Nets Are Scorching

The Nets bench should have another live body tomorrow night against Charlotte. Keyon Dooling, who’s been out all season as he’s recovered from off-season hip surgery is expected to make his 2009 debut, according to Ben Couch:

Though the Nets have struggled offensively, they should receive a boost from the likely return of Dooling, a sparkplug off the bench last season. Able to play guard positions, Dooling plays solid defense, efficiently runs the offense (notably connecting well with Yi Jianlian) and has developed into a three-point threat, shooting .421 from long range last season.

The boos that filled an otherwise empty Izod Center as the Nets set a record in futility against the Dallas Mavericks last night should be meant for one person, and one person only.

Bruce Ratner.

Lawrence Frank may have been fired, Kiki Vandeweghe may be the GM and now Frank’s interim replacement, and Rod Thorn may be the team’s president, but the mess that is the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets is unequivocally on current owner Bruce Ratner.

As we’ve seen in Ratner’s dealings with the Atlantic Yards Development – the supposed “future home” of the Nets if Ratner could ever find a way to get financing in place – Bruce likes to blame the architects when things get too controversial and/or expensive. That’s why he dumped Frank Gehry earlier this year to go with a more dumbed-down variation of the development. Similar logic was used when at 0-16, the organization decided to dump Lawrence Frank.

But Ratner can’t just keep blaming architects and coaches forever. At some point, he needs to own up to the fact that as the owner of this franchise, he’s been the ultimate failure where it matters most – on the basketball court, not in the courtroom pushing people out of their homes. The hypothetical day Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov takes the reins of this organization can’t come soon enough. One can only hope that afterwards, Ratner crawls back in a hole somewhere, never to torture a sports team, a fanbase and a community, like Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, ever again.

As Nets fans, Ratner has given us no other choice but to believe that Brooklyn is the end game and a return to some level of normalcy for this franchise. We have to believe this, because the possible alternatives are even more nightmarish.

If you follow the Nets closely, you likely already know the many transgressions of Bruce Ratner. The penny pinching. The out-of-whack priorities. The desire for real estate and geography over winning and cultivating who’s left of your fanbase.

I sincerely hope last night’s boos were for Bruce Ratner, because there’s no other rational explanation for them. Why boo the players? It’s the equivalent of shooting the messenger.  Have the Nets had agonizing lapses on offense and defense during their losing streak? Of course. When you look at the faces of Brook Lopez or Chris Douglas-Roberts, do you think it’s for lack of trying? I hope not. The players weren’t the ones directed to trade away their three franchise players for expiring contracts and underdeveloped “youth.” All while Ratner kept his eye on the ultimate prize – HIS ultimate prize.

To use an old cliché, the fish stinks from the head down. At last night’s game, a fan who brought in a sign, “End Ratner’s Reign of Error,” was asked to put his sign away for being against arena regulations – whatever that means. An owner of Ratner’s greed and incompetence should be against NBA regulations. Someday, I hope David Stern realizes this.

Well, for bloggers at least.  Here is an e-mail that popped up in my inbox today:

“Guys – everyday on SportsNation we name a site we like as our site of the day, and in lieu of the Nets history-making game last night, you’re our big winner.  Feel free to tell your readers.  We’re on at 4pm ET on ESPN2 today.  And Michelle Beadle said she watched the whole game last night and sends her condolences.

Chris Healey

Associate Producer, SportsNation”

Don’t believe me?  Want actual proof?  Well, here you go.  Click the image to make it bigger:

So yeah, go watch it!

Kiki Vandeweghe didn’t want to be the coach of this team, but Rod Thorn forced him into that role despite not having any coaching experience.  Kiki was allowed to add Del Harris to the staff as a “co-coach,” though, and Coach Harris does in fact have a lot of experience, and let’s be honest here.  Kiki might have the title of coach, but you know most of the decisions could (and should) be made by Del Harris.  Del Harris has coached 14 seasons in the league and amassed 1013 and 556 (That’s a winning percentage of .549).  He’s been around the block, and while going through the stats of his teams (and the teams that Kiki built in Denver), I noticed some trends that could help us as Nets’ fans figure out what to expect from here on out:

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AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

GameFlow, Two Man Game, Mavs Money Ball, Devin Harris Interview, Tom Barrise Interview

As someone who has followed the Nets closely and loyally for nearly 20 years, I’ve experienced a lot of pain and suffering. I’ve had to endure the unrealized potential of Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson, the death of Drazen Petrovic, Dwayne Schintzius and Yinka Dare, draft busts like Ed O’Bannon and Marcus Williams, Coach “Cal” John Calipari, the penny-pinching trade of Kenyon Martin and Jason Kidd’s “migraine.” So, you have to believe me when I say the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets are not the worst Nets team I’ve ever seen.

