Brooklyn Nets Club Fan Zone- Everything You Need To Know About The Brooklyn Nets

Brooklyn Nets Betting Tips, Predictions and Winning Odds

Needless to say, any and all predictions and winning odds were flipped on their head the day the Nets signed Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and D'Andre Jordan.

In the course of one day, they went from middle of the pack to 9th best odds to win it all at +2500. And all this despite the knowledge that Durant will most likely be out a significant amount, if not all, of next season. 

The 888sports blog provides you with all the latest Nets betting odds. Check out all our latest FREE Nets betting information from our expert team of writers. Looking for the best odds and Nets betting markets? We have it all here.  

Brooklyn Nets- 2019/2020 Team 

Different. Definitely different. 

Whereas the 2018/2019 team was a collection of young guys and cast-offs, who all successfully bought in to the team concept that coach Kenny Atkinson preached, this year is a whole new ballgame. Will it work? A majority of the success or failure of this team to launch into the next level will depend on one guy: Kyrie Irving. 

Last year, he was supposed to be the missing piece on a similarly constructed Celtics team, but whether it was his ego, his style of play, or his dislike of Boston the city itself, it didn’t work, and Boston didn’t live up to the expectations that were in place.

Now, with Durant sidelined for the year, he’ll have to lead the team on his own, hopefully learning from his failures of last year, and buying more wholeheartedly into the philosophy that made the Nets such a pleasant surprise last season. Even without Durant, he’ll have plenty of interesting pieces to work with. Left from the purging that needed to be done to fit these new massive deals are great young layers such as:

• Jarrett Allen, who just came off a monster summer league performance. He’ll most likely be D’Andre Jordan’s backup, but will play a fair share at power forward as well.
• Spencer Dinwiddie, a big part of last year’s run, he will start at shooting guard next to Kyrie.
• Caris Levert, who was having a breakout season last year before an injury, averaging almost 19 points a game and shooting 47% from the field.

So, without Durant for the year, and with a new look Eastern Conference (bye-bye Kawai) the Nets look like a top tier team for the 19-20 season. The 20-21 season? The sky is the limit.

• G D’Angelo Russell: 21.1 PPG, 7.0 APG
• G Spencer Dinwiddie: 16.8 PPG, 4.8 APG
• C Jarrett Allen: 10.9 PPG, 8.4 RPG
• F Joe Harris: 13.7 PPG, 3.8 RPG

• F Brook Lopez: 10,444 pts, 4,005 reb
• F Buck Williams: 10,440 pts, 7,576 reb
• G Jason Kidd: 7,373 pts, 4,620 ast, 950 steals
• F Vince Carter: 8,834 pts, 1,762 ast
• F Richard Jefferson: 8,507 pts, 1,486 ast

Who Owns The Brooklyn Nets?

No, not Jay Z. While the hip hop star did own a very small (1.5%) piece of the Nets for a bit, he was never anything more than the most famous face of the Brooklyn Nets.

He became part of the new ownership in 2004, when the New Jersey Nets owners were looking to sell, and he joined up as a minority owner with developer Bruce Ratner, who sought to buy the Nets and move them to Brooklyn with the intent of them being the centerpiece of his new development in the Atlantic Yards area of the borough.

When the sale finally went down, the Barclays Center became the new home of the Nets, and Jay Z and Beyonce were the biggest attraction. (The team wasn’t very good.) 

While all this was happening, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov pledged to loan over $700 million to help fund the construction of the Barclays Center in return for majority ownership.

The developer Ratner knew a good deal when he saw it, and in 2010, Prokhorov was officially named majority owner.

But just this year, Alibaba founder Joseph Tsai bought a 49% stake in the Nets, with an option to take over majority control in 2021, so the Nets will most likely have another deep-pocketed owner in a few years.

And Jay Z? He sold his stake for a healthy profit when he decided to get into the sports agency game, making him ineligible to be an owner as well.

Who Are The Brooklyn Nets Biggest Rivalries?

Boston Celtics: When they were the New Jersey Nets, there was an ongoing rivalry with their fellow Atlantic Division foes the Boston Celtics, stemming mostly from a few years in the early 2000’s when both had emerging teams with young brash stars (Kenyon Martin and Jason Kidd versus Paul Pierce and Antione Walker) who weren’t afraid to trash talk. (Not to mention boisterous fans who loved to get into it as well.)

The 2002 and 2003 playoffs took things to the next level, with Boston fans chanting about Kidd’s domestic violence issues, while Nets fans chanted about Pierce’s nightclub incident where he was stabbed 11 times.

The rivalry was pretty much put to bed after the 2013 trade that saw Pierce and Kevin Garnett traded to the Nets, but revived again this off-season when the Nets signed Kyrie Irving.

New York Knicks: They’re in the same division. They’re in the same city. It should be fierce. But up until this season, when the Nets finally made the playoffs, both teams have been so bad for so long that any real rivalry seemed foolish. Here’s to hoping the Knicks get it together and make this something worth discussing.

What Are The Brooklyn Nets Biggest Salaries? How Much Is The Team Worth?

