Nets Are Scorching

The Nets were able to use a great 2nd quarter to get enough separation to hold on for the win in the fourth.

• Can we put the Brook and Yi stuff to rest?  It was just a bad stretch for the big guy, and seeing that he is 21, it was bound to happen.  Yi (and Dooling to some extent) is actually going to open things up for Brook.  People have been talking about his lack of touches, but that has been happening all year.
• How awesome is it to have balance?  6 guys, yup let me repeat that, 6 guys with double-digit scoring outputs.  All 5 starters Yi (22), Brook (21), CDR (17), Devin (17), Lee (10), and Dooling (12) off the bench were all in double figures.
• Did you notice that the Knicks didn’t go zone, even though it was very effective last meeting?  Well that is what the shooting threat of Yi and Dooling does for you.
• Devin looked real good again tonight.  Keeping his turnovers down, getting his assists, and scoring.  Let’s hope he can keep this going.
• The Nets only attempted 7 threes, they got a whole bunch of points in the paint, which is awesome.
• The Nets defense was great in the fourth quarter.  The offense got cold during a stretch, and that is usually when opponent’s leads expand and their leads dwindle.  Not tonight, the defense stepped up and held the lead.
• Brook Lopez stealing the ball and starting a fast break is the greatest thing I have seen all year.  Bring on the Cavs!

Before we get to the lineups, just wanted to say one thing.  Expect Brook Lopez to get a lot of touches.  He is playing a smaller big man who he put up nice numbers against already this year.  He is also coming off a game where he didn’t get many touches.  A lot of people are equating the return of Yi to this downturn in production from Brook, but I don’t see it.  He struggled against Minnesota because of foul trouble, plus Al Jefferson looks to be 100% healthy, and he is a very good defender.  He played pretty well against Houston, and against the Thunder, well, the Thunder took defending Brook to the extreme.  The Thunder fronted Brook every single time they could.  This made it tough for him to make the catch, and that is why he had such a rough game.  I am expecting a big game from Brook tonight.

As for the team’s health issues, CDR and Josh Boone are back to push to roster to 13 with Hayes and Najera being the only two out.  Yi/Brook Lopez/CDR/Devin Harris all together again, this could get exciting.  Onto the matchups!

Devin Harris vs. Chris Duhon

Chris Duhon has been playing much better since the Nets and the Knicks played last, while Devin has sort of been treading water since his return.  I think the return of Yi and CDR will help Devin not only put up more assists, but it will help him when it comes to scoring, because in CDR and Yi, you have two more threats out there that defenses need to focus on.

Advantage:  Devin Harris

Courtney Lee vs. Wilson Chandler

With all the talk of Yi’s success and Brook’s lack of success, Courtney Lee is getting lost in the shuffle.  He still isn’t shooting the ball as well as you want him to, but he is knocking down more shots, hitting some threes and playing some awesome defense.  Oh and how about that dunk from Devin’s pass against the Thunder?  I thought there was no way he was going to get to it, then he kept rising, grabbed the ball with one hand, and threw it down.

Advantage:  Push

CDR vs. Danilo Gallinari

CDR is back, and he is getting a pretty favorable match-up in Danilo.  I say favorable, because Gallinari is more of a spot up shooter, and with CDR coming off an ankle injury, a guy like Gallinari is easier to defend, than say, a guy like Brandon Roy.  I am going to be holding my breath when Al Harrington enters the game for Danilo.

Advantage:  Push

Yi vs. Jarred Jeffries

Yi has been phenomenal since his return, against the Knicks I see that being able to continue.  Yi should be able to pull Jeffries out with his shot, and now that Yi actually wants to drive, he is going to be able to blow post him when he closes.  New Yi is awesome.

Advantage:  Yi

Brook Lopez vs. David Lee

Brook Lopez had two nice outings against the Knicks and like I said above, I am hoping that will continue.  The only thing that could set everything back is if Brook picks up fouls.  Hopefully that doesn’t happen, and I really don’t think it would because the Knicks shoot more than they drive, and that is less chances for Brook Lopez to pick up fouls.

Advantage:  Brook Lopez

Quick Note

Quick recap might be a bit late tonight, but it will be there, so don’t worry everyone.

The New York Knicks are back in town again, so NAS has talked with Tommy Dee over at The Knicks Blog to get some insights about the Knicks’ improved play, Nate Robinson, David Lee and other things about the team.

