FanHouse Brook Lopez

PHILADELPHIA -- They just made a stop in Philadelphia, so why not be the first to throw it out. Can the New Jersey Nets make a run at the 1972-73 76ers' all-time futility mark of 9-73?

The Nets are the NBA's only winless team at 0-6 after Friday night's 97-94 loss to the 76ers and every day another player seems to get hurt. Call them the New Jersey Gnats the way they're dropping like flies.

OK, so it's way too early to think these Nets are going to make history for basketball badness. And, besides, Nets guard Rafer Alston gets upset when somebody calls his team the NBA's worse.

"That does (hurt) because you know you have a lot of pride,'' Alston said. "It hurts to be considered the worst ... when you know you have a lot of basketball and life in your game and there's a lot of pride in each man.''

Title Chaste is the diary of Matt Snyder in his season a virgin fantasy basketball player.

Well, that didn't take long. Thanks to Mo Williams, Danny Granger, Amare Stoudemire, Brook Lopez, Jason Terry, Andrea Bargnani and Shawn Marion, I won my first career fantasy basketball game. I should also point out I owe the scheduling for the victory as well, because my team checked in as the sixth-highest scorer out of 12. Really, it could have gone either way. This victory was a sign that being lucky is just as worthwhile as being smart in fantasy basketball, just as I already knew in fantasy baseball and fantasy football. On the other hand, skill is still paramount -- as the top scorer for the week was, not surprisingly, Tom Lorenzo.

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Folks who frequent the fantasy sports version of this website are likely familiar with my work in the fantasy baseball and fantasy football sections. I have been playing both of those games since the mid-'90s. To those people, I have news for you: I have never played fantasy basketball. Until now. I'm diving right into our FanHouse fantasy basketball league on Fleaflicker.

On top of my inexperience, I haven't even watched more than a few minutes of an NBA game since May 19, 2005. That was the date of Reggie Miller's final NBA game. During that season, the Pacers -- my favorite team since the days of Wayman Tisdale, John Long and Steve Stipanovich -- had ruined my love for the NBA. Thanks a lot, Ron Artest, Jamaal Tinsley and Stephen Jackson!

The center position is often considered the thinnest position. Possibly because most leagues require you to start at least two centers, or maybe it's because once you get past the first 12 or 15 centers you start seeing players queued up who have some serious deficiencies in their game. The one saving grace is that many of the league's top power forwards are also eligible at center.

You'll often hear guys strategize about getting out of the draft with a few centers who can rebound, block shots, and shoot a high percentage from the field while doing limited damage to their team's free-throw percentage. That's not so easy to do, however. The strategy here is to find a center who has limited free-throw attempts. If you're drafting Dwight Howard you have to be careful of his 59.4 FT% since he gets to the line 10.8 times per game. On the other hand Andris Biedrins' 55.1 FT% is manageable because he got to the line just 3.5 times per game last season.

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The NBA FanHouse team is in the midst of previewing each squad prior to the start of the 2009-10 season. Tom Ziller spices things up a little by examining Yi Jianlian as a player to watch. In keeping with the theme I decided to highlight a New Jersey swingman who has more value than his current ADP would indicate.

Out with the old, in with the new. In order to free up some more cap space for the summer of 2010, the Nets shipped Vince Carter to Orlando in exchange for Courtney Lee and and a few other pieces (yes, Rafer Alston has officially become a "piece"). The new guard in New Jersey consists of two fantasy super-talents and a number of late-round value picks.

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

The Nets finished last season with a 34-48 record, and then went ahead and traded their second-leading scorer, Vince Carter, to Orlando. Yet they head into the 2009-10 season with more optimism than a team in their position should rightfully have.

Hey, that's the wonder of cap space. Virtually all of what New Jersey had done over the past two or three seasons has been leading to the summer of free agency in 2010.

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The start of the NBA season is right around the corner, and that means the much-anticipated release of NBA 2K10. The video game hits stores nationwide on Oct. 6.

FanHouse attended the 2K10 launch party in New York City on Thursday, and spoke to Nate Robinson about re-signing with the Knicks, Andre Iguodala about the greatest moment in NBA2K history, and Brook Lopez about his new boss. Check out the video below.

The Nets are not expected to do particularly well in the win-loss ledger this season. The squad missed the playoffs in the East last season, and has since swapped All-Star caliber Vince Carter for Courtney Lee and a few role players, and while Terrence Williams is expected to be a solid rookie he's not exactly superstar material. This is a rebuilding year.

But the work personnel boss Rod Thorn did to clear the books for the Summer of 2010 has been admirable, the Carter trade in particular opening up a gaping payroll hole just when a gaping payroll hole will be a good thing. As of today, the Nets can expect to have upwards of $30 million of cap space next summer, as much as any other team in the league.

If new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov -- a Russian billionaire who by no account will be shy about spending his fortune stateside -- wants to make a big splash in his first summer in the NBA, he will certainly have the opportunity.

The biggest surprise in Rookie of the Year balloting wasn't (sniveling) Kevin Love's low placement (sixth) -- it was Suns rook Robin Lopez earning a second-place vote.

Robin's season in Phoenix wasn't too bright. He played in only 60 games despite flawless health; in those contests, he averaged only 10 minutes a game. His campaign ended with per-game averages of three points and two rebounds. Not exactly awards material ...

... which means that in all likelihood one of the voters -- a fraternity of writers and broadcasters -- meant to vote for Robin's twin, Brook, who ended up in third place in balloting. As far as I know, the ballot isn't a "fill in the bubble" affair -- you write in the names. Some voter really can't keep the Lopez brothers straight. (Hat-tip to Phoenix Stan.)

It's been a forgone conclusion for awhile, but on Wednesday it became official: Derrick Rose is the NBA's 2009 Rookie of the Year. He received the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy during a press conference earlier this afternoon.

There were several impressive rookies this year but Rose was the run-away winner of the award, receiving 111 of a possible 120 first-place votes; O.J. Mayo (five first place votes), Brook Lopez (two) and Russell Westbrook (two) accounted for the rest.