Nets Are Scorching

Yahoo sports has the story:

The New Jersey Nets say an MRI performed on forward Yi Jianlian confirmed that he has sprained a ligament in his right knee.

The Nets said Tuesday that Yi will begin rehabilitation immediately and there is no timetable for his return.

Get used to Bobby Simmons at the 4.  It is probably the worst experiment in professional sports right now, but Lawrence Frank seems commited not to play Brook Lopez and Sean Williams at the same time.  Match-up problems it creates be damned!

The other direction Frank might go is starting Eduardo Najera. He hinted at the possibility in practice today.

Going into this season, Lawrence Frank’s record record as a coach was 225-225.  Exactly .500.  After last night’s loss, Lawrence Frank is now 4 games under .500 for his coaching career.  This season’s start has taken him from a winning coach to a losing coach, and whatever “grace period” his magical start to his coaching career bought him is now fading away.  A lot of Lawrence Frank supporters (are there even any of those anymore) point to that 14-0 start as an example for what type of coach he is.  Frank’s trip below .500 proves that this might not be the case.  This being said, I am not delusional.  I wasn’t expecting the Nets to be 4-0 right now, but with what is going on right now (we scored 7 points in a quarter against the Bobcats) you need to look at the coach for an explanation.  When you do that, you find that Lawrence Frank is responsible for a whole lot of head-scratching moves in this short season:

Rotations

I don’t know if it is just me, but these rotations just seem off.  I know the Nets are young, and they have been hit with a bunch of injuries, but even still.  When you have a young team (and the Nets are indeed young, they have the youngest starting lineup in the NBA), it is the coaches job to put his team in positions that make being successful easier.  It is like Lawrence Frank is trying to do the exact opposite.

Some examples after the jump:

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The Nets should be proud of themselves.

After last night’s disgusting 79-68 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats in Charlotte last night, the Nets redefined the word “ugly.” Last night’s performance was so over-the-top ugly, it helped bring back a nostalgic wave of “your momma is so ugly” jokes for me. For example:

The Nets were so ugly, they had more turnovers (26) than field goals (25).

The Nets were so ugly, they held the Bobcats to 32.4 percent shooting (including 19 percent in the first half), and they still lost by 11 points.

The Nets were so ugly, they scored 7 points in the third quarter.

Last one. The Nets were so ugly, they went more than 10 minutes in the second half without scoring a single point.

It’s almost inconceivable to me that a professional NBA team could play so poorly. The Nets have a number of built-in excuses. Their youth and inexperience has already been discussed ad nauseum, and the injuries are piling up. Devin Harris joined Keyon Dooling, Tony Battie and Jarvis Hayes over the weekend. And then, midway through the third quarter, Yi Jianlian colliding with Gerald Wallace and sprained his knee. He’s now on his way to get an MRI on his knee, and is certain to miss some time.

But these excuses don’t explain a third quarter that I still can’t fully wrap my head around.  Let’s look at a sequence of Nets possessions from the point Yi went down with his injury:

5:46: Brook Lopez, turnover.
5:28: Bobby Simmons three-point missed.
5:01: Lopez offensive foul, turnover.
4:23: Terrence Williams jump shot missed. Shot clock violation. Team turnover.
3:57: Simmons jump shot missed.
3:22: Alston jump shot missed.
2:43: Williams jump shot missed.
2:01: Chris Douglas-Roberts layup missed.

And it goes on like this until the 8:38 mark in the fourth quarter, where CDR made a layup and was fouled on the play.
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Al Iannazzone over at Nets Insider found some questionable things the Nets said after last night’s game.

Based on the schedule, after last night’s loss there’s a good chance the Nets could start 0-7 or worse.

David Stern sees the team’s sale to Mikhail Prokhorov could close by the first part of 2010.