NetsAreScorching Posts Revisited: Lawrence Frank Broken Down
by Sebastian Pruiti
Jul 14, 2009 2009 Offseason, Lawrence Frank, NetsAreScorching Posts Revisited
Over the weekend, I got a very interesting e-mail from NetsAreScorching reader Smack Adams:
Sebastian,
Blog-worthy Nets stories must be hard to come by during this fallow part of the hoops year. So I make this request: Re-run your Frank breakdown, revised to the extent necessary to reflect changed circumstances.
1. I expect that your readership has increased since you first posted the piece, so it would be new to many;
2. Frank-related posts always draw heavy comments. So many fans have an inchoate animosity towards the coach, but your post actually articulates the reasons you don’t like him. You would arm these people with weapons beyond the ridiculous (i.e., “he shoulda played Sean Williams 40 minutes per game”), obvious (i.e., “he stuck with Yi too long”), and the ad hominem (i.e. “Opie sucks” and “the Little General sucks”) that sum up most of the anti-Frank sentiment; and
3. I’m pretty sure my pro-Frank stance & analysis will agitate.
I live a land of Knicks fans who cannot see past the Hudson. Help me.
Best,
(Smack Adams)
I think this is a fantastic idea. After the jump, you will find my post Lawrence Frank Broken Down. After the post, I will add some thoughts that reflect the change in circumstance. I think hope I now have some more regular readers, so I hope to generate a pretty solid discussion. I am especially looking forward to Smack Adams’ response.
Lawrence Frank…what to make of him…as you Nets’ fans are already aware, Lawrence Frank is coming back. I have already voiced my displeasure, but I haven’t really sat down and broken down Lawrence Frank as a coach. That is what I am going to do with this post, I am going to look at the pro (not a grammar mistake. I have racked my brain for days trying to think of things L.Frank does right, but I can only really come up with one) and the cons of Lawrence Frank the coach (for the most part, I am going to look at this season only, but there are some trends that go over his whole coaching career that I am going to take a look at as well).
Pro:
He’s a motivator: He always seems to get the most out of his players, and he has done pretty well without a lot of weapons. Look at this year for example, we were predicted to be a 15-20 win team, but we ended up winning 34. Now there are a lot of factors at play when looking at this (maybe nobody thought our rookies were any good – there was a whole lot of turnover from the previous year and many “predictors” thought we wouldn’t mesh too well), but Lawrence Frank has to be given some credit for this. He got a lot out of players like Jarvis Hayes, Keyon Dooling, and Bobby Simmons. Vince Carter seems to go out all for him, and it has been a while since Vince has pulled a “Vince” and sat out with a soft injury. He also got Devin Harris playing the best ball of his pro career, though some say he did that despite the team (we will get to that in the cons). This isn’t just about this year, Lawrence Frank’s teams always seem to over-achieve. To be able to say that you are a .500 (225-225) coach when you coach teams that have players like Jason Collins, Eric Williams, Clifford Robinson, and Mikki Moore IN YOUR STARTING LINEUP for over 5+ years…that right there is the definition of overachieving.
Cons:
Switches Offense Too Often: I am not talking about switching offenses in games, but I am talking about year-to-year. In his 5+ years, Lawrence Frank has implemented a whole new offense scheme three different times. When he first became the head coach, he started with with some sort of Princeton style offense (don’t even get me started on this. That kind of offense would never work in the pros, defenses are too athletic). A little later down the line (I don’t remember how long exactly) he switched to something else, I am not quite sure what offense it was, but i was some sort of motion style offense. This year, he switched the the dribble drive offense revolving around Devin Harris.