Yet, at 0-18, the record books may beg to differ. The Nets are now sole owners of the worst start in NBA history, and if they continue to play basketball the way they did in last night’s second quarter against the Mavericks, I think it’s going to be a real long while before the Nets register their first win of the season.

That second quarter was an out and out embarrassment. The Nets allowed 49 points to the Mavs on 17-19 shooting. And it wasn’t like Dallas was just getting lucky either. The Nets were leaving shooters wide open like Tim Thomas at the 7:59 mark of the quarter, and then Dirk Nowitzki (24 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists) of all people was left all alone at the top of the key behind the three point line at the 3:55 mark. Erick Dampier (18 points, 11 rebounds) was dominating in the post, grabbing offensive boards, and continuing the trend of big, burly centers giving Brook Lopez (16 points, 2-6 shooting) fits.

I could quibble about the fact that interim coach Tom Barrise stuck with Trenton Hassell and Josh Boone for too long in the second quarter. The Nets second unit actually had done a nice job keeping the game tied at 28 after one, and keeping the game close about 4 minutes into the second quarter when Barrise went with his “first string” again. That’s when the floodgates opened. Guys are getting healthy now. It’s time for Trenton Hassell and Josh Boone to go back to the bench where they belong.

But what was most alarming about the game, was even with historic futility staring these players straight in the face, the continued to play without any real urgency. As the the Mavericks went nuts in the second quarter, you could just see the Nets body language: “Here we go again.”  Brook Lopez and Chris Douglas-Roberts had their typical looks of anguish and despondence. Devin Harris had his usual (and puzzling) look of indifference. Josh Boone looked like there were 500 other places he’d rather be than guarding Dirk Nowitzki.

Case in point, at the around the 6:54 mark in the third, Chris Douglas-Roberts made an errant pass and was staring down a fast break with Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion coming straight at him. Marion and Kidd were passing the ball back and forth, and were taking so much time, they were practically begging the Nets to get back on defense and stop them. Yet, besides CDR, not a single white shirt appeared in the frame for the entire play. By the time Kidd laid the ball in, CDR threw his hands up in disgust, and you could more or less see him mouth something to his teammates. The bottom line? One would think that a group of professional athletes wouldn’t want to be known as a bunch of “losers,” but that’s what they looked like last night. And yes, that’s what they’ve become.

As the final second of the game ticked off, whoever was remaining at the Izod Center booed the team heartily. I was kind of shocked by this reaction, because a lot of this losing streak has been a matter of circumstance. The team was especially unlucky with injuries and just some heartbreaking inexplicable losses. How can you boo guys for that?

But then I think about a quote the great Bill Parcells, “you are who your record says you are.” The booing may be an odd response, but I can understand people’s patience wearing thin. This team is no longer as decimated by injury as they were three weeks ago. The time for this team to start coming together is upon us. I wish Kiki Vandeweghe all the luck in the world, because the Nets currently resemble a dysfunctional bunch that’s incapable of putting four quarters of competent offensive and defensive basketball together. If they keep this up, the Nets will surely be challenging more records for futility this season.

Final Thoughts after the jump.
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Chris Sheridan of ESPN is inside the Nets locker room last night, being all nice and observational.

Ian Thomsen of SI is the next in line to question the Nets “heart.”

As part of the 0-18 celebration, Ken Berger looks back at 18 moments of infamy for the Nets.

Here’s Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski’s take on the record.

The always great Basketball Prospectus dissects the Nets woes.

Some signs of the times. Literally.

Here comes the calvary, and it includes new assistant coach Del Harris.

Rod Thorn and the rest of the front office need to live with the choices they made.

Are the Nets cursed?

Mavs owner Mark Cuban throws his support behind the Nets.

Jason Kidd, always sympathetic. Dirk Nowitzki on the other hand has Kiki Vandeweghe’s back.

Deadspin live blogged last night’s game.

Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News is circling next week’s game against the depleted Bulls as potential victory #1 for the Nets, which would bring their record to 0-20.

John Brennan of The Record talks about the Nets futile start, and their plans to move to Brooklyn, is affecting attendance at the Izod Center.

Fanhouse makes the case for new Nets coach, Patrick Ewing (?). Stan Van Gundy certainly makes the case as well.

NBA.com speculates that people will want to coach the Nets moving forward.

