Nets Are Scorching

The Nets get to host one of the East’s elite tonight, and to walk us through the experience is an elite blogger, a personal favorite of mine, Zach Lowe of Celtics Hub.

NAS: The big knock on the Celtics before the season started was whether or not their older star players could stay healthy when it matters most. With recent injuries to Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, are you starting to worry about a rerun of last season’s finish?

I’ve been worried all year long. You never really stop worrying about it. The funny thing about following a team like Boston obsessively is that you get wrapped up in every game, in the development of the team and its individual players, and you forget the fact that the whole season could become effectively meaningless with a single player injury. But this is the reality when the only goal is to win a title.

It’s tough to blog about a miserable team like New Jersey. But at least you get to enjoy those little daily developments without worrying that one wrong break can ruin the entire season.

Doc has been very disciplined with Kevin Garnett all season, playing him about 31 minutes per game. And he was good about keeping minutes down for Rondo, Pierce and Ray Allen until injuries to Marquis Daniels (who played most of the back-up point guard minutes) and Paul Pierce decimated the ranks of the C’s wing people/ball-handlers. Rondo has played more than 40 minutes in eight games since Dec. 22; he’s played more than 40 minutes just 24 times in his regular season career, and a third of those games have been in the last three weeks.

It all peaked Monday night, when (after Doc Rivers was ejected), Tom Thibodeau, the C’s lead assistant, played the same five players (Perk-Davis-Rondo-Pierce-Allen) the final 18 minutes of the game, and four starters played at least 42 minutes.

NAS: What are some of the potential needs for the Celtics as the trade deadline approaches. Who do you think might fit those needs?

The Celtics now have a free roster spot after waiving Lester Hudson last week, and the speculation is (obviously) that Ainge intends to use that spot in a 2-for-1 or 3-for-2 player trade. I won’t belabor the point here, but it won’t be easy for the C’s to add a significant piece without giving up Glen Davis or a draft pick in the process. They don’t have a large expiring deal like Cleveland has in Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Instead, the C’s have a lot of smaller expiring deals linked to players with little or questionable basketball talent (Scal, Tony Allen, Shelden Williams, J.R. Giddens) or players expected to play a key role on the team (Marquis Daniels). Finding a deal that works will be tough.

That said, the C’s could add a useful player making $5-$6 million per year by packaging Scalabrine and Tony Allen. Depending on how borderline playoff teams like Chicago, New Orleans, New York and others fare in the next few weeks, guys like James Posey, John Salmons, Tyrus Thomas and others could be made available, especially for teams looking to get under the luxury tax.

The most frequently mentioned possible trade target continues to be Andres Nocioni of Sacramento. But the Hornets-Kings deal struck Monday (involving Hilton Armstrong going to Sacramento) complicates that scenario a bit.

NAS: Last week, you wrote a piece about our old friend Brian Scalabrine where you look at his advanced stats and conclude he may be one of the worst players getting regular minutes in the NBA (how he beats Rafer Alston is beyond me). Do you have any theories about the decline in his performance? Is there any justification for him to get minutes in Boston going forward?

Well, your old pal Scal scored 9 points on 3-of-4 shooting Monday against the Hawks, so he’s back! He also pulled down a season-high five boards. To put this in perspective, Scal had scored just eight points combined in his last 14 games before Monday’s explosion. He played mostly because Rasheed Wallace was out with some unknown foot injury.

And that’s the justification for him getting minutes—health issues. As for the decline in his play, I don’t think it’s anything mysterious. He’s a marginal NBA player. Marginal NBA players generally perform poorly.

Here at Nets Are Scorching, we value tradition. Tradition bonds families and communities together. Additionally, it gives us all collectively something to look forward to on a regular basis. So with these things in mind, and in celebration of our team’s newest player, NAS will continue The Two Man Game’s tradition of posting a random Kris Humphries photo, fact, quote, whatever every Wednesday – because it’s hump day, and the Nets now have a player who’s nickname is Hump.

Now on with the post…

Back in Hump’s Toronto Raptors day, he did a regular mailbag with The Globe and Mail called “Ask Hump.” Questions covered a number of topics. Here’s one from 12/19/08 and Hump’s response:

I think Hump would be bad ass if he trained in MMA.

Cheers,

Justin

Hump: What is that, some ultimate fighting league? Damn, I’d have to work on my flexibility. Those guys, they kick. What’s crazy about that, not that many fights end up in knockout. It’s mostly submissions, so ex-wrestlers are pretty good. I don’t think that’s my thing.

