Nets Are Scorching

Similar to NAS, Al Iannazzone calls this a must win for the Nets today.

Shaun Powell at NBA.com thinks there are better days ahead for the Nets.

Meanwhile, in his countdown column at SI, Ian Thomsen says there are three reasons why the Nets aren’t the NBA’s worst team.

John Hollinger at ESPN Insider previews this afternoon’s Knicks/Nets match-up. Al Iannazzone, wearing his Nets Insider cap, also compares the Knicks and the Nets and determines the Nets to be in better shape.

Neither the Knicks or Nets are generating much in TV ratings these days.

Just to really establish that yes, the Nets and Knicks are bad, the Daily News talks with local high school stars who rip on the teams.

The Brooklyn Paper reviews the Atlantic Yards project.

Rory from Slippery When Nets, predicts six wins for the Nets this season. Ouch.

Some news out of Nets practice today. Devin Harris still seems to be a definite go off the bench tomorrow against the Knicks, though expectations as to how much he’ll play are being kept to a minimum.

Meanwhile, Courtney Lee is looking possible for Tuesday against Denver, and Tony Battie, who hasn’t played a single game yet this season, could follow soon after.

From the Post’s Fred Kerber:

“I practiced a little bit today,” (Courtney) Lee said. “Timmy (athletic trainer Walsh) just wants to make sure, be 100 percent positive that when I come back it won’t be (any) re-occurring injury. I’m fine with it. It definitely (stinks) sitting on the side watching my guys go out there and play.”

And here’s Tony:

“I’m making huge strides,” Battie said but cautioned against any sort of timetable. “I went through practice, let’s just see how it feels.”

It’s the middle of November, so I can’t believe I’m saying this either, but the Nets have to beat the New York Knicks tomorrow.

Yes, I just called a November 21 match-up between an 0-12 team, and a 2-9 team, a “must-win” for the Nets.

It’s a must-win, because it’s their best, and probably last opportunity to end this horrid, deflating losing streak before it reaches lower lows – making the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets a historic laughinstock in NBA record-books.

At 0-12, the Nets are still five losses away from matching the NBA worst-ever starts by the the 1988 Miami Heat and the 1998 Los Angeles Clippers. That’s right, the Nets are just five more bad performances away from matching a team playing in its expansion year, and the ultimate loser of franchises in the Clippers. And while five games is quite the losing streak in of itself, consider this: if the Nets lose to the Knicks and fall to 0-13, their next four games come on the west coast, where the team has been historically bad, playing the Nuggets, Blazers, Kings and Lakers. The Nets, even without this sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, probably lose three of those four games. What’s going to happen if they head to the west coast having to win at least one of these games in order to avoid NBA infamy?

The Nets have to beat the Knicks, because the Knicks are a lousy team. Yes, they have two more wins then the Nets, but this is a team that struggles to score and defend. They rank 25th in offensive efficiency (the Nets are last) and 26th in defensive efficiency (the Nets are 14th). They’re terrible rebounders, ranking 29th in the league in rebounding rate. Yes, they play at a considerably faster pace than the Nets, and live and die by the three point shot which the Nets have a hard time defending, but of all the teams the Nets have played in the early part of the season, the Knicks are one of the few teams I think the Nets are actually better than.

Some things that make me nervous: the likely return of Devin Harris provides a shot in the arm offensively for the Nets, but will he show signs of rust and put this team into an early whole while he tries to shake it off? Also, how does his presence affect the dynamic of the current team, which has actually played well together (as well as they could) while the “stars” nurse themselves back to health. How will Harris affect someone like Chris Douglas-Roberts, who has emerged as a go-to guy on offense in his absence?

Looking at the positives, having someone like Devin Harris back will likely have a domino effect on everyone else. With opposing defenses having to pay attention to him, it should create more opportunities for Brook Lopez and CDR. The Nets can go back to their pick and roll game to get Brook the ball closer to the rim.

But all of these variables are just window dressing for the big issue – it’s November 20, and the Nets have to win this game tomorrow. The Nets have to win because every win is important, but the Nets have to win tomorrow because it very well may be the last game that stands between them and NBA futility.

Ugh, that was a rough game huh?  The Nets were able to contain Brandon Jennings (sure he put up 19, but that is 6 points below his average), but they let Andrew Bogut go off on them.  He has always been a great player in the low post, but the Bucks also did a great job running sets for him that led to easy baskets (he is pretty mobile for a big man which helps the coaching staff run sets for him).  We are going to take a look at two of those:

Set 1 (Poor Rotation)

Here the Bucks are running a guy off of Bogut’s screen.  Brook seems to know it’s coming and he is starting to edge out on it.  CDR does what most NBA defenders are taught to do, and he trails the man coming off the screen.

The screen gets curled, so Brook needs to come out and show to keep him from getting an open lane to the basket.  Bogut is starting to roll on the screen, and this is where the breakdown in rotation comes from.  Josh Boone has his eyes fixed on his man.

Boone leaves the lane far too soon leaving Brook Lopez in no-mans land as he just watches Bogut get the ball in the lane and finishing.  Josh Boone needs to understand who the bigger threat here.  Boone’s man is two passes away, and the only way the ball is getting to him is if there is a skip pass thrown, that gives him enough time to recover.  Boone needs to stay in the lane until Brook Lopez recovers, and if the ball goes to Boone’s man, then he can close out on him.

Set 2 (No Switch):

Here we got another set-piece involving a screen.  This time, Bogut is the one coming off a screen.  Here, CDR is trailing once again, and the set sort of looks like the previous one I talked about.  However, instead of CDR’s man coming off the screen, he quickly sets up to set one.