NAS: A lot has been made about the benching of Nate Robinson, but the Knicks are clearly playing better without him. How much are these two things connected, and how do you see “Nategate” playing out?

I noticed mid-year last year that D’Antoni had soured on Nate, but he was playing well at the time and since they had limited options at the guard spot, Nate still go minutes. This year, with the addition of both Larry Hughes and Toney Douglas, who now will receive rotation minutes, D’Antoni has options. He doesn’t feel Nate is his type of player and as a proven coach, he reserves that rite. In the end, I don’t see Nate being traded or bought out based on the fact that teams had the chance to sign him this past off season and received zero offers.

NAS: David Lee may be playing himself out of the Knicks’ price range by the end of the season. If you were Donnie Walsh, would you find a way to ink Lee long-term this summer?

Walsh’s plan has been clear since day 1, he wants the opportunity to sit down with a major free agent July 1st. Lee has said he wants to be part of the solution here, but as you mentioned, he may demand a contract out of the Knicks’ price range. Is he the defensive presence in the middle on a 50-plus win team? Moreover, the four position in D’Antoni system has to be able to stretch defenders out to the perimeter, which isn’t Lee’s game. If a team jumps on Lee right away in July, which they didn’t do last summer, then his career may be over in New York. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out.

NAS: Part of what’s wonderful about playing in the Eastern Conference is you could be under .500 and still in playoff contention. Any chance the Knicks make a deal that could put them over the hump and into the 8th seed?

I think some Knick fans think that player is Tracy McGrady, but that’s a big question mark for me. They will have to trade rotation players to be able to match salaries. If the Rockets take back salary, read Jared Jeffries, I think Walsh would deal, but the team has played well enough recently to at least sniff 6-7 games under .500. If they get to a place where they can sustain 3-4 games under with this group, I think Walsh will pass on McGrady, but again if he can move Jeffries he has to do it. I’d like to see them take a hard look at Randy Foye who is out of the mix in Washington. He’d help them.

Kevin Durant put up 40 on the Nets and was the main reason that the Thunder pulled away from the Nets late.  You would think with a great scorer like Durant, the Nets would do their best to make him work for his, but that wasn’t the case:

It’s difficult to advocate staying the course when the ship is sinking, but for the New Jersey Nets, it may be their best option.

At practice yesterday, the topic du jour for beat writers and columnists was whether or not head coach Kiki Vandeweghe, who’s also still the GM of the team, would consider any potential upgrades for the roster via trade. There are certainly some high profile names readily available, including Tracy McGrady who seems to have played his last game with the Houston Rockets, and Nate Robinson, who’s permanently glued to Mike D’Antoni’s bench in New York.

But Kiki’s plan is to stay put, unless he can acquire any future “assets” that would add to the Nets core, which as currently constituted includes Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Yi Jianlian. Of course, the other goal in all this is to maintain their salary cap flexibility headed into the summer, when a number of high impact free agents will hit the open market.

“We fought hard and obviously sacrificed a lot to maintain the cap space,” Vandeweghe said. “Right now it would be silly to do anything to turn back that [plan].”

This is the right strategy. While the Nets are going to continue to struggle this season, and could possibly approach having the worst record in NBA history if they don’t start winning some games soon, it’s highly unlikely anyone the Nets could acquire right now would make enough of an impact to turn this season around in any meaningful way. Meanwhile, if they acquire a long-term piece, it could end up costing the team in salary cap space this summer when there are likely even better players available, and if they acquire an expiring contract, like McGrady, it’ll likely cost the Nets a piece or two from their core. The only palatable (and thus, unlikely) trade scenario, would be if a team like the Raptors, was willing to unload their marquee free agent-to-be. The Nets could hypothetically acquire Chris Bosh and then be in the best position to offer him the most money and resign him this summer. It’s a risk that’s unlikely to come to fruition as why would the Raptors trade Bosh if they’re in the Eastern Conference playoff hunt?

As much as it hurts, what the Nets need to do now this season is evaluate and evaluate some more, to help determine who is actually a core player on this team, and who’s roster filler or less going forward. The Nets have certainly done a lot of losing this season, but because of injury, they’ve yet to do it together. The only really had their five key guys together for the first two games this season. Even with Yi Jianlian back and looking like a budding superstar the past three games, we haven’t seen him do it with Chris Douglas-Roberts and his 14 shots a game mixed in. Meanwhile, Yi’s success seems to be coinciding with a slide from Brook Lopez, so it’s impossible to know how these five guys can coexist if they’re never healthy enough to play together.