I wrote something on this a little while back for the Daily Dime, but that was only three games in, so wanted to revisit it today (10 games since his return).  Free Throw Rate measures how many foul shot attempts a player gets compared to the number of shots he takes.  His Free Throw Rate at the time of my Daily Dime piece was .44, today it sits at .46.  This is good for 34th in the league and is a tremendous upgrade from his Free Throw Rate of last year (.25).

So why is Free Throw Rate so important that I am talking about this again?  Well getting to the line is important when you are looking for consistency in a player.  In past years, Yi would put together a nice string of games, but then drop off, and it all had to do with his shooting.  He was a feast or famine player when it came to his jumper and if his shot wasn’t going down, he wasn’t being a productive player.

Getting to the foul line resolves this issue.  I mean, look at Yi’s last game against San Antonio.  He was just 4-17 from the field in San Antonio, but he was able to score 16 points because he got himself to the line 10 times (hitting 8 of them).  Yi is a good enough foul shooter that when he gets to the line he is basically getting free points.  Not only does that help you in terms of production, but getting to the foul line also helps shooters get out of funks.  If you are in a shooting skid, and go to the foul line, that is where you work the kinks out.  You get 10 seconds and of no defense to take a shoot, get your stroke down, and most importantly you get to see the shot go in.  Yi was in a big time shooting funk last year, and in my opinion, he didn’t get to the line often enough last year to break out of it.  This year is a totally different story.  He has attempted 74 foul shots so far this year in 14 games compared to the 123 he took all of last year.

So where did this come from, a lot of people (including myself) has speculated Yi’s new toughness was a result of his injuries this year, and when he came back, he was just a hungrier player.  This may be true, but what nobody really has talked about was Kiki and Del’s effect on Yi’s attacking ways.  It’s impossible to teach toughness though right?  That’s what I thought too, but then I saw Yi working with Kiki, Del Harris, and Clifford Robinson yesterday:

Say what you will of Kiki’s coaching style, but it is obvious that Kiki knows that being able to take shots and still get his shot off is a key to Yi’s success.  He has been stressing it to him all year, and it is obviously working.  Another fun stat, Yi’s And 1 rate (And 1s/Field Goals Attempted) is up from 1.6 last year to 2.5 this year.

Tommy Dee over at The Knicks Blog, has an interesting tidbit about Tracy McGrady and the Nets from last summer: The Rockets had a deal in place to send McGrady to New Jersey for Vince Carterand other pieces, similar to the Nets-Magic deal on draft night. When McGrady’s agent Arn Tellem informed his client he was about to be on the move, McGrady abruptly ended his season by saying he needed micro-fracture surgery on his ailing knee.

Three major NYC city streets are going to be wiped off the grid to make room for the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, according to the Brooklyn Paper: Since leaping one of the last remaining major legal hurdles in late November, Ratner has moved forward with his project far more rapidly than a Nets fast-break. And in December, he sold $511 million in tax-free bonds — roughly half the money needed for the arena.

Meanwhile, another court hearing is scheduled regarding the Atlantic Yards development.

Dave D’Alessandro comes to the defense of Devin Harris: For starters, he’s missed one-third the schedule. And even when he does play, the mandate he’s received from the new staff is pretty clear: “Run the same four plays for Yi and Brook, take your shots down from 18 to 8 per game, and by the way, do it with a smile and pretend you’re on board with this disaster even though we know you’re not.”

Matt Moore at Hardwood Paroxysm has some advice for the Nets when it comes to trading Devin Harris: Don’t do it.

NBA.com sees some light at the end of the tunnel for the Nets: Winning next season might be an order the size of the Atlantic Yards arena project, but in addition to the money the Nets will throw at the loaded 2010 free-agent class, they’ve got 10 Draft picks, five in the first round, over the next three years. New Jersey could end up being a major player before the Feb. 18 trade deadline depending on the status of prospective owner Mikhail Prokhorov.

Bethlehem Shoals over at NBA Fanhouse talks about swapping one Sean Williams for a Shawne Williams.

Marc Stein talks about a potential Utah/Dallas swap involving free agent to-be Carlos Boozer.

