Nets Are Scorching

One of the newer entries into the TrueHoop network, Red 94 provides “essays and musings” on the Houston Rockets. Since the Nets are playing the Rockets in Jersey tonight, we asked Rahat Huq from Red to provide some musings about the team he follows for NAS’s readers.

NAS: I’m sure you’ve exhausted this topic on Red94, but how do you see the Tracy McGrady situation in Houston playing out? Does he finish the season in Houston and leave elsewhere via free agency, or can the team find some value in return for T-Mac?

I go into depth on McGrady in these three articles. He won’t leave via free agency because, contrary to popular opinion, the team won’t gain any room under the cap by simply relinquishing his rights.  So he’ll either be traded before the off-season or resigned at a more reasonable price.  I don’t know which of those two scenarios will eventually play out.

NAS: The idea that the Rockets are playing above expectations is probably gotten pretty old for Rockets’ fans, but for those of us who follow untalented, struggling rosters (like the Nets), tell us how a team without its three best players from the year before can get off to such a great start like Houston has?

Chemistry.  Belief in the system.  Belief in a certain philosophy.  These all sound cliche, but it’s why the Rockets win.  The individual parts are also probably better than what is perceived.  Each player has certain qualities that aren’t quantified by conventional metrics.  A guy like Chuck Hayes looks like a 6’5 NBDL reject at first glance, but probably uses his body better defensively than anyone in the league.  Daryl Morey and his scouting department pick up on these things and the end result is what you are seeing.

NAS: After a strong postseason, Aaron Brooks continues to be one of the early-season surprises. Are there signs of him slowing down as the season goes on, or do you think he can maintain?

I think he’s a bit overrated at this point.  Struggles with consistency.  Good player and can dominate certain matchups but probably isn’t yet at the level at which he is reputed.

NAS: In the same vain, what are your thoughts on Trevor Ariza’s slide over the past month?

He’s playing horrifically out of role.  I explain this in depth in “Assessing Ariza.” I think he will be fine once he returns to a supporting role, but it was to be expected that he would struggle as currently used.  He’s not a primary option.

Let’s start things off with a commercial announcement. Those who are excited about Bruce Ratner’s closing on the Atlantic Yards should check this site out for some excellent Brooklyn Nets t-shirts.

Courtney Lee on his shooting slump and his season: “A lot of people if they go in shooting slumps or they’re not playing the way they want to play they can get down on themselves,” Lee said. “I try to stay as positive as possible because I still have the opportunity to go out there and play basketball.

Speaking of Courtney Lee, NBA.com revisits the “layup” that wasn‘t for Courtney Lee in last year’s NBA Finals. Kiki Vandeweghe reacts: “I’ve seen it 10 or 15 times at least,” Nets interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. “That was not just a layup. That was a very difficult shot. Anybody who’s tried a shot like that, it’s not just, ‘Oh, I’m just gonna lay the ball in.’ And to me, the great thing was when he got the shot, he made an athletic move to get the shot off and, second, he was willing to take it. That’s what impressed me. I think that’s the type of kid he is. He’s a great kid.”

Devin Harris is confident that the losing is going to come to an end:  “I don’t think it’s going to last much longer,” Harris said. “When we get out guys back, I think we can put a string of a couple wins together and then we’ll be OK. It’s tough. But everybody comes to work every day, so that makes it a little easier to deal with.”

Here’s a story about a former Net who may have been worse than Josh Boone at shooting free throws. Chris Dudley is running for Governor in Oregon.

Bleacher Report on Vince Carter: A lot of people thought that Devin Harris was the one responsible for the unexpected winnings of the New Jersey Nets. Now that VC’s not with the Nets anymore, the Nets couldn’t even get into 10wins without him.

Sure I posted this a while ago, but it is just to good to not post again on Christmas Eve.  Enjoy, and Happy Holidays everyone!

Mark has an awesome original holiday video for tomorrow, but that is going to be it until Saturday.  See you then!

Six years ago, I first bought into Bruce Ratner’s idea of the Nets in Brooklyn. As a lifelong New Yorker who seemingly punished himself by choosing to root for the team playing in New Jersey, rather than the more easily accessible franchise in Manhattan, I was overjoyed that the Nets would some day only be a simple New York City subway ride away from my front door. And fresh off back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals, I thought the timing of such a move was spectacular. Doing the math in my head, I figured by 2009, Jason Kidd would be playing in his final season with the team, having already brought us NBA championship glory with Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin (substitute Vince Carter for Martin a year later). The Nets would be coming to Brooklyn after clearly owning the title of New York City’s supreme team. Take that, New York Knicks fans, who tortured me with their bravado in the mid-90s and mocked me for rooting for a team that played in a different state and was toying with the idea of renaming itself the “Swamp Dragons.”

Obviously, this master plan of mine (and Bruce Ratner’s) hit some snags. Residents of the Prospect Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn where the arena was to be built were not about to hand their land over to a developer without a fight. And then there was the whole issue of financing this big thing, which became even more questionable when the famous, and now former arena-architect Frank Gehry was waxing poetic about “Miss Brooklyn” skyscrapers. Meanwhile, the Nets got steadily worse where it mattered most to me – on the basketball court. The “Big Three” were traded away to create roster flexibility (aka, salary relief) and this year, the Nets got off to the worst start in NBA history. Then, there was all this talk that if the Nets weren’t in position to break ground in Brooklyn by the end of this year, the project was probably never going to happen. Yet, after so many letdowns with this team and this organization, it was hard for me to say if any of this Brooklyn stuff even mattered anymore.

