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NBA Predictions: 2014 Brooklyn Nets Season Betting Preview

Nets NBA Picks

The Brooklyn Nets enter the 2014-15 with less hope than they did enter the 2013-14 season after some big offseason moves appeared to propel the team into contention that year. A year later, the team could be in for an even better season, despite the absence of the buzz that predicated their previous campaign.

2014/15 Brooklyn Nets
Eastern Conference
2013-2014 Record: 44-38
Odds to win Title: 66/1
Odds to win Conference: 28/1
Odds to win Atlantic Division: 9/4
Posted win total: 41
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Top Newcomers

Jason Kidd exited town in a messy situation that left everyone involved looking bad. The Nets got the best of it though, as Kidd will be forced to play out his days in Milwaukee for the time being, while Brooklyn brings in a more accomplished head coach in Lionel Hollins.

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The team’s top offseason acquisition on the court is combo guard Jarrett Jack, who will fill the role previously occupied by Shaun Livingston, as Deron Williams’s caddy and occasional wingman.

Bojan Bogdanovic, a rookie out of Croatia, will eat up a lot of the minutes that went to Paul Pierce. He can score in bunches, though, of course, doesn’t bring everything to the table that Pierce did. Marquis Teague and Sergey Karasev have also been added to the rotation.

Top Players

Kevin Garnett may have put his best days behind him. But he will certainly go down as one of the top 25 players to ever play the game. There was a time when he was the unquestioned top player in the game. Entering the last year of his contract with the Nets, this could be the final opportunity fans have to watch Garnett lace them up.

Point guard Deron Williams had what was by all accounts a down year last season and figures to bounce back with a better campaign this year now that the reigns to the offense have been handed back to him. Center Brook Lopez is one of the top offensive options at his position when healthy. He figures to be slow out of the gate as he continues to recover from a foot injury that cost him most of last season.

Strengths

Williams and Joe Johnson form one of the better backcourts in basketball. Neither got a lot of love last season.

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Johnson turned things on in the playoffs and basically carried the Nets out of the first round on his back, while Williams wasn’t able to re-find his game in the postseason.

The duo will be making a lot of money once again this season, and the time has come for the two veterans to find to find their next gear and help bring this team to the next level. Pierce’s absence figures to mean bigger minutes for Andrei Kirilenko at the three, and more minutes for Kirilenko is rarely a bad thing.

Weaknesses

Pierce leaves a hole at the three and Kirilenko was never really able to integrate his skills in with the rest of the squad a year ago. Part of that could have been Jason Kidd’s presence – Kirilenko figures to be a better fit in Lionel Hollins’s scheme.

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Bogdanovic is coming off of one of his worst seasons from the perimeter in recent memory.

4* FREE NBA Prediction: 47-35

The net of the team’s offseason movements feels positive, and while they dug themselves a nice deep hole last season, they came out of it nicely and played well down the stretch. If they can figure out a way to bottle that magic and bring it in all 82 games this season they’ll be in good shape.

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By Gino Bottero

Gino is new to CappersPicks.com but NOT new to the online gambling industry.He's got an AMAZING knack for discovering hidden gems when it comes to betting on sports. Stick with him as he predicts when a team will have a letdown! Check Gino out for NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB betting articles all season long!