Nets Are Scorching

Hornets 247 – At The Hive

So you’re the New Jersey Nets. You’re 3-32 and fresh off two very embarrassing losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks earlier in the week. You’re facing a team that’s a great home team and has won their last four games. You manage to hang around most of the game but are still down 9 with about three minutes to go. Then, through a series of bizarre calls and fortuitous bounces, you find yourselves up 1 point with about 12 seconds left. You look at the stat sheet and you realize two areas that have absolutely killed you all year – rebounding and three-point shooting – are in your favor.

And you still lose. You lose because one of the league’s best player’s made a bucket and a foul with 7 seconds left off a bread and butter pick and roll play, and you can’t even get a final shot off because of a nickel and dime offensive foul call off a “moving” screen by Yi Jianlian. Most of the time, I bet the refs ignore what Yi is doing on the screen, but when you’re 3-32, the refs are looking for you to shoot yourself in the foot.

So my question to you, the Nets, is how are you going to respond? Is this a team-building experience where you emphasize the fact that you came back and nearly pulled what would have been one of the best comebacks in the NBA this year? Or does this become just another demoralizing loss, a belt that already has enough notches this season?

With the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets, you just don’t know. I thought their gritty loss to Cleveland last Saturday was a turning point, and it set the stage for one of the most frustrating 5-day stretches for the Nets this season, which says a lot. Obviously, I hope last night’s 103-99 loss to the New Orleans Hornets is a stepping stone. The Nets were down 94-85 with 2:46 left in this game when Brook Lopez was fouled and hit a free throw. Devin Harris was actually taken out of the game and I had figured the Nets were going into shutdown mode, destined for another innocuous 12-point loss.

But I guess the Nets have a little spirit after all. With Harris struggling (4 points, 2-9 shooting), Brook Lopez and Yi Jianlian having so-so nights (14 and 8 points respectively), it was going to have to be one of the Nets wingmen who stepped it up, and Courtney Lee answered the bell. He had been deadly from long-range all game, finishing with 28 points including, 5-7 from three. But what was more impressive was how Lee just took over in the closing minutes. He hit a three to cut the Hornets’ lead to seven, and then was 5-5 from the free throw line down the stretch, finding his way there through bizarre circumstances.

First, with the Nets were inbounding the ball, down 3 with 20 seconds left, James Posey made a foul away from the play, giving the Nets a FT and the ball. A layup by Keyon Dooling, who also seemed determined to carry this team, scoring 21 points in 23 minutes on 8-11 shooting (4-7 three), cut the Hornets lead to 1. Then Lee made a steal off the inbounds pass. Was there a foul on the play? Who knows. Lee actually missed a makable layup, but got awarded FTs and hit them both.

Freeze it in time, and the Nets have an improbably comeback. Of course it didn’t work out that way. It never does. Now, I wait anxiously to see which Nets team show up on Sunday.

More thoughts after the jump.
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In addition to the Najera-Humphries trade, here are a few additional news tidbits:

Chris Douglas-Roberts on the new no gambling rules for the Nets: “A couple of guys gamble, but it’s nothing that’s going to affect anybody,” said Chris Douglas-Roberts, who excluded himself from that group. “I relax, listen to music,” he said. “That’s time to get some rest. It depends on how much we’ve been traveling. But I don’t gamble at all. I don’t gamble, period.”

The neighboring Knicks, on the other hand, won’t ban gambling on flights.

Dave D’Alessandro continues to talk to the Nets about their “Twin Towers” approach with Brook Lopez and Yi Jianlian: “To me, that’s something we need to look for, because it’s a huge advantage for us: two 7-footers who can shoot and score,” Vandeweghe said. “You want to maximize that with a high-low game that (emphasizes) interaction together. Unfortunately, I wish you could snap your fingers and it would happen. That’s a work in progress.

Next up for the Barclays Center: $50 million in steel.

Atlantic Yards Report looks at a stretch of Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn that was declared “blighted” by the Empire State Development Corporation. Good rule of thumb mention here: But a friend suggested an easier measure: “If you’re within five minutes of getting decent capuccino, there can be no blight.”

NetsDaily explores all of the team’s draft picks (10) in the next three years.

Dave D’Alessandro wasn’t kidding when he said a deal between the Nets and the Dallas Mavericks was imminent.  Overnight, the Nets and Mavs agreed to swap Eduardo Najera and PF Kris Humphries, according to Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The Nets also received Shawne Williams in the trade, who hasn’t played this season, and is expected to be bought out of his contract. To make room on the roster, the Nets will formally end the Sean Williams era, cutting the troubled F/C. Wojnarowski expects the deal to be formalized by the league on Monday morning.

Beat writer Al Iannazzone, picking up on the report, makes the deal sound a little more tentative, but agrees that it should all come together on Monday. Iannazzone also thinks the Nets could send a trade exception over to Dallas.

Let’s take a tale of the tape here regarding the two main pieces in this deal, Humphries and Najera. Humphries is going to add anywhere between $200K and $700K to the salary cap next season and is 10 years younger than Najera.

Humphries doesn’t get a lot of minutes in Dallas, but he’s fairly efficient when he plays. He’s currently averaging 17.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per 40 minutes, good for a Player Efficiency Rating of 15.25, which is slightly above average. According to his 82games profile, he takes about 54 percent of his shots close to the rim or at the rim, good for a 54 percent effective field goal percentage. His eFG is about 37 percent on his jump shots.

Here’s ESPN’s John Hollinger scouting report on Humphries, before the season started:

Humphries has two major weaknesses. First, he’s a selfish offensive player who forces shots. Even though he can score, he too often flings quick jumpers and breaks plays, especially when he catches in the high post area. He shoots the ball like it’s contagious, flicking it from in front of his face within nanoseconds of picking up his dribble. The result is usually a low liner into the front rim. He can finish and draw fouls around the basket and is an impressive offensive rebounder, but he doesn’t earn brownie points with the coaches when he lets it rip off the dribble from 15. Also, he needs to improve his foul shooting (58.5 percent career).

The other weakness is his defense. Humphries has a strong build but is undersized for a 4 at 6-foot-8, and his effort is inconsistent. He keeps gambling by trying to steal post entry passes instead of playing solid D behind his man, and with his quickness he should be a better pick-and-roll defender.

As for Najera, the man was never healthy enough in his tenure with the Nets to make an impact, only playing in 27 games last year and 13 this year. Many thought the Nets were insane for giving him a four-year deal before last year, and those critics were proven correct. Najera was supposed to bring leadership and toughness on the defensive end to the Nets, but did neither. When the Nets were showcasing him Tuesday night against the Bucks, he looked slow and out of shape, so we’ll see if he even plays with Dallas.

Sean Williams was probably an even bigger enigma. Swat looked like he had potential his rookie year, starting 29 games and averaging 5.6 points and 1.5 blocks. But he continually did things on and off the court to play himself out of the rotation. Last season, the Nets sent him down the the D-League where he was ejected from a game, and he was also arrested in Denver for throwing a monitor at a store clerk. The guy probably needs help in a venue away from basketball, and from one human to another, I hope he finds it.