22-year old center Brook Lopez appears to be turning soft so far this year. He has played in 15 games (all starts) so far this year for the Nets and he is averaging 35.4 minutes, 18.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.7 blocked shots per game. Lopez is only shooting 43.5% from the floor and he averaged over 8 rebounds per game in his first two years in the NBA. The Nets need to get tough again and start mixing it up under the basket.

The Nets have sent 23-year old SG/SF Terrence Williams to the Springfield Armor of the D-League for repeated violations of team policy. Williams has played in 8 games (0 starts) for the Nets this season and he is averaging 19.9 minutes, 6.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. He has now played in 86 games (9 starts) in his first two years in the NBA and he is averaging 22.4 minutes, 8.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. Head coach Avery Johnson has sent former first round pick Terrence Williams and the rest of the Nets a lesson, that B.S. is not going to be tolerated on his watch.

UPDATE: (12/8/2010) - The Nets have brought back Terrence Williams from the D-League. He played in 3 games in the D-League and he averaged 28.0 points, 11.3 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game. He is likely to rejoin the rotation starting tonight but Avery Johnson isn’t going to put up with any more crap out of him going forward.

25-year old Kris Humphries has taken over as the Nets’ starting power forward due to his fine play. Troy Murphy and Derrick Favors both are thought of very highly but Humphries is on a roll right now. In his six starts this season, Humphries is averaging 29.8 minutes, 11.0 points, 11.7 rebounds, 1.0 assist and 1.5 blocked shots per game. He has now played in 13 games (6 starts) this year for the Nets and he is averaging 21.5 minutes, 7.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 0.6 assists and 1.0 blocked shot per game. It will be interesting to see if the 25-year old Humphries can hold off Favors & Murphy for the starting power forward job.

26-year old small forward Travis Outlaw is off to a decent start this year for the Nets. Outlaw has played in 10 games (all starts) so far this year for the Nets and he is averaging 31.6 minutes, 12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. He has hit 50% of his shots from the floor, 56.8% from three point range and 73.3% from the free throw line so far this year. The Nets need Outlaw to keep shooting well because it opens a lot of things inside for Brook Lopez and whoever is playing power forward at that time.

The Nets have a rookie class with a huge upside but they are taking it slow with them so far this year. 19-year old power forward Derrick Favors has a gigantic upside. He has played in 10 games (0 starts) so far this year for the Nets and he is averaging 20.2 minutes, 7.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 0.1 assists per game. He is shooting 53.6% from the floor so far this year but only 59.3% from the free throw line. By the end of this season, Favors could be the starting power forward especially is he starts making more free throws. Damion James has played in 7 games (0 starts) for the Nets so far this year and he is averaging 7.9 minutes, 2.1 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. He is only shooting 29.4% from the floor and 55.6% from the free throw line but that could be a result of his sporadic playing time. Ben Uzoh is a guard that’s buried on the depth chart. He has played in 1 game in which he didn’t score any points but got 2 rebounds in six minutes.