Some may say that having a coach play to his players strengths is a good thing, and his switching of offenses is an example of that. I completely disagree with that type of reasoning. Let’s look at the top coaches in the league:
- Phil Jackson – Triangle Offense
- Jerry Sloan – Pick & Roll
- Mike D’Antoni – Run Up & Down most of the time
- Donnie Nelson – Run ALL THE TIME
All of these coaches have their offense and stick to it. They build the team around the offense (An example is how the Jazz got Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer to replace John Stocken and Karl Malone). Another thing that you notice with all of these coaches (besides Jerry Sloan) is that they have moved to different places and their styles have been successful. That means you can bring a system to a group of players and implement it.
A disadvantage of what Lawrence Frank is doing (building you system around star players) is that if a key player gets injured you are pretty much screwed. Let’s look at this year for an example, imagine if Devin Harris got hurt and missed a significant chunk of the season. Who is going to run the dribble-drive? Keyon Dooling is a great backup, and he can play the point, but he would be terrible in the dribble-drive system. The Nets would be scrambling, inserting new plays, and looking for free agents that would fit the plays. It would be mayhem. Now if there is a roster built around a system and a star gets hurt, there is a backup who fills the role pretty well, knows what he is doing, and knows what is expected of him(not as good as the starter obviously). I hope that makes sense.
Roster Management: What I am talking about when I mention roster management, I am talking about how Lawrence Frank hands out playing time. When looking at this problem, three different situations come up. One, he sticks with the hot-hand way too much, as if he is afraid to make a move. Two, he seems to forget about certain players at times. And three, he just makes some bizarre moves in certain situations. I have an example of each one of these situations:
- Situation 1 – Yi. Lawrence Frank stuck with Yi waaaay too long this year. He was pretty good up until the pinkie injury. After the injury though, Lawrence Frank put him in too soon, and played him too much. I have broken my pinkie on my shooting hand during a basketball season. It is honestly the worst, even after I was cleared to play, my shot wasn’t right for like a year. When Yi came back and started struggling, Coach Frank should have pulled Yi, and let him sit and rest the finger. Instead he kept playing him, let the team (and Yi individually) struggle, and now Yi’s confidence is DESTROYED. Plus once he made the move, he found out Ryan Anderson wasn’t half bad. If he would have made the switch sooner, I think we could have mustered a few more wins this year, and in the East, that could have meant the playoffs.
- Situation 2 – Bobby Simmons. Bobby Simmons was pretty solid in the beginning of the season, but his minutes dropped every month of the season. Now I know he was hurt a couple times this year, but there are games that stick out in my mind where we needed offense, situations where Bobby Simmons would thrive, and he just didn’t get the minutes.
- Situation 3 – Brookie Night. (Full disclosure, I didn’t watch this game, but I did thoroughly go through the play-by-play for this post) We all know about Brookie night. T-shirts were handed out and it was Brook’s big night to market him as a rookie of the year candidate. Brook comes out, and it is obvious he is amped up for this. In the first quarter Brook goes for 6 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 block (against Dwight Howard). He gets pulled with 1:59 left in the first with one foul. He doesn’t get put back in the game until the start of the second half. This is Brookie night, he’s not in any sort of foul trouble, and he’s playing fantastic. You are going to take him out of the game? You have to be kidding me. I know we are out of the playoffs, and he probably wants to see Boone play, but you can’t wait until the second half, after most of the fans leave? It is a weird move to make, and it has to have disappointed Brook, him being a young guy and all. These are the kind of moves that get your “voice” lost with the players. This personally bothered me a lot (you can probably tell with how much I am writing about it) when I read and heard about it. Brook Lopez was a real big bright spot for us, and it just seems Lawrence Frank kind of just messed up his night.
Losing favor with the players: This is a biggie. It seems like his “voice” is starting to be lost with the players. This is the kind of thing that happens with motivational coaches. You wonder why Scott Skiles (I use Skiles as an example, because I still sort of follow the team from the Jordan days) has jumped from job to job? He gets so much out of his players that eventually the team just doesn’t want to give it to Skiles anymore. Right or wrong, that is what happens. I see this happening with Lawrence Frank.
