EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- It would be easy to look at the New Jersey Nets’ 2007-08 Season, throw a blanket over the whole thing, and say it was mostly a disappointment. Sure, the string of six-consecutive playoff appearances was snapped and a major trade was made, but there certainly were some points of light.
Richard Jefferson showed that he could navigate his way through an entire season as a 20-plus point per game scorer without injury. Devin Harris, the major piece in the Jason Kidd trade, exhibited positives that show he can potentially lead a team into the future. And Vince Carter put together another top-notch statistical season, playing much of it through pain created by a balky ankle.
Then there is Josh Boone. The second-year forward/center entered the season far down on the big man depth chart. He showed flashes of his ability last season but was seemingly undone by inconsistency and injury.
But looking back at this season, he might have been the team’s biggest surprise and brightest light, based on the expectation level.
“Considering how he started this year and the way we started, I don’t think we could have foreseen the fact that he was going to be as productive as he was at times,” said Coach Lawrence Frank.
The University of Connecticut product made major strides across the board from his rookie to sophomore year. Whether it was minutes (25.3 up from 11.0), points (8.2 up from 4.2), or most impressively rebounds (7.3 up from 2.9), Boone was typically a commendable constant. He started 53 games (after starting none a season ago) and almost averaged a double-double (9.7 points, 8.3 rebounds) in those starts.
“I definitely progressed a lot from last year,” said Boone, who shot 55.7 percent from the field as a starter.
“When you get more time, you obviously are going to do more things with it because the more you’re out on the floor the more accustomed you are going to get to it, the more confidence you are going to gain, and the better you are going to do. Not only that but my teammates had a lot of confidence in me as well. I probably wouldn’t have scored too many points at all this year if it wasn’t for my teammates feeling that if they passed me the ball I was going to do something good with it.”
Josh has shown an intuitive feel and adeptness at diving to the rim on pick-and-rolls. He can find angles to score close to the basket and as the season went on started to exhibit a medium range jump shot. He even admits, though, that he will need to work on a go-to move, so he can be viewed as more of an offensive threat – especially if he wants to continue as a starter.
“I need to definitely continue that,” he said. “The more I shoot it, the more confidence I’m going to get and I shot it a lot better than I was earlier in the year. It’s a night and day difference between what I was doing at the start of the year and what I’m doing now. (Shooting Coach) Bob Thate’s really been helping me a lot with that. Just overall confidence in my offensive game: I need to prove that I’m more than just a guy that can roll on a pick and roll or get an offensive rebound. I need to show that I’m someone that can actually make his own shot.”
“I think with Josh – when you combine his athleticism, his quick hands, his quick feet, his ability to rebound the ball – this is a base level,” praised Coach Frank.
“I think the challenge is now because he’s shown that he can do it is to continue to work on his strength, to develop one go-to move that he feels confident with, obviously he has to continue to improve his free-throw shooting and a consistent 12-14 foot shoot and to understand how good he can be. And it’s just that belief and that confidence, especially on the defensive end because he has such a good basketball IQ, to be a better communicator because he knows what we’re doing but just talking it louder and also as we’ve talked about with a lot of our guys: to come back with a mentality of protecting our rim and protecting our paint. But…this is only his second year so I think if he can continue to build on some of the things he did this year, I think he has a very promising future for us.”
Boone is set (he hopes) to have a summer free from injury – and surgery – for the first time in four years. He plans to port himself mostly at his New Jersey townhouse - outside of a June vacation to “an island a long way away from here” and trips to Maryland and Connecticut to see friends – and will continue the hard work that yielded major improvement from Year 1 to Year 2.
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