Name: Brook Lopez Position: C Height: 7’0″ Weight: 260 lbs. Birth Date: April 1, 1988 (age 21) Birth Place: North Hollywood, California Number: 11 Drafted: 10th pick of the first round in 2008 by the New Jersey Nets Experience: 1 year Contract: 2.25 Million
On offense:
Brook is one of the few young back-to-the basket centers left in the NBA. After an effective rookie season, one in which he finished 3rd in ROY voting, Brook is looking to come back even stronger this year. Lopez showed a nice back to the basket game, and he also showed a nice touch on his shot:
At practice today, we learned Courtney Lee needs another day to heal before he’ll see court-time.
Chris Mannix at SI.com looks at the Nets and how Brook Lopez will be a focal point of the offense.
Prospective Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov believes the team will become profitable in 2011-12 once they move to Brooklyn, the Moscow Times reports.
The New York Post is reporting that Atlantic Yards opponents are preparing another lawsuit, claiming the Empire State Development Corporation accepted skewed data and failed to meaningfully engage the public during its review of the development.
Dime interviews Courtney Lee who talks about his playoff performance, his new role on the Nets and his desire to play Mikhail Prokhorov in one-on-one.
Earlier this week, there was talk about one big-man, Sean Williams, and how his career is seemingly at a crossroads this season. Ben Couch looks at another member of the Nets frontcourt, Josh Boone.
Chris Douglas-Roberts and Terrence Williams got involved in a dunk off.
Despite talk of trade demands, Rafter Alston is saying all the right things to Fred Kerber, about his desire to play in New Jersey this season.
Darren Rovell of CNBC talks about the Nets finances.
Hedge Fund News reports the Capstone Global Markets First Annual Charity Day, which featured participation by Nets, raised more than $150,000 for The Jasper Against Batten Fund.
Name: Devin Harris Position: PG Height: 6’3″ Weight: 185 lbs. Birth Date: February 27, 1983 (age 26) Birth Place: Milwaukee, Wisconsin Number: 34 Drafted: 5th pick of the first round in 2004 by the Dallas Mavericks Experience: 5 years Contract: 8.4 Million
On offense:
Devin Harris, without a doubt, is the fastest player in the NBA with the basketball, and with the Nets hoping to run a lot more this year, that may make Devin even more productive. I mean in last week’s preseason game, Devin was catching the ball at half court on the inbounds from made baskets. This makes it very easy for Devin to use his speed to his advantage. Devin uses his speed to break down defenders on the top of the key and get into the lane. This was part of the reason the Nets were so good from the corner 3 spot last year. Devin would get into the lane, causing either Bobby Simmons or Jarvis Hayes’ man to sink to help.
The Nets line-up is basically all set. You got Devin at the point, Hayes at the SF spot (hopefully this is just temporary until T-Will gains his bearings), Yi at the 4, and Brook at the center spot. That leaves one position up in the air…yup, you guessed it, the SG spot. It seems that the two players battling for this spot are CDR and Courtney Lee. Whoever wins this “competition” will be starting, and whoever doesn’t will most likely be the 6th man. One thing is for sure, these two guys are really battling it out:
“It’s nasty,” Harris said. “Just nasty. From watching, two guys I can point out are Courtney and CDR. That’s going to be a battle all year long. Those guys are really competitive, they do a lot of different things on the court. Obviously, Terrence (Williams) has got a bit of a bulldog in him, too, but that matchup right there … you can see it from playing in pickup. It’s just going to be nasty. That’s good for the competition and guys pushing each other.”
I know that CDR is the fan favorite here (I love him too! Don’t get it twisted), and I might catch a lot of stuff for this, but I really think that he should be coming off of the bench this year. Read more…
Devin Harris was practicing today and Courtney Lee is expected back Thursday. Both suffered ankle injuries at the hands of Terrence Williams on Tuesday.
Nets CEO Brett Yormark is in London trying to secure international sponsorship, New Jersey Newsroom reports.
Chris Douglas-Roberts is confident he’ll be a factor this season,Al Iannazzone reports.
Hardwood Paroxysm on the Nets:“The Nets are not going to make it to the second round of the playoffs or anything, but I wouldn’t be totally shocked to see flirt with 40 wins.”
So all of the talk about Yi Jianlian missing preseason games and possibly the season opener in Minnesota so he could play in the Chinese national games has been rendered moot. The Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro is reporting that Yi will not play in the Chinese national games later this month, despite considerable pressure from China to do so.
Earlier this month, the Nets had conceded that they were going to lose Yi for at least a portion of the preseason, most probably between October 13-18. Then the dates of the Chinese games changed from October 16-28, Dave D., an apparent dealbreaker for the Nets who are breaking an agreement originally inserted into Yi’s contract by the Bucks by not allowing him to go.
