EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New Jersey Nets had long come to camp a cast of misfits and disappointments, broken bones and draft busts forever conspiring to turn promise into pity. All those delusional Octobers, the Nets screeched of climbing out of the lottery, sneaking into the playoffs and selling some seats in the empty, echoing Continental Arena.

Completely sanitized of clowns and cartoon characters, the roster is saturated with serious talent and sobering expectations. Jason Kidd insists 60 victories is a reasonable destination for the Nets, a message to his teammates that they have to push harder this season, push beyond the improbable trip to the NBA Finals and prepare themselves as legitimate threats to the Lakers.

Finally, the Nets are constructed for contention.

Finally, they're going for it.

"We played very well last year, won 52 games, were the No. 1 seed and carried through to the Finals and got swept," Nets president Rod Thorn said. "If Charlotte had Mashburn, who knows? We beat Indiana in a series that could've gone either way. But you always try to improve your team. Look at the East and there's very little difference in the teams. We needed to get stronger. ... We made ourselves a better team."

For the Nets, this is a strange new world -- one where coach Byron Scott has the credibility of his Los Angeles Lakers Showtime experience to sell his players. It was three quarters of a season until opponents started to take the Nets seriously a year ago, believed that Jersey should be much more than an easy night on the schedule.

"We were a team that had been in the dumps, with everyone stomping all over you," Kerry Kittles said. "This (challenge) is not the caliber of the Lakers or what the Bulls went through as far as every team really, really wanting to play them, but every team coming into Continental really wants to play well against us now."

The way the Nets are determined to compete this year, Scott is thrilled to have Keith Van Horn out of his life, confident he'll have to spend far less time trying to inspire a telltale starter to compete every night. Van Horn flustered this franchise, but Scott considers this a completely self-motivated collection.

"This fits more the mold of the team I'd like to have," Scott said. "We will be able to defend at every position. ... I know last year wasn't a fluke and obviously people are going to try to prove that this season. Everybody kept saying they were waiting for us to fall last season and it never happened."

Every day, Thorn and Scott have to ask themselves two questions: What are we doing to win? And what are we doing to convince Jason Kidd to stay? When trading for Kevin Garnett was never happening on Minnesota's end, the Nets settled on Dikembe Mutombo. He isn't the low-post power presence Kidd was dying to get on his side, but he's a body for Shaquille O'Neal in the Finals.

He's a center in the Eastern Conference, where those hardly exist these days. Now, with Kidd and Mutombo, with Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson, two young talents management believes are developing into All-Stars, the Nets have the unfamiliar burden of Eastern Conference favorite.

"I think bringing me here was to complete what was missing," Mutombo said. "They went all the way to the Finals and they felt that something was missing ... a piece of the puzzle, and I was brought here to fill up that hole. And I think my presence, defensively, will contribute so much to the success of this team."

The success of this season carries serious consequences for the Nets. They aren't just working on selling Kidd on staying the course -- a scenario that seems most probable -- but they are trying to generate the momentum to get a new arena constructed in Newark. Ownership is threatening to move the Nets and the NHL's Devils out of Jersey, unless the state passes legislation for the arena. Nobody believes them, but the issue hangs over the organization. Privately, Kidd has told people the arena is an important factor for his future.

What seems to matter most of all to Kidd is winning and a chance to do it for a long, long time here. Suddenly, everything is here to make this possible for the Nets. Everything is here to make the East belong to them again. The joke's over in Jersey, where serious talent and sobering expectations overtook the cartoon characters and chaos. The ball stays in Kidd's hands and they understand here now: With that, anything possible. Anything at all.

Adrian Wojnarowski is a columnist for The Record (N.J.) and a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPNWoj@aol.com.