Boki Nachbar’s may be headed to Russia, and Marcus Williams is on his way to Golden State, but the Nets seem to be on their own way to putting a competitive team on the court, while simultaneously planning ahead.

Getting a first round pick for Williams, Nets GM Kiki Vandeweghe just crossed Chris Mullin over and broke his ankles. After a decent first year with the team, Williams was downright awful last season, earning himself considerable time in coach Laurence Frank’s dog house and finding himself lost in the shuffle. With another first round pick in 2009, the Nets will be able to continue to develop from within, while still having the cap-space necessary to make a big time move in 2010.

Sounds good to me.

However, while the first round pick was a good pickup, the acquisition of Keyon Dooling adds some support for Devin Harris, while giving the Nets bench even more versatility on the bench. With all the draft picks and recent acquisitions, this team is starting to fill out quickly and with the addition of Dooling, looks like it can compete for the last two playoff spots in the East.

“Keyon is a versatile NBA veteran, and we are pleased to add him to our roster,” Nets president Rod Thorn said on Yahoo Sports. “His ability to play both the point and shooting guard positions will add flexibility and depth to our backcourt rotation.”

While I believe Dooling will have a diminished role on the Nets, considering Devin Harris is a lock for big time minutes at point guard and Vince Carter’s tendency to eat minutes at shooting guard, Dooling
will be a competent defensive replacement and scorer off the bench when those guys need a break. Being able to play both guard positions, I feel that Dooling was a pretty good pickup and someone that at the very least, makes the Nets look better on paper.

The Nets feel pretty much the same way, but feel his defensive ability and personality off the court was a perfect fit for their rebuilding team.

“I think it’s more relevant on the defensive end,” Frank said Wednesday to Yahoo Sports. “Keyon is a well-coached player. … I love guys who play with energy, passion and who love to play. He’s a bubbly guy and that’s the way he plays. He’s the same way as a person as he is as a player.”

According to the Associated Press, both Josh Boone and Marcus Williams have been inked to contracts that will keep them on the team through 2009. Scoring 4.2 points a game last season, while averaging 11 minutes a game before suffering a shoulder injury, Boone definitely has room to improve. However, with the ineffectiveness of Jason Collins and the uncertainty of Jamal Magloire and Sean Williams, having Boone come off the bench or possibly start is hardly a bad thing.

As a matter of fact, I think that Boone may even have the skill and potential to be a solid contributor on the team. I know I’m not speaking for myself when I say that Collins hasn’t done a thing for the team in quite some time. He’s basically just a big body at this point in his career. Having Boone play a bigger role would make the Nets much more athletic and much stronger on defense.

While Marcus Williams is still injured as of today, still nursing a broken foot, when he comes back, he should be a solid alternative to Darrel Armstrong at point guard. Overall, having both of these guys on the bench helps solidify a Nets bench that really isn’t that bad, despite having a bevy of guards that aren’t going to get enough playing time to be as productive as they need to be.

Nevertheless, the Nets made another move that helped solidify the bench, trading for the well-traveled David Wesley. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the Nets were looking to shop Bernard Robinson and Mile Ilic. A few people e-mailed me and left comments after that post, saying that no one would want to pick up either one of those players. Sadly enough, the Hornets took the bait and as a result, the Nets have another guard on their roster.

This kind of fills the gap the team believed they had when Allan Houston went and signed with the Knicks. The reason why I’m saying this is that Wesley and Houston can both still shoot the basketball, but can’t play defense to save their lives. With Vince Carter getting 35 minutes a game, Wesley is probably going to get anywhere from 10-15 minutes a night.

In that kind of role, I think Wesley can score about six points a game and provide the team with some solid bench scoring. That combined with Boone, both Williams’, Wesley and Collins, the Nets bench actually gets much more dependable.

While Robinson and Ilic are spare parts at best, that wouldn’t have played a part in the team’s success this season anyway, is a 37-year old that only averaged 2.2 points last season really worth trading two players for?

I have no idea. I guess we’re just going to have to see what Wesley can do on the court this season.

The Nets situation at point guard this season gets more interesting after every passing day. First, Marcus Williams gets injured and is out at least a month. Then the team signs Darrell Armstrong. Now, it looks like Jason Kidd may miss some time with a back injury.

However what makes this situation a juicy one is that Kidd may face disciplinary actions from the NBA if he gets in trouble for playing naughty touch with a female waitress in Manhattan two weeks ago. If that is the case, Armstrong may be the Nets opening night point guard. If this was eight or nine years ago, during Armstrong’s apex, it wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but as of now, the Nets have to be concerned.

I’m pretty sure that if he gets to play 30 minutes a game, he could play a decent game and help the Nets, but in all honesty, I have my doubts. It’s been four years since he’s gotten more than 25 minutes a game of playing time and even then he only averaged 10 points a  game. On top of that, he’s not the passer Kidd is.

That creates some serious holes in the Nets offense if Kidd can’t get himself together physically and criminally by opening night.

With that being said, my question to Jason Kidd is this: Why were you out at 2:30 in the morning when you had practice in a few hours? Aren’t you paid millions of dollars to take care of yourself and be a pivotal member of a team people expect to win games? What kind of message are you sending to the rest of your team when you can’t even do the right thing off the court?

The touching of the waitress is the cherry on top of the sundae of shame for Kidd. Just when you thought Stephon Marbury was the only true sexual predator on an NBA team in the tri-state area, Kidd, who according to the Smoking Gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0110071jasonkidd1.html) was been arrested for domestic violence in the past, adds another nice notch to his belt.

Great job Jason, keep it up. I’m sure all the kids walking around with your jerseys on their backs will jump for joy when they all hear this.

That has nothing to do with Kidd’s game though. Despite all of this, Kidd is still a great point guard that the Nets need in the lineup in order to make the playoffs this season.

If he’s healthy and can’t play because he’s too busy committing flagrant fouls off the court, Nets fans will have plenty of reason to be pissed off.