D’Alessandro warns that this issue among the Nets, Yi and China, may not end with this decision:
Case closed? Maybe. Just don’t count on it. When he goes home again, Yi is probably going to hear about it. What the ramifications will be remains to be seen. But if he can say that he wasn’t the one making the decision, maybe they go easy on him. It could be a very sensitive situation.
Personally, I’m happy to hear this is the outcome. If Yi was coming off a strong, injury-free season, I might be more willing to lose him for a week or two in training camp. But the fact is, there are great expectations on Yi’s shoulder this year, despite having proven very little on the court in his first two seasons to warrant it. The Nets are a young team with potential, and the only way they’re going to reach that potential as a team and individually is if these players spend every possible minute on the court together, working in an NBA environment. I understand that it’s difficult to stand between a man and his national pride, but his growth as an NBA player is more important, especially when it’s the NBA that’s paying your bills.
I was originally going to throw this up in tonight’s link dump, but I’m so amused, I thought it warranted its own mini-post.
So, apparently the currently unemployed Stephon Marbury, fresh from playing himself out of Boston last season, is using Twitter to lobby for a job with the “Brooklyn Nets” (hat tip NetsDaily for pointing out the tweet).
In a tweet from yesterday, Marbury writes, “Rod Thorn is my man. I want to play for the BROOKLYN NETS. I said it.”
For those who don’t remember their Nets history, Thorn traded Marbury before the 2001-02 season for Jason Kidd, changing the Nets from bottom-feeding laughingstocks into back-to-back Eastern Conference champions.
Marbury’s desire for Brooklyn is logical. He was born in Brooklyn and attended Abraham Lincoln High School there as well. Of course, even if the Nets break ground on the Barclays Arena by the end of the year, they are still a few years away from playing in Brooklyn either – meaning Marbury will be in his mid-30s at that point. And if his NBA employment status remains as it is now, he’ll also have been out of basketball for a few years by that point. Still, in a summer where J.R. Rider and Arvydas Sabonis have been linked to the Nets, I guess this is not the strangest piece of free agent gossip we’ve had this off-season, even if it originated from the player himself.
On the plus side, people who don’t believe the cache of Brooklyn won’t draw in NBA free agents, look no further than this tweet.
Yesterday, everyone a part of the TrueHoop Network took part in a “GM Poll” asking a large number of NBA-related questions (I couldn’t vote for any Nets’ related players so if Terrence Williams doesn’t get a ROY vote, that’s why). It basically is the same thing as the actual GM polls except that us bloggers were answering the questions. There was one question that really caught my eye, and it went something along the lines of “Who moves the best without the basketball?” My answer. Rip Hamilton.
As I have said many times on this blog (probably to the point where you are tired of hearing it), I am a big Xs and Os guy. My dad was a coach, and I guess that is something he instilled in me. Sure I enjoy talking stats (probably not as well as some people in the network), but deep down, I love the Xs and Os part of the game.
So it shouldn’t surprise you that when I was younger, I used to love watching Reggie Miller play. I can remember sitting down on the couch every time the Pacers were on TV on many occasions. He was the best without the basketball, and when he retired I was wondering who I could watch next. Enter Rip Hamilton. Watching Rip play is just a joy really. The way that he uses his hands, his body to get defenders off-balanced and set them up for screens was amazing. I don’t think I have seen such a good shooter get so many wide open looks just because he knew how to set up screens.
That was the thing that always got me, in the NBA you basically know everybody’s sets. All the games are on TV, and you got coaches who’s job it is to figure out what sets are run when. With that being said, defenders knew that screens were coming, but Rip always found a way to wiggle open. My favorite was watching him run off double screens. If the defender somehow managed to stick with Rip after the first screen, Rip would find a way to make sure he got blasted by the second.
To make this Nets-related (and I guess we should since this is a Nets blog), we can look back to when Rip slammed the door on our playoff chances last year. It was the 79th game in early April, and the Nets were clinging on to their playoff lives. Down by five with about 30 seconds, the Nets needed a stop, but it didn’t happen because…well…Rip happened. Now I am not going to bother you with the whole post (you can click here if you want the in-depth break down…which you should, because it’s awesome), but here is the short video clip of the play.
Just watch Rip. The subtle slide down to set up the screen and to make sure the help takes longer to get there. The way he steps into the pass to receive it, the shot. It is all beautiful to watch…I mean seriously, you are the team’s best shooter and you manage to get that wide open, you have to be doing something right.
As I have said many times on this blog (probably to the point where you are tired of hearing it), I am a big Xs and Os guy. My dad was a coach, and I guess that is something he instilled in me. Sure I enjoy talking stats (probably not as well as some people in the network), but deep down, I love the Xs and Os part of the game.