Many saw our late season collapse as the Nets falling back to earth, back to what they should have been from the start (this is 100% off base though. Mainly because those who predict these kind of things didn’t account to how good our rookies would have been. The rookies didn’t get worse, so our expectations shouldn’t have). I didn’t see that. I saw a team giving up on his coach. Again, I am not saying that this is right or wrong, but it is what happened. I mean just take a look what Devin Harris had to say about it.
X’s and O’s/In Game Play Calling: I am a X’s and O’s guy. I love seeing great offensive play calling and late game execution (that double screen play to open up Ray Allen for a three this past Sunday was amazing). Lawrence Frank doesn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I do though…mainly because whenever we get in a must score position the Nets resort to ISO, give it to Vince or Devin, and watch. Now I know there are some situations when a player is hot and they want to do it, but we never…NEVER…run a late game play. There were a couple buzzer beater/game winning opportunities that were missed…and made. Each one of these came out of an ISO set. Don’t believe me? Let’s go to the video:
I already broke this down in-depth, but yeah there is the ISO. What makes this worse is that this came out of a time-out. I understand on a miss or a make sometimes you have to go with the ISO on the fly because there isn’t time to set anything up. However, when you are doing this out of a time out, that just shows your lack of play-calling.
What about that game at Toronto. We hit a shot to send it into overtime, surely they had to have run a great play to get the shot right? RIGHT??? Two late game situations before even getting to the buzzer beater and look at what we get. ISO for Devin:
Then an ISO for Vince:
And now on to the game tying three…coming out of a time-out:
I can imagine being in that huddle. “OK Vince. Just run really hard to the top of the key, catch the ball, and take a highly contested shot.” Now in this case, they worked. But far too many times, plays like this didn’t work (see Celtics-Nets video).
Wasn’t a NBA player: Now I will admit, this is a bit of a stretch (and I won’t get into this too much here. Eventually I do want to do a huge post about this and research it), but seriously lets take a look at the top NBA coaches. They all seem to have been players in the NBA. Pat Riley, Rick Adleman, Rudy Tomjanovich, Phil Jackson, and Mike Brown (this year’s coach of the year should be included here – plus these are the only ones I can think of off of the top of my head at 3:30 in the morning) all were players in the NBA. The one exception I can think of is Greg Popovich (although – he did play in college and many feel like he could have played in the NBA, but right after receiving his degree, he served his required 5 years of Military Service). Lawrence Frank didn’t play in the NBA.
Why is this important? Again, this is just my opinion, but I think a player in the NBA turned coach can just relate to his players better. He understands the situations he is putting his players in. During the game, he understands what his players are feeling. It is just my opinion that having had played in the NBA, coaches just have a better feel of the game.
Notice the positives I mentioned. These seem to be categories where Lawrence Frank is lacking. He is starting to lose his “voice” with the players, and as I already have mentioned, he just doesn’t seem to have a “feel” for the game. It just seems that Lawrence Frank has a knack for bizarre substitutions and uncreative playcalling.
Alright, I got this off of my chest now, and that is probably for the best. Lawrence Frank is the Nets coach, and I want the Nets to be successful, therefore via the transitive property I want Lawrence Frank to be successful. So…let’s go Lawrence Frank!
—
A lot has changed since this original article was posted, so let us look at these changes with respect to Lawrence Frank.
The offense. The roster now more suitably fits his new dribble drive offense. No matter how awesome Vince Carter played, he wasn’t really an “attack the basket” type of player that you need for this system to thrive. Courtney Lee is. Terrence Williams is. And it is starting to look like CDR is determined to attack the basket more. Last year I wasn’t too excited about the dribble-drive offense because it seemed like Devin Harris was the only guy it would work for. Now we have a couple guys who can make this offense exciting. I am looking forward to it.
Yi. Ryan Anderson is gone. We might as well accept it Nets fans, because no matter how much we wish, he isn’t coming back. This means that Yi is going to be forced into a lot of playing time (Tony Battie isn’t going to be able to handle stater-type minutes). I think Frank did a poor job of handling Yi last year (didn’t give him enough minutes early/left him in too long after being injured). I am going to keep my eye on this next year.
