1. When Devin played far off the ballhandler or with little effort to stay in front, he could not (a) funnel that man into the Nets’ strongest defensive area or his least productive part of the court, (b) make the ballhandler reset the offense, or (c) force a pass to a weak offensive player/court position.

2. Devin gave up the arc all season long.

3. In man-to-man, Devin too often lost his mark on screens.

4. He regularly got beaten back after made baskets.

All of the foregoing deviate from his prior defensive game. We can reasonably expect a return to form if Devin objectively analyzes his performance.

I’ve got that off my chest and am now free to obsess over my caseload.

I left a comment on TrueHoop noting my disagreement with your Lawrence Frank breakdown. I’ve wanted to debate the merits with you but am having a very busy month at work.

So here it is:

Lawrence has changed the offense so often in a never-ending effort order to overcome abysmal talent in the frontcourt.

Who on the ’08-’09 Nets was underserved or poorly utilized as a result of the offensive scheme? The preseason conventional wisdom was that they’d have trouble finding 35 ppg beyond VC and Harris. The Nets’ alleged forwards and backups far outperformed those expectations.

We can all agree that the defense stunk like a 3-weeks dead bluefish. I place much of the blame on Harris. Like so many young players who develop into scorers, he abandoned his defensive responsibilities. See, Richard Jefferson & Danny Granger. Unlike Granger & Jefferson, however, Devin guards the man who initiates the offense. If he half-asses it, then the opposing team can get into their offense with lots of time to explore their options. Lawrence can’t make Harris play better defense. He can preach, beg, plead and coach, but it’s ultimately up to Harris. You recall that Frank once benched Harris (& VC) for pure defensive laziness. Harris returned the next day and continued to dog it on D.

Third quarter collapses…gotta cut out the half-time lullabyes, Coach.

Re: losing the players/needing a new voice. VC and Boone are the only guys on the present team who have been with Frank for any extended period of time. VC loves him.

I believe Frank stuck with Yi far too long after he came back from injury. His hand wasn’t right, his shot was off. The more Yi played the more he lost confidence. Might have been different if Yi didn’t have that allergy…to the paint. Maybe I see Yi a bit differently than others, but I think he can be more than a 7′ jump shooter. How many times did we see Yi establish decent post position, get the ball and bail on the play. Lawrence has to force-feed Yi down low and demand that he produce inside. If he develops Yi’s inside game, then he won’t be dead weight when his shot’s not falling.

I’m generally fine with game planning, but you’re 100% right about certain poor in-game decisions. Those ridiculous iso’s…every team runs them at the usual times, and it’s statistically proven that the end of quarter/game iso generates fewer points than running the normal offense. Granted, there are other factors at play here, like the other team’s defensive intensity, but you get the idea.

I don’t think we’d have seen so many strange lineups this season had the Nets not been in the playoff hunt (therefore desperate); had the shooters been able to make both stops and shots. I didn’t like them all, but I believe there’s a solid rationale behind the moves.

Bottom line: The Nets were far better than predicted. We hear claims that their relative success owed to Player X or Player Y being better than expected. Somebody put Players X and Y in situations where they could succeed.

I’d have kept him, and I’m glad they did.

I feel like he’s going to be going back to the Magic however he also may look for a team where he wouldn’t be sitting behind someone, ala Dwight or Lopez.