Kiki Vandeweghe Hearts Yi
Dec 7, 2009 Del Harris, Kiki Vandeweghe, Yi
Since Kiki Vandeweghe and Del Harris took the reins of the coaching staff last week, there’s been a lot of buzz about how these personnel moves could positively impact the team’s younger players –especially Yi Jianlian.
As Nets Daily reminded us recently, Harris may be most responsible for unleashing Yi onto the basketball world. During the 2004 Olypmics, Harris, then coach of Team China, inserted a 16-year-old Yi into the starting lineup. When Harris and Kiki were hired by the Nets last week, Yi, who has been injured since early November with a sprained knee, and is expected to miss at least another week after getting 50 stitches in his lip at practice Saturday, reportedly was pleased with move.
Now it appears that Kiki is making more exceptions in order to cater to Yi. In today’s practice report, the Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro wrote that Jarin Akana has been invited to multiple practices by Kiki Vandeweghe. Who’s Jarin Akana? In the past, he’s functioned as a trainer, a coach on Jeff Bzdelik’s Denver Nuggets staf and, a part of Harris’ Team China staff. Currently, he works for NBA agent (and Yi’s agent) Dan Fegan. Most notably, he’s responsible for working with Yi, according Dave D.
What makes this move even more significant is the fact that Lawrence Frank had asked Akana to leave practice last year when he was brought in for the same reasons. Akana’s recent reappearance points to two things: yet another example of the rift between Kiki and Frank, and Kiki’s desire to make Yi as comfortable and happy as possible.
It makes sense. While most NBA observers think Yi still has plenty of potential, Kiki took a very calculated risk bringing him over from Milwaukee in the Richard Jefferson trade last season. Yi was starting to put together a solid season last year before injuring his hand, and he seemed to fall out of favor with Frank towards the end of the year. He got another chance this season, but got hurt before he was able to prove if he deserved it.
But with this new information, I think it’s safe to say Yi Jianlian is going to be a major part of the Nets future – at least as long as Kiki Vandeweghe is involved with the organization. As D’Alessandro noted, there’s nothing wrong with Kiki bringing in Akana – but considering his history with the organization and the team’s prior coach, this looks to be the first shot of many that Vandeweghe is going to take a very hands on approach with Yi.
Brook Lopez is a Good Player
Dec 7, 2009 Analysis, Brook Lopez
Before the season began, ESPN’s John Hollinger was asked in a chat if he thought Brook Lopez had the potential to be a 20 and 10 guy (points and rebounds) this season. Hollinger, a big Lopez advocate last season, even suggesting Lopez was as much of a candidate for Rookie of the Year as eventual winner Derek Rose, told the questioner that he liked Lopez a lot, but it was a “major stretch” to expect him to reach that elite 20-10 level.
But Lopez is proving Hollinger, and some of his other critics who say he’s not athletic enough to become a dominant NBA center, wrong. After 20 games, Lopez is averaging 18.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game, and is probably playing the best basketball of his career right now.In his last six games, Lopez is averaging 24.7 points and 10.5 rebounds a game and looks to be reestablishing the chemistry he had with Devin Harris last season. Against the Knicks yesterday, Harris and Lopez were working well with the pick and roll early until New York went zone and started clogging the lane.
As recorded by Basketball-Reference and pointed out by Nets Daily, two of Brook’s recent performances have placed him in an elite group as one of the youngest centers in the NBA since 1986-87 to have scored 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds multiple times. Lopez actually first accomplished this feat last season against Oklahoma City, making him the fourth youngest center in history to accomplish this. But with his two recent games against Portland (32-14) and Charlotte (31-14), Lopez is the first player under 22 to have at least 30 points and 10 rebounds multiple times since Dwight Howard in 2007. Other under 22 centers who have done it multiple times since 1986-87 are Shaquille O’Neal (one of the best ever) and Brad Daugherty (one of the elite centers in the late 80s an early 90s).
That’s obviously great company to be in. Looking at Lopez’s advanced statistics, he’s improved from last season in nearly every way. His Player Efficiency Rating is at around 19.7 right now, up from 17.94 last season. He’s scoring more points per 40 minutes this season, though his rebound rate is down slightly (14.3, down from 15.8 last year). The one area where Lopez has really disappointed this season, is his field goal percentage, which is around 48 percent – down from 53 percent last year. That has a lot to do with Brook’s shot selection this season. According to 82games, about 48 percent of all of Lopez’s field goal attempts have been jumpers, up from 39 percent last season.
As Sebastian pointed out last week and in his pregame report yesterday, Lopez might see his usage rate increase while moving away from the jump shots under Kiki Vandeweghe and Del Harris. On Friday, only one of Lopez’s 22 field goal attempts was outside of 15 feet. Yesterday, three of his nine attempts was outside of 15 feet. If Kiki and Harris really stress working Lopez in the post more, that 20 and 10 once thought to be a pipe dream by Hollinger, could become a reality.
Games 19 & 20 Breakdown (Also Known As The Keyon Dooling Effect)
Dec 7, 2009 Nets vs. Bobcats, Nets vs. Knicks, Video Breakdown, Xs and Os
We are going to quickly get into the breakdowns today, and these are all going to be positive ones. Over the past two games the Nets have done a lot of things right offensively (Forget about the struggles against the zone. That will be getting it’s own post tomorrow). With a more aggressive Courtney Lee and a healthy Keyon Dooling and Devin Harris, the Nets have been clicking on offense for the most part (Yes the Nets struggled in the second half yesterday, but they put over 60 up in the first half). If they can keep this up, the Nets are going to pick up a few more wins very soon since this upcoming stretch has some very winnable games.
Nets on the Net: 12/7/09 Edition
Dec 7, 2009 Nets on the Net, Nets vs. Knicks
After the game yesterday, the Nets seemed to understand how they struggled against the zone, and were looking forward to working on it in practice this week.
Mitch Lawrence continues his daily assault of the Nets.