Now, yesterday’s “master closing” announcement from Ratner and Co. is probably not the definitive victory dance in this fight – but is a clear sign that after all of these years, delays, lawsuits and controversies, this project is as close to reality as it’s ever been. And I must admit, I’m suddenly getting reacquainted with the 2003 version of myself (it’s like the Sport Fan’s version of The Lake House). Finally, the era of the Brooklyn Nets is upon us. For the first time in my life, I will have liked something before it became hip and cool to Brooklyn folk. Now all I need is my Strokes t-shirt and an apartment in Williamsburg and I’ll fit right in.

Seriously though, while the bluster of Brooklyn arena opponents will try and have you believe otherwise, at this point, there appears to be a very thin veil of red tape and interference that will prevent this project from happening. The courts have ruled in favor of the use of eminent domain, the tax-exempt bonds have been sold (and briskly at that), and the project has been “closed.” Ground needs to be broken, and Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov needs to be approved by the NBA (the latter will, undoubtedly happen), and this long strange trip should come to an end, and the next era of Nets basketball will be set to begin. Opponents keep talking of lawsuits and more lawsuits. It’s certainly their right to fight this project to the death, but with very few political allies who matter remaining on their side, their record in the courtroom is starting to reflect the Nets’ record on the hardwood – except even the Nets have pulled out a couple of victories this season.

So, for the first time in many years, I’m back to talk about the Brooklyn Nets like this is something I will see in my lifetime. Sure, my current vision of things may differ from what I was expecting back in 2003, but beggars can’t be choosers.

If you guys don’t include ESPN’s Daily Dime as part of your morning basketball intake you need to start.  It has got everything you need to recap the previous night’s action in the NBA.  It has stats, articles from ESPN.com and TrueHoop Network writers, and a chat recap.

I was allowed to do some stuff for them today, so head on over there:

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-091223/daily-dime-live

You can find some Nets related stuff at #1 and #7.  I wrote about what I want the Nets to get for Christmas and Yi’s return.

Howlin Twolf, View from the Couch, Yi Interview, Kiki Vandeweghe Interview

For Nets fans, there was a lot to be frustrated about in last night’s 103-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves: getting bullied in the paint and the glass by Al Jefferson (28 points, 7 rebounds) and Kevin Love (13 points, 16 rebounds), Johnny Flynn (22 points, 5 assists) running amok for three quarters, an unfortunate (but correct) call reversal by the refs that ended up giving the T’Wolves the ball back, up 2, with about 25 seconds left in the game, and a bizarre final possession that saw the Nets down 4, yet playing for one shot (and not even getting one off).

But rather than focus on the negative – and let’s face it, at 2-27, there’s just a lot of negative about the New Jersey Nets this season – let’s try to accentuate the positive. And to do that, I have to start with Yi Jianlian.

After missing the past 7 weeks with a knee sprain, I wasn’t expecting much from Yi in his return. Despite some ruminations in practice earlier this week, he wasn’t going to start, and Kiki Vandeweghe stressed he was going to get limited minutes. Add in the fact that Yi has a track record of not being very sharp coming off an injury, there was little reason to believe he was going to be a factor last night.

Instead, Yi forced Kiki’s hand and ended up playing a spectacular 30 minutes where he scored 22 points on 7-12 shooting, including 4-6 from three. After looking a bit tentative when he first checked in the game, picking up a couple of fouls and committing a turnover, Yi got a fast break dunk off an outlet pass from Keyon Dooling, and never looked back. He hit his first three at the top of the key at the 1:24 mark, and when the Wolves kept leaving him open in the second quarter, he responded by making three more long jumpers, including another three from the left corner at the 9:37 mark.

What was even more impressive was that Yi was calling for the ball all night. He wanted to shoot. When he drilled a three from the top of the key with about 3:20 left in the game to cut Minnesota’s lead to 92-90, Yi emphatically thumped his chest. It was just a surreal sight – the otherwise mild mannered Yi finally looking like a go-to guy in an NBA game.

And it wasn’t just scoring. Yi was active on the glass, grabbing 8 boards, and fighting against some pretty tenacious rebounders in Love and Jefferson.

Unfortunately, the Nets couldn’t fully reap the benefits of having a big man who could shoot out on the floor because Brook Lopez was just so bad all night. It’s forgivable given just how good Brook has been this season, but Lopez looked off from the get-go, botching a couple of lob passes from Devin Harris in the post. He did have a nice passing game going early (7 assists total), especially with Courtney Lee (20 points, 8-16 shooting, 3-4 from three), who got two baseline dunks in the first quarter off dishes from Lopez. But he finished the game with 9 points, and was 5-10 from the free throw line – a routinely solid part of his game. One of those free throws would have cut the Minnesota lead to one with less than 30 seconds left in the game, making the foul a more logical call for the Nets (keeping it to one possession max). Just imagine what kind of two-man game could have been established if Brook was banging around in the post and if Yi was drilling his jumpers with the same efficiency? That dream scenario will have to wait at least another game. Then again, the Nets have rarely been able to put together a complete game this season, with all of their key guys contributing at the same time, for all four quarters.

Read a few more thoughts after the jump.
Read more…

Despite some reports earlier this month that a deal was practically dead, hope is still alive that the Nets can negotiate a way to play at the Prudential Center in Newark next season.

In leaguewide news that’s relevant to the Nets, Yahoo reports that a drastic drop in the NBA salary cap is not expected at the end of the season.

Deadspin chimes in on last night’s game.