Making the Case for Brooklyn as a Potential Landing Spot for Deron Williams

This Nets team has been a major part of Melodrama (Carmelo Anthony), Linsanity (Jeremy Lin), Dwightmare (Dwight Howard) and now this. If D-Will doesn't come to Brooklyn, we can call the Deronisaster but it he does re-sign with the Nets, it will be pure Headeron (mix of heaven and Deron, not my best work). 

Basically all the NBA writers that cover the teams involved in the complex Deron Williams and Dwight Howard free agency saga sort-of-thing have started to pencil in D-Will as being a Maverick next season. This is coming on the heels of Deron announcing that he will indeed opt of his current contract with the Nets after the season, making him a free agent on July 1st. Guys like Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (who obviously is a big Mavs fan) are saying that this news makes the potential scenario that D-Will will head to his hometown team in free agency a "likely" occurence.

This notion is ridiculous and is nothing more than a biased view from a writer who would certainly benefit from covering a team with one of the best point guards in the league on it. The only thing that Deron has said which would seem to support him leaving the Nets and going down to Dallas as a free agent is that Deron is from a Dallas suburb and said that he likes playing at the American Airlines Center. Putting all of these half-truths and pure speculations aside, let's take a look at why Brooklyn is the place that Deron should be when next NBA season comes around.

Game 36 Recap: Nets 93, Mavericks 92

Hey Otis Smith, you watching the game? Behind a monster effort by Brook Lopez, to the tune of 38 points on 17-for-28 shooting, the Nets snapped their 11-game losing streak in Dallas by taking down the defending champs. The key to this game was the great start New Jersey got off to by taking a 28-23 lead after the 1st quarter. The Nets would be able to hold that lead for about 2 quarters but ended up giving the Mavs their first lead of the game with around 2:20 left in the 3rd.

The Nets were able to rebound from blowing their lead, which was as big as 13 points, by taking a 10-point, 89-79 lead with 5:35 left in the game on a slick Lopez lay-up. Then came a 8-0 Dallas run that tightened the Nets' lead to two points. The Mavs ended up taking the lead yet again a minute later on a Jason Kidd 3-pointer. Normally, the Nets would have folded after that point in the game but they went with what was working the whole game, the entry-pass to Brook. Just moments after Kidd's three, Brook got fouled on a lay-up attempt and calmly sank both his free throws, returning the lead to the Nets.

Here is when it got really dicey. With 25 seconds left, Kidd missed the go-ahead three but the Nets would promptly turn it back over to Dallas, giving them a chance to regain the lead. They would not be able to do this as DeShawn Stevenson, just hours after receiving his championship ring from last season, smothered Kidd on yet another 3-point attempt as the former Met point guard clanked it against the backboard as he missed the shot.

Game 36 Preview: Nets (10-25) at Dallas Mavericks (21-13)

D-Will is a Dallas-area native and going home to play the Mavs will no doubt stir up rumors of him and Dwight Howard teaming up in Big D next season. My take, don't believe the hype.

In their first game after the All-Star break, the Nets take on the defending-NBA champion Dallas Mavericks down in Texas later tonight. Both teams have been bit by the injury bug as the Nets will probably be missing Mehmet Okur and Jordan Farmar while Dallas will be without the services of Lamar Odom, who has been mainly ineffective with the Mavs since coming over from the LA Lakers in a preseason trade. Brook Lopez is expected to play around 30 minutes in this contest between two teams that have multiple players that have played in both Dallas and New Jersey with Vince Carter and Jason Kidd being the most notable.

Background on Dallas

As most of you know, tonight's game with the Mavs will be the backstory to the Dwightmare situation that is going on right now, with the Nets and Dallas implicated right in the middle of it. The Mavericks scrapped much of their championship-winning team last offseason in order to have enough cap room to be able to sign Dwight Howard and/or D-Will by the summer. Don't get me wrong, they are still a good team but without key pieces like Tyson Chandler and DeShawn Stevenson out of the picture, Dallas is much less formidable than they were at this time last year. Dirk, Kidd, Terry, and even Marion are all still there but this Mavs team is very different from a year ago.