The evening of the draft lottery, I had a a Live-Chat over here and it was awesome. We had a great turnout and chatted about us getting the 11th pick. We are doing again tonight, although it will be a tad bit different. This time, the whole TrueHoop Network will be joining us in the chat, so come in, chat, have some fun, and represent the Nets!
Sup everyone. With the draft now only a day away, David Aldridge was kind enough to do a blogger Draft Q&A. I was forunate enough to have a couple of questions answered. Here they are:
- David, in my opinion the Nets are deciding to choose between Earl Clark and Terrence Williams. Who do you think has the highest potential ceiling? Who do you think would have the biggest impact their rookie year? (Nets Are Scorching)
DA: I think they’re going to take Terrence Williams. He’s a guy that fills a couple of needs for them. I think he’s an excellent defender, I think he will become a very very good offensive player for them. I think playing for Rick [Pitino], Rick does a pretty good job of developing guys, getting them ready to be pros. Not that Earl couldn’t become a very good pro, but I think right now Terrence’s consistently level is a little higher than Earl’s
- Do you think Vince Carter will be a Net at the start of the season? (Nets Are Scorching)
DA: Honestly I don’t know. I thought San Antonio was a destination, but that’s obviously changed today, so I don’t know at this point.
It was awesome having a NBA insider answering some of my questions. What is also interesting is that he thinks the Nets are higher on Williams. I wasn’t expecting that, but after hearing it, it does make sense. Williams could potentially become the 3rd PG, the 3rd SG, and the backup SF. He can get minutes at three different positions, which is awesome considering that it will help him develop more if he gets more minutes.
As for VC, it was interesting hearing that the Spurs were trying to get VC for expiring concerts. With that now out of the way, you would think there wouldn’t be too many other landing spots for Vince, but DA isn’t too sure. For Nets fans who still want VC on their team, they are going to be holding their breath this offseason.
For the whole Q&A, it is after the jump.
Update: NBA.com link to the Q&A
Well, big shot out goes to one of twitter followers, Matthew Davis (aka 15048) who sent me a link to TWill’s workout yesterday in Charlotte.
He also made mention to something that I have been hearing whispers about, and that I was finally able to confirm this morning. Apparently Terrence Williams has nixed his plans to work out with the Nets today. This is due to a “sprained ankle.” Fred Kerber reports:
Scratch Terrence Williams’ return visit tomorrow.
The Louisville wing won’t be coming in to workout for the Nets
because of a sprained ankle suffered today.
“He won’t be here,” confirmed team president Rod Thorn, “he sprained his ankle and will pass.”
That doesn’t damper the Nets’ interest in the all-purpose SG/SF who Thorn praised for his “versatility” and “ability to play different positions.”
Now from the video it seems like Wiliams ankle is fine, so what gives? Well it seems like the Bobcats have promised to pick him if he is availible at 12. Most likely with a condition being that he doesn’t work out with anymore teams. Now I could go on a huge rant about promised picks and everything, but I won’t. Good for Terrence Williams for getting a promise out of a team. I still think we saw enough of him in his first workout, and he is still #2 on my board (With Earl Clark being #1).
Gerald Henderson has been added to the workout (Not sure if it was because of TWill’s scratch, or if he was added before hand). Here is Al Iannazzone with the news:
The Nets host their final workout tomorrow and it seems their pick will come out of this group.
As you already knew, Johnny Flynn, Brandon Jenningsand Tyler Hansbrough are coming in, but Terrence Williams and Gerald Henderson have been added, too. For Williams and Henderson it’s a second look.
Brandon Jennings is working out with the Nets tomorrow morning, where he will be competing with Jonny Flynn and Terrence Williams to see who can impress the Nets brass the most. Last week, Jennings wasn’t even going to work-out with the Nets as he was looking to be a top ten pick. So what changed? Well, nobody is really saying why, but one has to assume that Jennings is starting to worry about his stock slipping. Even one executive told an agent on Friday (As posted by Dave D’Alessandro):
As one team exec told an agent Friday that Brandon is “sliding like a five-year-old in the park.”
So why is Jennings slipping? It certainly not due to his skill, Jennings is one of the biggest pure talents in the draft. Sure he is raw, but his potential is through the roof. His skill without question worthy of a top 10 pick. So the reason for Jennings slipping has to be his attitude and his maturity.
