With Eduardo Najera in town and locked up for two years, the Nets bench is looking better than ever.

Not only do they get a solid defender who can start or come of the bench, they get a guy who’s not a bad shooter either [anyone else notice how many three pointers he took last season?] and is a solid leader.

From the look of things, Najera is pretty happy to be in New Jersey as well. Aside from saying that he plans to be a teacher to the youngsters and play a heavy focus on his defense, he had a few other things to say as well.

“We’ve got young talented players,” Najera told PhillyBlurbs.com when asked of a roster that features Vince Carter and Devin Harris and also includes eight players with three or less years experience. “You see other teams, like New Orleans, they turned it around real fast. All they needed was a young talented guy that came in and led the way.”

The question is who is going to be that youngster?

At any rate, while the Nets are high on Jianlian, Sean Williams, Brook Lopez and Devin Harris, I have a feeling Najera isn’t speaking about any of them. As a matter of fact, I think he’s talking about…wait what the hell is he talking about?

Nonetheless, Najera, combined with Jarvis Hayes and hopefully Boki Nachbar [notice no Marcus Williams. I think that dude is being shopped as we speak] will give the bench the most depth they’ve had in quite some time.

Rod Thorn seems pretty excited right now as well. And damn, I think he has all right to be. For a team that traded away two superstars not too long ago, they made out pretty damn good and despite losing them, they’re more a multifaceted team than they’ve been in quite some time. Again, considering how traditionally weak the Eastern Conference has been over the past half decade and change, there’s no reason why the Nets can’t compete.

“I feel better about this team going forward than I did a month ago,” Thorn told Daily News Nets beat reporter Julian Garcia [who does a great job by the way] Wednesday after officially announcing the signings of the two most recent additions, veteran forwards Eduardo Najera and Jarvis Hayes. “We’ve gotten bigger, we’ve gotten younger and we’ve gotten stronger. Over the past six months, we’ve lost a great player in Jason and a heck of a player in Richard, so we’ll have to see. But long-term, I feel better about our team.”