Frank’s Staying. Let’s say that the Nets start the year 0-15, Lawrence Frank isn’t going anywhere. Despite what the Nets’ front office says, Bruce Ratner was definitly behind the decision to keep Frank, because there is no way that Ratner is going to pay two coaches’ salaries next year. Since we found out Frank was staying, Ratner’s money situation has only gotten worse. He is going to make sure Lawrence Frank earns his money next year.
Youth. For many fans of the New Jersey Nets, the biggest issue they have with Lawrence Frank is his development of younger players. Last year he did a pretty solid job, but he is going to have to prove it wasn’t just good players playing well. This is a young team, and I think it is going to be a challange for Frank. Why? Well the main reason is his coaching style. Lawrence Frank is the type of coach who will get in your face, yell at you, and throw you under the bus (kinda) to the media. It is a style that many guys coming out of college isn’t used to, so it is going to be interesting to see how he handles a team with very few vets.
—
The main reason I re-posted this is because I want to see what you guys think of the whole situation. I assume that most of you reading this today read it for the first time, so please make your opinions heard! This should be an interesting discussion.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:17 PM
In no particular order, my responses to your post follow:
“FRANK CHANGES THE OFFENSE TOO OFTEN”
Lawrence has changed the offense so often in a never-ending effort order to overcome abysmal talent in the frontcourt. Look at the talent he’s had to play for significant minutes:
2004-2005: Jabari Smith, Uncle Cliffy, Zo, Scalabrine, Collins and Krstic (rookie).
2005-2006: Uncly Cliffy, Collins, Krstic, Padgett, Marc Jackson.
2006-2007: Mikki Moore, Krstic, Boone, Collins and the calcifying Cliff Robinson.
2007-2008: Boone, Sean Williams, Krstic, Collins.
2008-2009: Ryan Anderson (somebody pass me a tissue), Boone, Yi, Lopez, Najera, Stro and Sean Williams.
It gets even worse when you factor in the various injuries and/or panty-bunches suffered by Zo, Krstic, Collins, Najera. 2008-2009 was the first season under Frank where he had starter talent at both power positions. Unfortunately, those talented fellows were both rookies. Lopez developed into a legitimate starter in the second half. Barring trade or injury, Anderson will never start for the Magic, though I expect he’ll be a valuable reserve.
Furthermore, 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.
WHY I’LL NOT SOON INVITE DEVIN HARRIS OVER FOR DINNER
or
HOW HE LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING (about defense) AND LOVE THE BOX SCORE
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.
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.
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.
All of the foregoing deviate from his prior defensive habits. We can reasonably expect a return to form if Devin objectively analyzes his performance.
EXACTLY HOW MUCH VALIUM SHOULD A PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE TAKE IN THE COURSE OF A GAME?
Third quarter collapses…gotta cut out the half-time lullabyes, Coach.
DO THE NETS NEED A NEW VOICE? I DON’T KNOW. I THINK IAN EAGLE’S PRETTY GOOD.
The idea that Frank has lost his team’s ear is logically flawed. VC and Boone were the only guys on the ‘08-‘09 team who had been with Frank for any extended period of time. VC loved him.
YI OLDE ROSTER MANAGEMENT ISSUES.
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 for immediate answers); had the shooters been able to make both shots and stops. I didn’t like all the lineups. How could anyone, when so many didn’t work, but I believe there was always a solid rationale.
Much criticism stems from the use of Yi. 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. Things might have been different if Yi didn’t have that allergy…to the paint, but the court won’t grant a motion to change the facts. 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.
ISO ANNOYED WITH THIS CRAP
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 (Synergy Sports) 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.