Of course, it’s possible that Kiki and company get slammed by the fan base and the media for doing nothing, and letting this season get further out of hand. There will be talk about all of the empty seats at the Izod Center, and how owner Bruce Ratner has put a lock on the team’s wallet until Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov presumably takes over. While there is some truth to these claims, it doesn’t change what the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets were all about headed into this season – riding out this storm with the promise of better times ahead.

According to HoopData.com, the Nets attempt 30.3 lay-ups per game, a number that ranks as 4th most in the NBA.  You look at just that number and you think, wow, that is pretty good, and it is.  However, when you couple that with the fact that the Nets are one of the worst teams in the league at converting these lay-ups, you are just left shaking your head at all of the missed opportunities.

The Nets are second worst (tied) team in the NBA when it comes to making lay-ups.  Their field goal percentage on lay-ups, as tracked by Hoopdata, is 55.4%.  The league average is 60.4 percent.  Looking at the Nets’ number attempts again, if they would be at just the league average, they would be instantly 3 points better (I took their attempts and determined how many they would make at the league average – it was about 17.3 – 1.5 more – or 3 points more).  We have talked about how the Nets aren’t really playing good defense anymore and how they just try to outscore teams.  If they are going to do that successfully, they can’t leave points on the table, especially when they are coming from lay-ups.

When looking at the individual numbers, you start to see why the team has such a low FG% at the rim.  The Nets only have 4 players on their roster shooting lay-ups at a percentage over the league average.  Two of them are Eduardo Najera and Sean Williams, so really the Nets only have two regulars shooting lay-ups better than league average (Yi and Trenton Hassell).

I was shocked to see Brook Lopez (58%) and Terrence Williams (48%) with such low percentages, but I am willing to dismiss both of these because one, Brook Lopez has been doing this while facing double/triple teams early in the year, and I can see this number going up.  As for Terrence, most of his missed lay-ups came early in the season when he was out of control taking a large number of attempts at the rim (a lot of floaters and fade-aways).  His shot selection is much better now, so you can (or at least I can) expect to see his percentage to go up.  So you take those guys out, there are 4 guys you can blame for this low FG% at the rim, and they are guys you can expect to keep this number low:

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Brook Lopez, one of the few Nets to play in every game this season, is looking to move on from his rough game Monday night, which was capped off when he walked out on the media afterwards: “I hold myself to high standards and I didn’t meet them and then obviously the loss (factored in), too,” Lopez continued. “Then after the game I felt I didn’t hold myself right, I didn’t act right. It was just a lot of stuff altogether.”

Dave D’Alessandro looks into what could be frustrating Brook Lopez: Lopez averages only 14.2 shots per game — that is the second-lowest average among the top 25 scorers in the league. And the befuddling part is that his shots have dropped sharply (to 10.0 per game) in the three games that the Nets’ top shot-taker (Chris Douglas Roberts, 14.3) has been absent. So something is askew. They’ve stopped running pick-and-rolls for him. They rarely look for the lob over the top when he is fronted. They never re-post it when he sends it out against a double-team.

Kiki Vandeweghe and company are not willing to sacrifice their salary cap space and minutes for their younger players just to get a veteran that would add a couple of wins: “If we can improve it without impacting next year, you always try and do that. To me if we can add assets going forward, that’s important. We’re not looking to bring in veterans to take the time of young players. To bring in somebody here to take Brook’s minutes, or Devin [Harris’] minutes, Yi’s minutes or Courtney’s minutes – we’re not looking to do that. If we can augment, we’ll augment.”

When it comes to the Nets, the Izod Center is in its finals days: A concessionaire selling T-shirts and sweatshirts said he could not lower his prices, as one customer hoped. “But just wait, it’ll be free in a few weeks,” he chuckled.

CCTV talks about how Yi Jianlian’s career high in points Monday night was overshadowed by the Nets loss.

HoopsWorld breaks down each team’s performance after 30 games, including the Nets, who get an “F.”

After Bruce Ratner’s eminent domain victory in Brooklyn last month, Norman Oder of the Atlantic Yards Report takes a walking tour of Brooklyn.