VC On The Nets
Before Moving to Brooklyn in 2012, the Nets were located in East Rutherford, New Jersey. After being traded to the Nets in 2004, Vince Carter was optimistic about what was to come. This team had some great pieces. An all-time great point guard in Jason Kidd and a slashing scorer in Richard Jefferson, Vince Carter was ready to be a major addition to that.
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Things didn’t go as planned after the first season with his new team. Jason Kidd was returning from microfracture surgery and Richard Jefferson had to get season-ending surgery after just 33 games. Still, Vince Carter led the team to an 8th seed even with the struggles. They lost in the first round to the Miami Heat. It was a 4-0 sweep.
In 2005-06 the Nets won 49 games and had the third seed in the east. On December 12th he tied his career high of 51 points in a win against the Miami Heat. The first time he scored this much was in 2000 against the Suns. Carter averaged 24 points and led the Nets to the second round before losing to Miami for the second year in a row.
Fast forward to 2007-08 and Jason Kidd is traded to the Dallas Mavericks. This left Carter and Jefferson on an island wondering what’s next for this team. They finished 34-48, failing to make the playoffs for the first time since 2000-01.
Richard Jefferson was traded in the offseason, to the Bucks, and the Nets were headed towards rebuilding mode.
2008-09 was another unsuccessful year for the Nets. They finished with the exact same record as the previous season and on draft day Vince Carter was traded to the Magic.
Coming to the Nets in 04-05 Carter had just missed what you might call the golden years of the NBA’s version of the Nets. The Nets made two straight finals appearances in 2002 and 2003.