, and just pure effort to a Nets team that has been lacking that for years. The second part was that the 2012 draft class seemed to clear like a cloud of smoke in the days leading up to June 28th.

Netlinked 8/25/12: Joe Johnson Talks to Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated

I'm excited, he's excited, we're all excited. I like that. By the way, don't worry, that's not the official Nets jersey. You haven't missed anything yet, the official jerseys are to be released to the public next month.

We have a short version of Netlinked today, a feature we haven't done here at Brooklyn Balling in awhile, but it will be sure to increase in frequency as we approach the season. The highest-profile newcomer to the Nets from this offseason, Joe Johnson, talked to Sports Illustrated's Zach Lowe about finding out about his trade to the Nets, moving to NYC for the first time in his life, his summer workouts, among other things. It's a nice interview to peruse for some quick reading during a very slow time of the NBA news cycle.

Nets Agree to Terms with F Donte Greene

For one of the last spots on their roster, the Brooklyn Nets have reportedly agreed to terms with forward Donte Greene, formerly of the Sacramento Kings, according to Yahoo! Sports' Marc Spears. Greene, entering his fifth NBA season, is 24 years old and spent the first 4 years of his NBA career with the Kings after being drafted 28th overall in the 2008 by the Memphis Grizzlies, who in turn sent him to Houston who then traded him to Sacramento all before the 2008-09 season began.

Greene boasts career averages of 6.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 0.7 apg in 253 games played over his four seasons and has shot at a 41%/31%/70% (fg%/3fg%/ft%) clip during that span.