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Nets were predicted to win between 21 and 27 games last season. They won 34. We hear claims that their relative success owed to Player X or Player Y being better than expected. Well, Frank is the guy who put Players X and Y in situations where they could succeed. I’d have kept him, and I’m glad they did.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:36 PM
Full disclosure:
Lawrence is a relative-in-law. I think I’ve been pretty fair in my assessment nonetheless.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:16 PM
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July 15th, 2009 at 2:27 PM
Wow. Love the blog. Here’s my $.02…
I also felt it was time for L. Frank to go. I agree with your assessment of his “shortcomings” as a coach, and want to add a few thoughts. You said Frank was never an NBA player? He was never a player at any level! It really seems to me there’s no way he can fully understand flying down the lane, throwing your body around expecting the protection of the refs and not getting it and how that messes with your game. I attended a couple of open forums with Rod Thorn, Kiki, et. al., and said at one of them Frank did not have enough passion and needs to get thrown out of more games. The point was he needed to show he understood the players are risking their knees, legs, and ergo their careers with every foray into the lane and he needs to show them he wants them protected.
He mishandled Ryan Anderson. When Ryan was getting minutes early in the season, he was shooting over 40% beyond the arc. Eduardo Najera returned from injury and Ryan’s minutes went to him. Eduardo Najera. First of all, Eduardo Najera is a late first half, late game defensive substitute, secondly, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!!! Here he shows his inflexibility and misplaced loyalty to veteran players (which is kind of the flip side of not developing young player). They will rue trading Ryan when he blows up in Orlando.
I, however, disagree with you on this. I do not think Frank is/was a good motivator. In fact, how can you say he’s a good motivator then say he’s losing his voice with the players? It was clear to me he could no longer motivate after those pitiful losses to the Wolves and the Bucks when the team was supposed to be making a move toward that 8th place. Of course you can argue that players at this level shouldn’t need such external motivation, especially in that kind of situation.
Lastly, the idea that the team “exceeded expectations” last year. That was such a slap in the face to begin with. I thought it was flat out wrong from the day I read it. To me, the expectations shouldn’t be based on what ESPN or Yahoo Sports said anyway! I thought it was an insult to VC (and you know the press didn’t like/respect him anyway); it did not recognize the potential a speedster like Devin had in his first full season as a Net in the Eastern Conference; it totally discarded the possibility that Brook would be as good as he is, or that Yi would perform in a way that would justify the Bucks using their 6th pick on him. I will say I did not see Brook becoming as good as he turned out to be, but I remember him saying he wanted to be a Tim Duncan, and I took him at his word. Also keep in context that he really had no choice to play Brook. He was ineffective coming off the bench, Boone went down with an injury, Brook stepped in and performed so well there was no way he couldn’t start him. Of course, the fact that Brook was shooting 75 – 80% from the line vs. Boone’s sub-Shaq percentage makes that an easy call.
P.S. This just in: Ryan Anderson recorded 33 points and 14 rebounds in a summer league victory over Boston. (July 7, 2009)
See ya!
July 16th, 2009 at 1:41 AM
Thanks for the comment Smack. I wanted to address a few things that you talked about quickly. About the different rosters effecting Frank’s development of a system: I agree with you, the roster turnover is hard to deal with, but if Frank came in and said “This is my system, and I will be sticking with it through everything!” Rod Thorn and Kiki would know what players to give him. He was always wishy washy about his offenses and I feel like he gave up on a few too quickly. That being said, the dribble-drive offense is perfect for the players we know have.
About his voice.
This is based on reports that Devin Harris was telling people he felt that Frank’s voice was lost.
Thanks for the well thought out comment, be sure to continuing commenting here, we should have some fun debates as things continue. Oh and since you are a relative of Lawrence Frank, you gotta hook me up with an interview. Ha!
July 16th, 2009 at 1:50 AM
Thanks for the well-thought out comment man. I always appreciate love from the commenters, as well as well thought out comments. I agree with you on most points here, and about Ryan Anderson, I refuse to write about his summer-league stats. He is gone, and we can talk about him until we are blue in the face, but he isn’t coming back.