Chad Ford of ESPN Insider continues the NBA 2010 draft discussion, and predicts the Nets would go John Wall if they got the #1 pick in June.

Nets Daily looks at the relationship between Yi Jianlian and Del Harris.

Hey, Yi might be back next week.

Well, the Nets made history tonight in their 117-101 loss to the Mavericks (14-5). By falling to 0-18, the Nets now solely own the record for the worst start in NBA history. I would say congratulations are in order, but my gallow’s humor got used up in the second quarter tonight.

• So about that second quarter – the Mavericks scored 49 points on 17-19 shooting. That’s not a typo. It wasn’t like the Mavs were hitting a bunch of lucky shots either. These were wide open jumpers and layups. I guess, the Nets decided to take a quarter off on defense. Too bad, because they were actually able to hang with the Mavs every other quarter tonight.
• For the first half, the Mavs shot 80.6 percent.
• The Nets actually looked somewhat competent on offense tonight, breaking 100 points, and shooting 44 percent from the field – which isn’t really that good, but by Nets standards, those nets were almost scorching tonight.
• Jason Kidd tortured his old team with a typical 16 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds. Just another day at the office for JKidd.
• Chris Douglas-Roberts led all Nets scorers with 24 points on 10-21 shooting, though he also turned the ball over 5 times.
• As Sebastian predicted, Erik Dampier had a solid game with 18 points and 11 rebounds.  Brook Lopez meanwhile had 16 points on 2-6 shooting from the field.
• Courtney Lee chipped in with 13 points off the bench, but did it on 5-17 shooting, including 2-7 from three-point land.
• Bobby Simmons had his stroke going for one night, with 10 points, on 4-7 shooting, including 2-2 from three.
• The sparse Izod Center crowd loudly booed the Nets as the final seconds ticked off. I just don’t know how I feel about that.
• Kiki Vandeweghe: this is your mess now.

Tom Barrise is coaching the team again tonight, with Kiki taking over Friday.  A lot of people are saying that this is happening because Kiki doesn’t want to be affiliated with the record, but he already is, I mean, he is the one who built this team.  So why is Barrise coaching tonight then?  Well, usually when teams scout, they scout a few games in advance.  My guess is that Lawrence Frank already had a gameplan implemented for this game, and they are just using Barrise to execute that gameplan.  Also, it gives Del Harris time to get familiar with the team.  I mean a few days ago, he was the GM on the D-League’s new Frisco team (who still doesn’t have a name), so I am guessing he didn’t go out of his way to watch the Nets.  I don’t know if he is going to be on the bench tonight, but he is going to be watching, taking notes, and trying to figure out who to play where.  Anyway, here are the lineups:

Devin Harris vs. Jason Kidd:

Last year Devin went off for 41 against the Mavericks.  A lot of people were talking about him wanting revenge, and that was the motivation.  I just think it is a poor match-up for Kidd.  I mean Kidd is still a great passing point guard, but he is up there in age, and isn’t as fast as he used to be.  Devin Harris’ strength is Jason Kidd’s weakness.

Advantage: Devin Harris

CDR vs. Rodrigue Beaubois

Chris Douglas-Roberts struggled last game.  I don’t know if it was that he was going against Kobe, or if it was him just burning out after falling behind early.    I wouldn’t be too worried though, and at 6-0, Rodrigue Beaubois CDR has the clear height advantage.  Look for him to have a real bounce-back game tonight.

Advantage: CDR

Trenton Hassell vs. Shawn Marion

I don’t think Courtney Lee is going to get the start tonight, so we are going to see Hassell at the 3.  As for Shawn Marion, it took him a little while to get going this year, but he has scored 12+ points in each of his last four games.  Look for that to continue.

Advantage: Shawn Marion

Josh Boone vs. Dirk Nowitzki

I already talked about Dirk at length today, but I did want to add something.  Josh Boone is going to get the start more than likely, but I still think Sean Williams is the best option against him.  Granted, Sean Williams is probably going to foul out in like 5 minutes, but boy is that going to be a tough 5 minutes for Dirk.

Advantage: Dirk Nowitzki

Brook Lopez vs. Erick Dampier

I think that Dampier is going to give Brook some trouble tonight.  Dampier is a physical player who uses that to his advantage.  Dampier is going to push Brook out of the post and force him to catch it farther out.  Expect to see a good number of jumpers from Brook tonight.

Advantage: Brook Lopez

Prediction

Current Record: 10-7

After tonight you can refer to the Nets as the “record-breaking New Jersey Nets.”  Whenever someone who doesn’t watch basketball ask you, “what record?”  Just ignore them.