People who may disagree with me will say that Jennings’ year in Europe has seasoned him and made him mature. I tend to disagree with that train of thought. First, he wasn’t out on his own in Italy (his mother and brother lived with him – not saying that is a bad thing). Second, he didn’t play too much over in Italy. Finally, Jennings is still only 19. To further strengthen my point, I want to direct you guys to one of Brendon’s tweets (As you may already know, I am kind of a twitter expert) that he put out tonight (It was posted around 11ish):
Now I am not one to be questioning people’s late night activities (I have done some silly things myself), but one has to wonder why Jennings is out at 11 o’clock when he has a work-out with the Nets tomorrow. Especially with free-falling down the draft boards. This doesn’t really look like maturity to me.
As I noted earlier today, Terrence Williams is sky-rocketing up many teams’ draft boards (including the Nets) as the draft approaches. Being the hardworking blogger that I am, I was trying to see if Terrence had a meeting with the Bobcats yesterday (he did). During my search I came across Terrence’s twitter page so I figured that I’d shoot him a message and see if he wanted to answer some of my questions, and he said he could. Williams was kind enough to answer a couple questions for me over Twitter. Even though this interview (I guess you could call this a Twitterview. I won’t because I think it’s stupid) is brief, you can see the type of person Terrence Williams is through his answers. Here is the interview:
- NetsRScorching@TheRealTWill Hey man, you got time for that interview now, or are you about to get in that meeting?
It was real interesting to see that he wants to be a LeBron type player, impacting the game from every aspect. It seems that he has the perfect combination of humility (when he talks about GP and learning from Vince) and confidence (when he said that nobody that he was working against was really challenging him). Another interesting nugget was when Terrence told me he was working out with the Nets again. Williams’ workout on Friday was supposed to be his last one, so it seems the Nets like what they see and would like to see him one more time. It also seems that Terrence genuinely would like to become a Net. Any player that wants to come to the IZod center and ball is OK in my book.
I would really like to thank Terrence Williams for letting me bug him for a couple minutes, and for taking the time to to answer my questions (especially while he was preparing for a big meeting with the Bobcats). Hopefully I will get a chance to interview him again when he becomes a NJ Net!
Before I talk about Terrence Williams’ workout, I did want to share an awesome story that Dave D’Alessandro reported on Friday:
Terrence Williams fared well Friday. They all seemed to like his game and his personality, which is something they had initial concerns about, given the horrendous circumstances the kid has endured in his short life.
And if the suits talked to him long enough, they would have learned something else: If Brandon Roy were a jerk instead of a terrific kid, we may never have even heard of Terrence Williams.
True story, circa the summer of ’99, when one Seattle kid was 15 and the other one was 12:
“Sixth grade,” Williams recalled Friday. “He was playing across the street, and I asked him if I could play. And he taught me how to use the glass and stuff. One thing I’m mad at is, he didn’t teach me how to shoot the ball. He just taught me the ins and outs of the game. But I thank him for that.”
And the rest of us can thank that high-school freshman for not telling a sixth-grader to buzz off a decade ago.
Like I just said, that is an awesome story, and it also shows the type of kid Brandon Roy was/the man he has become. On to the workout. From most (if not all) accounts, it went very well. As Kiki Vandeweghe told Fred Kerber:
“He’s very physically mature, ready to play and he was impressive,” general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said. “He made a lot of shots. His physical ability, the size, strength, quickness, he has all that, basically.”
Now I am going to be honest, Terrence Williams was off of my radar for some time. The main reason for that is because I have been concentrating on watching/studying 3/4 hybrids, PGs, and big 3s (Terrence is a 2/3 – Shoot, he can even play the point in stretches). Despite that, Terrence Williams can ball. He is an athletic freak who enjoys creating for his teammates as much as he enjoys scoring. Here are some more interesting notes about Williams’ workout. This from Ben Couch:
Williams was one of six players to work out for the Nets on Friday, and general manger Kiki Vandeweghe said that Williams had a “very good” session, showing an ability to shoot out to NBA three-point range. He views Williams as a wing who can play some point forward and potentially guard the 1, 2 or 3 positions — and an intriguing option at No. 11.
“Physical ability: size, strength, quickness — he has all of that,” Vandeweghe said. “He really knows how to play, so his passing ability stands out. He makes others better, and plays very hard, so I think he’s a great teammate.”