I will say it again, with Vince Carter gone, we don’t really need a shooting 4, we need a guy who can create his own shot and take it to the lane. Courtney Lee is that. In my opinion it is easy to find a spot up shooter anywhere, guys with superstar potential (and I truly believe C. Lee has superstar potential) are much harder to find. I would have liked to be able to keep Ryan Anderson in the trade, but it just wasn’t possible, Orlando wouldn’t do it.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Please disregard the tone of the following; I’m in between meetings and. Typing this with my thumbs. Couple of responses:
Pretty sure that the abstract notion that he doesn’t understand “flying down the lane” is not a valid argument. First, what would such an understanding entail? Second, I defer to the judgment of those, such as David Thorpe, Kobe Bryant & RJ (no Frank enthusiast) who have publicly endorsed his coaching.Third, I’ve not heard that particular criticism from anyone who presumably does have such an understanding.
Second: Frank is decidedly not someone who “throws his players under the bus”. You can probably count on one hand the number of times he’s publicly called out an individual player for any (subjective) failing.
Third: last year was the first without two of the “big three”. A lineup centered around those players sorta dictates the system, not the other way around. The switch to a Devin-centered offense was achievable only because Kidd & Jefferson left and VC was willing to sublimate his ego. Now that they’re all gone we can see a team drawn on a clean slate (albeit without spending a $). Also, I think you overstate the idea that a hard-line by the coach would have influenced the FO’s choices of players to bring in. A. ain’t nobody of import coming here in free agency. B. if Frank’s coaching philosophy is the reason the Nets drafted Antoine Wright, for instance, then he should have gotten the axe long ago. Under no conceivable theory would the coach have chosen a shot-less 2 with the wings already held down and the power positions a black hole.
Finally, as a mere “relative-in-law” we’re not exactly tight, so if I’m gonna tug on his sleeve it’ll be for some nice seats. But you’re in second, I swear.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Those italics didn’t work out as intended. Bad thumbs. Bad thumbs.
July 17th, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Thanks for the comments man. In my opinion throwing a player on under the bus just once is one time too many. I know it is a motivation tactic, but it isn’t for me…Again thanks for taking the time to comment.
July 19th, 2009 at 9:35 PM
LooL,
Coach Frank has his shortcomings. Most importantly his handling of minutes. However lets be FRANK (LooL), the nets have had an awful team since K-Mart left. Frank got the best of the Vince era b/c those teams were trash. I think that with this roster he is the perfect coach. If the nets decide to actually build a decent team, then I agree we need a better coach b/c certain stars will roll right over frank for reasons mentioned in the blog. I think as nets fans we need to really start to question things if we can’t land a superstar like wade, bron, or bosh next summer. I’m being serious, if they don’t land a star, I am done as a fan. Thorn and Kiki are awesome, but when are we gonna get serious?
July 19th, 2009 at 10:10 PM
Thanks for the comments man. I agree that if we don’t get a big star there needs to be a shake-up in the front office, no matter how much I love Thorn and Kiki. This is because if we don’t get a star, the didn’t execute their plan. They would then need to be held responsible.
July 21st, 2009 at 10:14 AM
Great article. I am a pro Frank guy but I do agree his roster management always leaves something to uh…hate.
I agree with you that letting go of VC was the right thing for the style Frank likes to play. And Frank tends to play the hot hand and with a team of young players that will work out I think. The biggest issue all season will be the same as when Scott and Kidd were around. If Harris and Frank are on the same page, then the team will be and we will thrive as a playoff team. If we divide coach and player we are in for a kings season.
The one thing also that I love about this dribble drive team is that we have many great FT shooters which will add 5-7 points i think per game from the line, and Lopez with Yao out is the best shooting FT C in the league. Get him on the line as much as Harris and Nets fans will have a lot to cheer about.