Back when I talked about Rafer Alston and his potential effect as the Nets’ back-up point guard, I said it all hinged on whether or not Rafer would be willing to accept that role. Turns out he isn’t.
ESPN1050′s website is reporting that a source close to Rafer says Alston expects to start the NBA regular season with either the New York Knicks or the Miami Heat. According to ESPN 1050:
“New York and Miami are the top two teams on Rafer’s list,” said the source. “He can’t play in a contract year in New Jersey behind Devin Harris and Keyon Dooling.”
I know I should have put this in Nets on the Net, but I did want to give my opinion on this tonight. To me the thing that makes or breaks this report is “the source close to” Rafer. For all we know it could be Rafer’s friend just spouting off, or it could be Rafer telling his friend this, then passing it along to newspeople to try and work a trade. My gut is telling me that this is option number one. The quote just seems full of a “posse wanting more money vibe.” Another reason it seems like that is because, as of right now, Dooling is still rehabbing so why would Rafer Alston through his name in there? That, or Nets’ brass could have told him he was option number 3 at PG (very doubtful in my opinion).
In any case, I hope these aren’t true because in my opinion Rafer is more valuable as a back-up PG than Keyon Dooling is. The numbers showed that Dooling was more effective playing SG, so hopefully that is where he will start the season out.
Now I am not saying we shouldn’t trade Rafer, not at all. If Thorn get something of value, then I am all for sending Rafer out of NJ. I just don’t want to see a trade for the sake of a trade, just because Rafer Alston might not be happy right now.
Brook Lopez is over in Britain taking part in the Adidas NBA 5 United tournament at the 02. While there GuardianUK got a hold of him and talked to him about a lot of non-basketball related stuff.
The New York Times got a hold of the coach I made reference to yesterday, Ettore Messina, and talked to him for a bit. In the article Messina states:
“But Prokhorov’s philosophy is very simple. He says, ‘I select the specialists, they do their job and at the end I evaluate.’ In the four years I was there, he never made a call on basketball.”
That eases my mind a bit, but here’s hoping that Thorn is one of these so-called “specialists”
Here is an interesting comparision of New York billionares Mike Bloomberg and Mikhail D. Prokhorov.
Henry Abbott over at TrueHoop notices that Prokohorov’s deal with the Nets comes off looking inexpensive.
If you only click one link in tonight’s link dump, make it this one. SLAM Online digs up some awesome footage of the Nets’ new owner extreme jet skiing. I’m serious…
Al Iannazzone takes a look at some things we are going to need to evaluate as the season gets going.
Was there any way Brook Lopez wasn’t showing up at the NBA 2K10 Launch Party?
Hoopsworld takes a look at the Nets’ changing luck.
Name: Chris Douglas-Roberts
Position: G/F
Height: 6’7″
Weight: 200
Birth Date: January 8, 1987 (age 22
Birth Place: Detroit, MI
Number: 17
College: University of Memphis
Drafted: 2008, 2nd round, 40th overall by New Jersey
Experience: 1 season
Contract: $736k in 2009-10
On offense:
Chris Douglas-Roberts came into the NBA out of the University of Memphis with the reputation as a scorer. The problem was, until the latter part of the season when the Nets were already out of playoff contention, Douglas-Roberts wasn’t given many opportunities to show off his scoring ability on the court, and instead was probably best-known for the very public verbal berating he took from assistant coach Doug Overton in front of the media during a practice in January.
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