23-year old center Brook Lopez turned soft in 2010-11. He played in 82 games (all starts) for the Nets last year and he averaged 35.2 minutes, 20.4 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.5 blocked shots per game. Lopez has now played in 246 games (239 starts) in his first three years with the Nets and he has averaged 34.2 minutes, 17.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.7 blocked shots per game. He is already tied for 10th in Nets’ history in blocked shots (410 of them) with Shawn Bradley. The Nets need Lopez to get back to playing a big man’s game as they need him to average at least 8 rebounds per night going forward (which he did his first two years).

26-year old point guard has been so/so with the Nets so far. On one hand, Williams has three double/doubles in his first 3 games for the Nets. On the other hand, Williams is only shooting 33.3% from the floor (13 of 39) and 8.3% (1 of 12) from three point range. Williams has played in 3 games (all starts) for the Nets so far and he is averaging 39.0 minutes, 14.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 15.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Those are eye popping numbers, but Williams is a better shooter and scorer than he has showed so far for the Nets. I think he’s still trying to get over the shock of being traded (he didn’t see it coming) and he’s still learning about his new teammates. I look for it to start really clicking for Williams pretty soon.

22-year old center Brook Lopez looked like he was going to be the complete package at center for the Nets. In his first two years with the team, he averaged 8.4 rebounds in his first 164 games. Many were projected him to graduate stat wise to being a threat to average a double/double this year but for some reason he has gotten softer than a roll of Charmin. In 14 games so far in January, Lopez is averaging 31.6 minutes, 19.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.5 blocked shots on 53.6% shooting from the floor. He has now played in 47 games (all starts) for the Nets so far this year and he is averaging 34.0 minutes, 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.5 blocked shots per game. The Nets need Lopez to get tough or they are going to get pushed around a lot in the paint.

The Nets have recently inserted 19-year old rookie power forward Derrick Favors into the starting lineup to showcase him for a deal, because he certainly has not played nowhere near Kris Humphries’ level so far this year. Favors has played in 41 games (8 starts) for the Nets so far this year and he is averaging 19.0 minutes, 6.6 points, 5.0 rebounds and 0.3 assists per game. Favors is shooting 55.1% from the floor which is pretty darn good but he needs to improve his free throw shooting as he is only hitting 60% of his shots from the charity stripe. 23-year old small forward Damion James will likely see a bump in P.T. when he returns from injury. James has played in 17 games (1 start) for the Nets so far this year and he is averaging 12.9 minutes, 3.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. 22-year old guard Ben Uzoh has been buried on the depth chart so far this year as he’s just been getting garbage time minutes for the Nets so far this year. Uzoh has played in 18 games (0 starts) so far this year and he is averaging 9.0 minutes, 2.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. The Nets need more out of these three guys, plain & simple.

28-year old shooting guard Stephen Graham has moved into the starting lineup with Anthony Morrow out of action. The Nets have to be glad to hear that Morrow is nearing a return to action. In his last six games, Graham is averaging 29.5 minutes, 8.3 points, 4.0 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. Graham has now played in 31 games (16 starts) for the Nets so far this year and he is averaging 18.2 minutes, 3.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. The Nets are a better team when Graham is playing 15-20 minutes per game and he will likely be back to that sort of role in the very near future.