This must of caught CDR off guard, because it seems like he didn’t call the screen.  Brook Lopez gets blindsided and he gets caught in the screen.  Now usually teams don’t like switching little/big screens because it presents mismatches.

And CDR doesn’t switch this one.  He should have recognized this and switched the screen.  You don’t like having Brook cover a guard, but it is better than giving Andrew Bogut an easy lay-up.

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What these plays show you is that while they lock down and play hard on defense, they don’t really know situations and they break down mentally a good amount.  This is something the Nets can’t do.  The Nets work so hard just to get a shot attempt, and then they turn around and give up open easy to get buckets (in the case of the second set, it only took them 5 seconds to get a wide open layup).

We have looked at the Nets start every which way and while, for the most part, injuries to blame, I wanted to look at what was actually happening on the court. A good way to do that is to look at the four factors. Before we start though, lets talk a little bit about what the four factors are.

In his book, Basketball On Paper, Dean Oliver introduces the theory of the four factors.  We’ll let him tell you about it:

What Basketball on Paper also adds is that these ratings can be broken down into four elements of the game: shooting, turnovers, rebounding, and getting to the foul line. It is those four elements, or “Four Factors,” that really start allowing a strategic understanding of the game.

He then goes on to explain that these factors aren’t just for one side of the basketball.  When looking at the four factors, you want to look at both the offensive and defensive numbers:

So those are the Four Factors, but don’t forget that it is four each for both the offense and defense. A team’s offense must shoot well, but its defense must also shut down an opponent’s shooting. A team’s offense must follow its own misses with offensive boards, but it also needs to keep its opponents off the glass by getting defensive boards.

So now that we have an idea of what the four factors include, lets look at them individually in terms of the Nets season so far (All data from here on out come from Hoopdata.com):

Read more…

In an ongoing trend since before the season started, the Nets made national headlines for their most recent “Ten is Enough” marketing effort, where the team sold $10 seats to Tuesday night’s game against the Pacers as the Nets were riding an 0-10 start to their season. The Nets were able to sell a few extra tickets with the ploy, but the team is still winless. So now what can they do to market tickets?

That’s where Nets Are Scorching comes to the rescue. Taking a cue from “Ten is Enough,” NAS has created some new marketing ploys that are adapted from the names of some of our favorite television shows of the 70s and 80s. Brett Yormark, you’re welcome to use any of these, free of charge. Just make sure you save us some $10 seats.

Different Strokes for Different Folks – Acknowledging the Nets shooting woes, the team looks to get some fresh shooters into the fold. The first 5,000 fans who come to the Izod Center on game day get a chance to take a halfcourt shot. First one who sinks it, gets to show off their stroke in Nets uniform on a 10-day contract.

Experience “Growing Pains” at the Izod – Most of us were big fans of Terrence Williams when the Nets drafted him earlier this year, but unfortunately, he’s still got some growing to do as a player. Fans in attendance get something free from the concession stand every time TWill turns the ball over. Fans get a special bonus if Marv Albert refers to any of TWill’s mistakes as a “boner” of a move.

Fill Our House, See Our “Full House” – Buy a ticket to the game, and see where all talented Nets are – by getting a tour of the tranier’s room where Devin Harris, Courtney Lee and others are treated and bandaged up. Then afterwards, you can join them on the sidelines and watch whoever’s left on the team play a basketball game.

“Perfect Strangers” See the Nets – Mikhail Prokhorov can easily play the role of Balki Bartokomous, while Bruce Ratner dons a curly wig and plays Cousin Larry. At halftime, they’ll do the “Dance of Joy.” This could also double as the “Who’s the Boss” promotion, as long as Bruce Ratner ditches the curly hair for a blonde wig.

Three’s Company – Buy tickets to three Nets games, and a Nets player of your choosing takes you out to lunch, plays hoops with you, gives you a massage and does your laundry. Wait, I think the Nets are already doing this…

Cheer with Cheers – Show up at the Izod with a cast member of Cheers, and see the game for free (I mean seriously, what’s Shelly Long doing these days anyway?). Get free season tickets if you can pull this off when the Boston Celtics are in town.

- For another writers take on the Nets marketing efforts, read CNBC Darren Rovell.

Is Lawrence Frank’s job totally safe because of injuries? According to Rod Thorn, not necessarily.

Terrence Williams is learning he can use his size to takt advantage of smaller defenders. He also currently has more double-doubles (four), than all the other NBA rookies combined.

Al Iannazzone breaks down the Nets woes so far this season: injuries, cheap ownership, etc. Can the season be salvaged? Probably not, Iannazzone says.

A little additional tidbit to come out of CDR’s postgame comments on Wednesday night. The team apparently sat Keyon Dooling near him at his locker to keep him from boiling over.

In an interesting read on NBA.com, John Schumann looks at how to defend the NBA’s elite, and includes how the Nets as a team, have played Kobe Bryant very well defensively over the years.

NBA’s newest union director talks about how the Nets could fare in Newark.

Another lawsuit geared towards stopping Atlantic Yards.

Devin Harris broke the news on Twitter a few minutes ago that he will be coming off the bench Saturday against the Knicks.  The decision makes sense if you think about it, if you bring him off the bench, you got him going against second unit guards for the Knicks, and that should allow him to get adjusted to the speed of the game easier.  It also means that he will probably have his minutes watched, since he isn’t starting, so don’t expect too much from him in terms of playing time.  I (and probably every single Nets fan) am just glad that he is finally back and at 100%.  With Devin back, the Nets could be getting their first win soon.