The starting Power Forward for the New Jersey Nets for the first five years of the 1990s, Derrick Coleman got off to about as good a start as you would hope for when you draft a player number one overall, like the Nets did in 1990.  As a rookie, Coleman won the Rookie of the Year Award with a double-double average of 18.4 Points and 10.3 Rebounds per Game.  In Coleman’s third season, he reached the 20 Points per Game mark, which would be the level he would stay at for the duration of his stay in New Jersey while maintaining a double-digit board average.  He was named an All-Star in 1994 and was a two-time Third Team All-NBA member as a Net.

Arriving in New Jersey as a draft-day trade. Richard Jefferson would become an integral part of the Nets' back-to-back appearances in the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.  The Small Forward would gradually grow his skills, and at one time, he was among the best mid-range shooters in the NBA.  Jefferson would twice go over 22 Points per Game (2004-05 & 2007-08), and over his seven seasons as a Net, he averaged 17.4 PPG.  While he was never an All-Star, a case can be made that he is one of the best players ever who was never chosen for it. 

Vince Carter forced his way out of Toronto, where he put the Raptors on the map, and the landing point of “Air Canada” would be New Jersey. 

Brook Lopez was the tenth overall pick in the 2008 Draft, and he proved immediately to be an excellent choice for the New Jersey Nets.  The former Stanford Cardinal finished third in Rookie of the Year voting, and in his fifth year, he was an All-Star.  The Center played nine seasons for the Nets, where he was often the team’s main scorer. He had four campaigns in which he exceeded 20 Points per Game, and he averaged 18.6 PPG for the team.  He was also an excellent blocker who finished in the top ten in Blocks per Game four times with New Jersey/Brooklyn.  Sadly, Lopez was not surrounded by many other great players, and he was only in the playoffs twice with the team.