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The individual workouts have also offered Williams a chance to quell any doubts about his shooting, the one skill he feels might have been overlooked due to his versatility. He says that shooting 8-for-10 from all spots on the floor during drills has opened eyes, and is the likely cause for his rise on many draft boards.
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As you college enthusiasts know, the Louisville wing is unique: He’s more likely to get his first triple-double in the pros before he gets a 30-point game.
“He really knows how to play — so the passing ability stands out,” Vandeweghe said. “He makes others better, and he plays hard. He’s a great teammate.”
“My grandpa and uncles told me to look up Magic Johnson,” he said. “I used to see him always smiling, coming down and making passes, always talking team. I remember they lost by like 30, and he put it on himself, and he had a triple-double, I believe.
“So I just took that whole thing when I was little, in the seventh grade, when I started playing basketball, I just always wanted it to be on my shoulders at the end of the game, and I always wanted to make the pass first. A lot of people like scoring. When you’re a little kid, you want to score 12 points for your mom. I wanted 12 assists.”
Williams’ shot was a big question mark going into workouts, but he worked with all-time great Gary Payton preparing himself for the workouts (This improvement in his shot is why he is sky-rocketing up the draft boards during his string of workouts.):
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Now, on to some more draft rumors and notes. Now it early last week, it seemed that it was a high possibility that the Nets were going to move down in the draft and try to get two later picks in the first round (Trades with Chicago and Minnesota were discussed because they each have multiple picks in the first round), but as the days passed, these rumors cooled off.
So what happened? Well, it is my belief that Nets were trying to move down so they would be able to take both Terrence Williams and Omir Casspi (mainly the Bulls who had picks 16 and 26). However, with teams nefore the 16th now interested in Williams the Nets might not move down and may have to take Williams at 11. That is if he is their man, and I believe he is. Why? Well, Terrence told me (yup I got a quick interview with him – you will be seeing that soon) that he will be working out with the Nets again on Tuesday. The Nets must be interested in him if they want to squeeze out another workout with him before the draft (I also think that they want to see him go up against both Jennings – who happens to be sliding down the draft boards – and Flynn, both of whom will be working out with the Nets on Tuesday.
Williams won’t be going before 11, but the Charlotte Bobcats are very interested in him. In fact, Williams had a meeting with Bobcats’ brass yesterday, even Air Jordan himself was there. So it is starting to seem that if Terrence Williams is going to be a Net, he is going to have to be drafted at 11.
So what would have to happen to see the Nets make a draft-day deal? Well, in my mind, if both Earl Clark and Terrence Williams is off of the board (I think these are the Nets top two at this point), I think they would make a trade with either Chicago or Minnesota. That way they will be able to draft Tyler Hansboro (3rd on their list in my opinion), and then take Omri Casspi (4th on their list) late in the 1st round.
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CDR is no longer the only NJ Net on Twitter. Devin Harris has an account set up, and it looks like it is legit. He made his first twit (that’s what it’s called right?) Saturday, so you should start following him if you haven’t already.
This time we aren’t talking moving down for Casspi. Just moving down in general. This is from the great Dave D’Alessandro:
And yes, they’re still mulling whether they can get as good a player at 18 to 25 (such as Williams) as they could at 11, which would create some trade opportunities.
Toward that end, they’re talking to teams with multiples — Minnesota and Chicago — more than anyone else, with the occasional call to Portland, which wants to move its (24th) pick.We also know this much: They’re not likely to move up for Jordan Hill or Jonny Flynn, whom they like well enough. . . . just not well enough to move up for them.
Now moving down to take your guy makes sense. It means that you are going to get to pay your pick less money (this is something that the Nets are really focusing on), plus we may be able to get more picks out of it (and with Rod Thorn that is always a good thing).
I just hope that we aren’t trading down while Earl Clark, James Johnson, or DeJuan Blair is still available. I like moving down as a second option, but not as a first.
Terrence Williams is working out with us today, and “Physco T” is working out with us on Monday. I will have some sort of update up on Monday (I am going down to AC this weekend to celebrate the 10,000 hits).
I do like to pat myself in the back every once in a while. Today we had out 10,000th viewer click over to NetsAreScorching.com. Now I know this might not be a big number to some sites, but it is to me. And I for one think this came pretty damn fast (64 days and 69 posts to be exact).
I just would like to say thank you to all the readers who do come over, and I hope you guys all keep visiting for another 10,000.