According to Forbes, the Nets are the 6^th most valuable team in the NBA worth $2.4 billion. (How the Knicks, THE KNICKS, are far above everyone else at $4 billion is a mystery.) 

As for highest paid Nets players, things are in flux.

They entered the 2019 off-season with the 4^th most cap space, and an up-and-coming team, so their eyes and wallets were open. Now that they’ve signed Durant, Irving, and Jordan, the wallet is fairly empty. While the structures of all these new, huge contracts have yet to be finalized, Durant will be making $164 million over 4 years, while Irving will be at $141 over that same span.

They took less than the max so that the Nets could also sign Jordan to a 4 year, $40 million contract.

• Dr. J leads the Nets to the 1974 ABA Title
• Dr. J Leads Nets to the 1976 ABA Title
• Jason Kidd’s Bowling Ball Pass (seriously, it was pretty cool)
• Van Horn Helps Send 2002 Nets Team to First NBA Finals
• Nets Sign Durant, Irving.

Brooklyn Nets Fan Profile

One might say “Under Construction" since the Nets have only been in Brooklyn for 7 years now, but with the team’s recent successes and this off-season's signings, a true Nets fan persona seems bound to emerge.

Until now, however, the Nets in Brooklyn have been a curiosity for the locals, a mix of true hoops fans tired of the Knicks losing ways, and gentrifying hipsters attracted to the great local food choices available at the Barclays Center.

The NJ fans seem to have abandoned them for the time being, but we’ll see how long that goes on after the Nets become a powerhouse in the East. We’re betting some of those old Kenny Anderson Nets jerseys start making their way to the front of the closet.

Barclays Center

The Barclays Center lies at the center of the Nets franchise more than any other arena in professional sports. This is due to the fact that the purchase of the team by Bruce Ratner in 2004 was made for the most part as a part of the developer’s plans to redevelop a large section of Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal for a mixed residential and commercial project that he’s been envisioning for years, with the team, and the arena, as the centerpiece.

Unfortunately, just having a team doesn’t get a stadium built, and the numerous lawsuits by local residents held up the development of the property for so long that many thought it would never be built. During this time, Ratner sold the team to Prokhorov, who, after a series of wins in court, finally got approval to start pouring concrete in 2010, and opened officially in 2012, 8 years after the team was promised to Brooklyn.
 

The arena itself was initially designed by famed architect Frank Gehry, and despite many alterations during the building process, much of his design remains. The outside of the arena is covered in weathered bands of steel, while the roof is covered in greenery. The inside features a set of lights designed solely for the Nets, so when play starts, the crowd section goes dark, leaving the court as a stage for fans to watch.

Famous Brooklyn/New Jersey Nets Legends

• Drazen Petrovic: The Croatian was already a star in Europe before joining the NBA in 1989, one of the first European players to move his game to the US. In his three years in NJ, he became one of the best shooting guards in the league, and led the Nets back to the playoffs after a 5-year absence. His legacy was cut short by tragic death at age 29.

• Buck Williams: The Nets legend is second all-time in points, rebounds, and games played. He won Rookie of the Year as a Net over Isiah Thomas in 1982, and in his eight seasons in NJ, became one of the most dominant power forwards in the game.

• Dr. J: In his three years with the Nets, Julius Erving led them to two ABA titles, averaging 37.5 PPG in the ABA’s final playoffs before merging with the NBA. Funny note to annoy Knicks fans: Dr. J was offered to the Knicks when the Nets were forced to trade him post-merger, but they refused the Nets offer, choosing to try and milk their new NBA rivals for cash instead of one of the best NBA players of all time. 

• Vince Carter: Vinsanity came to New Jersey following a trade with the Raptors in 2004, and for the next three years, Carter averaged 23.6 points per game, pairing with Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson to bring the Nets to the playoffs in each season. Oh, and he was a human highlight reel.

• Richard Jefferson: For 7 seasons, Jefferson was a key part of the heyday of Nets basketball, supplanting the beloved Keith Van Horn at small forward to become one of the league’s top scorers and defenders. His smooth stroke paired with Kenyon Martin’s bulk and Jason Kidd’s finesse to form a killer trio.

• Derrick Coleman: The number 1 overall pick by the Nets in 1990 draft out of Syracuse, Coleman paired with Kenny Anderson, Chris Morris and Mookie Blaylock (and coach Chuck Day) to lead a Nets renaissance in the early 90’s, when they went to the playoffs three straight seasons. He’s also one of only a few players to ever record a five-by-five game (getting a total of five in five different categories in a single game.)

• Jason Kidd: As a player for the Nets, Kidd was in his prime, leading the Nets to a 26-game improvement and their first 50-win season in franchise history. The team’s only NBA Finals appearances were with Kidd at the helm, and in the pivotal Conference Finals against the Celtics in 2002, Kidd averaged a triple double to overcome an embarrassing Game Three loss to win a place in the NBA Finals.  

• Kevin Durant: He hasn’t done anything yet, but just the fact that he signed with the Nets and not the Knicks has changed the image of the franchise.