Without any doubts, this year's off-season did not pan out as the New Jersey Nets were hoping for. After all, the franchise was unable to pull off any big signings and had to watch LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Amar'e Stoudemire and company sign elsewhere. Sure, the franchise from NJ would have also been content to land Carlos Boozer or Joe Johnson, but ultimately they missed out on every All-Star level free agent and had to settle for a slower rebuilding approach.

However, new owner Mikhail Prokhorov can be expected to invest large sums into the franchise over the next few years and should be able to help the team to get back on track. Likewise, the Nets hired a solid coach in Avery Johnson who had a lot of success with the Dallas Mavericks earlier this decade, including one NBA Finals appearance in 2006. After adding Travis Outlaw and Anthony Morrow at the beginning of the off-season, GM Billy King recently signed point guard Jordan Farmar to a three year deal worth roughly $12 million. Farmar is certainly a solid backup point guard and won two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010. That said, he often forced the action instead of setting up his teammates which ultimately led to the Lakers looking for a pass-first backup guard. In 2009-10, Jordan Farmar averaged 7.2 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists in just 18 minutes per contest.

Moreover, New Jersey also found an affordable backup for starting center Brook Lopez. More precisely, the Nets acquired Johan Petro who will receive a three year deal worth approximately $10 million. Albeit Petro only put up 3.4 points and 3.6 boards in 12 minutes per game last year, he should be adequate for a limited role behind Lopez. After all, Lopez is slowly emerging as the Nets' future franchise centerpiece and could very well play 40 minutes per contest in 2010-11.

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