2008-2009 Season Review: The Rookies – Ryan Anderson
Apr 22, 2009 2008-2009 Season Review, Rookies, Ryan Anderson
All this Lawrence Frank talk has got me off track, well now we are back on track…Welcome to the season review series. Here we will be taking a look back at a few themes of the season and evaluate them. In our second edition of the rookie reviews, we are going to be taking a look at Ryan Anderson.
If you would have told me that Ryan Anderson was going to start 30 games for the Nets this year, I would have been surprised. Not because I didn’t like him as a player, but when he was drafted last year with the 21st selection, I pictured Ryan Anderson as more of a Steve Novak/Jason Kapono type of player. Someone who would come in, shoot some threes, and come out.
However that wasn’t the case, Ryan showed a more complete game than anyone thought he had this year, and for the final 30 games he was starting as our 4 (some of it was due to the poor play of Yi, but Ryan played well enough to earn the starts).
In his 19.9 minutes per game, Anderson averaged 7.4 PPG and 4.7 RPG, but what impressed me most was his ability to improve his ball handling throughout the year. Now he is far from being a great ball handler, but if you look at his early games where he would catch, face, and either shoot or pass you can tell that he has come a long way in that department.
Ryan is a tweener and can play either the 3/4 but he has weaknesses in both spots. If he were to play the 3, he is a little too slow to cover the quicker wing type players and when he plays the 4, most nights his lack of size leads to mismatches. In my opinion, he needs to either work on his speed or his strength this offseason so he can break out of that tweener mold and have a set position. I personally would love to see him playing the three next year that way we could have Vince Carter move back to the 2 (But this all depends on who we draft, if we draft a 3, Ryan will see most of his time at the 4 again this year).
Tags: NBA, NJ Nets, Rookies, Ryan Anderson
Lawrence Frank Decision Coming Soon, Just Not Today
Apr 22, 2009 2009 Offseason, Coaching, Front Office, Lawrence Frank, Rod Thorn
This decision better come soon because I am running out of pictures of Lawrence Frank in silly poses making silly faces to use for these posts.
So after using my top notch sources (NJ Nets Official Twitter Page), we have learned that Rod Thorn will make a decision on Lawrence Frank before the draft lottery. Don’t believe me? Well, check out this tweet:
Rod Thorn held court with the media today, and said that we’ll know whether Lawrence Frank will return before the Draft Lottery (May 19).
As I mentioned earlier, Thorn’s biggest concern about rehiring is whether or not the team has begun to tune him out.
The longer Thorn goes without giving any updates on Frank’s job, the more likely he is going to be gone. The only thing that could save Lawrence Frank now is Nets’ finacial situation. If the Nets are hurting so bad financially and they don’t want to eat Frank’s contract and pay for a new coach, Frank will probably stay for his final year.
My source is reporting that video of the press conference will be up on NJNets.com later today, so I will try to pull those videos for you when they show up.
Tags: Front Office, Lawrence Frank, NBA, NJ Nets, Rod Thorn
No Decision On Frank’s Future Yet
Apr 22, 2009 Coaching, Front Office, Interviews, Rod Thorn, Stephon Curry
So maybe we won’t know the fate of Lawrence Frank’s job today. Fred Kerber is reporting that Rod Thorn has yet to make a decision about Frank’s future. Here is what Thorn said this morning:
“We shall see. We’re still in the process of evaluating our season and evaluating the different things we do.”
Kerber is also reporting that Thorn also said he needs to determine if the “voice” still is getting through. In my opinion, this statement makes me believe that Thorn is leaning towards sending Lawrence Frank packing and ending his run as the longest tenured coach in the Eastern Conference. Why? Well, if Frank’s “voice” was getting through, there would be no question about it, and Rod Thorn wouldn’t have to look into it.
Tags: 2009 Offseason, Lawrence Frank, NBA, NJ Nets
Lawrence Frank: The Final Hour?
Apr 22, 2009 2009 Offseason, Coaching, Front Office, Lawrence Frank, Rod Thorn
Word on the street is that we will know the status of Lawrence Frank’s job sometime tomorrow morning. This is when Rod Thorn is giving his end of season state of the Nets’ address, and apparently he will speak about Lawarence Frank. It is safe to say that things are still up in the air, because Thorn will meet tonight with senior management and owners to talk about Lawrence Frank. Other basketball topics will be discussed, but you have to imagine that Lawrence Frank is going to be the main focus.
Now should Lawrence Frank be fired? Meh, I don’t know. Do I want him fired? Kinda. Now this might be a little unfair, but I haven’t really ever been too much of a Lawrence Frank fan (mainly because I thought Byron Scott got a raw deal).
The cases can (and have) been made about keeping him or firing him, but in my gut I think he is gone.
This biggest factor in this opinion is that I would think the Nets’ front office would want to avoid having a lame-duck coach (for those who don’t know, a lame duck coach is one who is in his final year and probably won’t be signed after his contract is up). A “lame-duck” coach presents two problems, one is that a “lame-duck” coach will sacrafice the future to win now because his job is on the line (An example of this is playing Josh Boone over a rookie 4 that we may draft just because Boone would give the Nets a slighty better chance to win now – and that would lead Frank not to get fired). The second problem with having a “lame-duck” coach is that Lawrence Frank will be on a very short leash. Lets say the Nets start the season off horribly and we have to fire Frank, then we are stuck with an interm coach, and coaches that we may have been able to hire might not be available mid-season. I say if we are going to be firing Frank, we do it now so we can get the best coach possible in here.
We will see what happens tomorrow though, make sure you check it here to find out what happens to Lawrence Frank and to get some opinions on it.
Tags: 2009 Offseason, Lawrence Frank, NBA, NJ Nets