Fighting for Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn on Fox News:

First things first.  Kris Humprhies passed his physical, and the deal to send Eduardo Najera is now official.  Humphries got to practice in time to participate through the second half of practice.  When the media was allowed into practice, Humpries was on a far basket working on some post moves as well as the pick and roll game with Chris Quinn:

Jarvis Hayes and Courtney Lee were also working after practice.  They were running through some shooting drills:

A funny story about Kris, as he was walking off the court, Nets’ PR man Aaron Harris had to introduce himself to Humphries before he introduced Humphries to the media.  When he talked to us, the main focus of the conversation was why he hasn’t stuck on a team (the Nets will be his fourth team).  Well if you think about it, he has been behind Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, and Dirk Nowitzki.  Kris was also a topic of conversation when the media talked to Kiki.  Kiki also talked about Devin Harris.  He is in fact playing tomorrow, so that is something to look forward to.  Here are the full interviews:

Kris’ Interview:

Kiki’s Interview:

As for Devin, he answered a few questions, talking about the injuries, and why he insists on playing despite not being 100%:

One final note on practice as a whole.  We have been getting some e-mails from fans at the game (thanks guys, we read them and do appreciate them!) about how the Nets bench was in shambles.  How the Nets players were yelling at each other and not being focused, while the coaches look disgruntled.  I waited until today to see if this kind of stuff was true, and I have to say, I don’t see it.  I mean when a team is losing (in the moment), there is frustration.  Players and coaches yell.  Today at practice the mood was great and the guys were laughing.

A specific example, Del Harris spent the entire time Terrence Williams was shooting foul shots, watching him and talking to him.  Del was really coaching Terrence up, and the mood looked good.  I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Del, Terrence, and CDR (who was there as well) were laughing it up.

I think that this is important, because with all the losing, players tend to get negative and when they are negative, they don’t play at their best (in practice if that negativity is there, they don’t focus and they don’t learn).  This stuff is important.

With yesterday’s news that the Nets are going to hang on to Shawne Williams for the immediate future, despite initial speculation that he would be waived once the Humphries-Najera trade was completed, we thought it would be worthwhile to provide a little information about the Nets new player.

While Dave D’Alessandro was quite snarky in his write-up of Williams, there is/was talent there at some point. As a freshman at Memphis (teammates with Chris Douglas-Roberts), the 6’9″ forward averaged 13.2 points and 6.2 rebounds and was named Conference USA Tournament MVP. Before the 2006 draft, where he was picked 17th by the Indiana Pacers, your friend and mine, John Calipari labeled Williams a “sleeper.”

While Williams has yet to live up to his potential on the court, it’s been his off-the-court antics that have truly torpedoed his career. In September 2007, he was busted for marijuana possession and for driving without a license. In February 2008, a friend of Williams’ wanted in connection for a Tennessee murder, was arrested leaving Williams’ house. Earlier this year, he was basically told by the Mavericks to just stay away.

Tim Donahue, who writes for the TrueHoop Pacers blog Eight Points Nine Seconds, was never a huge believer in Williams, but “there was a sizable contingent of Pacer fans that were absolutely convinced that the was going to be a better player than Danny Granger.”

“Problem is he’s one of those guys that makes a promising first impression, but then never, ever shows any progress,” Donahue added. “Couple his inability to improve as a basketball player with the situational judgment of a ham sandwich, and you’ve got a bust. He’s still in the league, because of his guaranteed contract.  Think an unmotivated Tim Thomas.”

Sounds like he’ll fit right in around here.

So the common theme surrounding the New Jersey Nets is that after shipping out Rafer Alston, Sean Williams and Eduardo Najera, they’re not even close to being done with their roster makeover. According to numerous league sources, Josh Boone, Tony Battie, Trenton Hassell and Bobby Simmons could all be shipped out at any time, provided the Nets get what they’re looking for in return (younger players who won’t put in a dent in the cap flexibility for the summer). Heck, ESPN’s Chad Ford suggested that even Devin Harris could be on the block if he nets the team a superstar.

But looking at more realistic roster scenarios, ESPN’s Marc Stein recently suggested the Nets are trying to dump their veterans and free up roster space for “fresh blood from the D-League.”

Whenever I see firesales of this magnitude it seems to indicate one thing – a team is tanking the season in an effort to secure a top flight pick in the draft. The fact that the Nets appear more interested in importing D-League players, who they can likely sign on super short-term 10-day contracts, in favor of winning a few more games with some of their veterans, is a clear indicator that they’ve officially given up on trying to salvage any respectability this season.

Or is it? There’s one huge whole in this logic that must be considered for fans and spectators who criticize the “tank” strategy. The Nets have been incredibly awful with their current mix of young up-and-coming players and veteran, playoff –tested guys. At 3-34, is there really any reason to believe the Nets are a better team with Rafer Alston and Eduardo Najera rather than Chris Quinn and Kris Humphries?

The Nets are in a unique situation that a “tanking” strategy could actually make them better. What’s better for a team that’s currently built around five 20-something guys in Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Yi Jianlian and Chris Douglas-Roberts (provided they’re not on the block too)? Picking up players for their bench who have been overlooked for playing time in playoff towns like Miami and Dallas, and filling out the roster using D-League guys who are trying to prove that their NBA-caliber? Or having a veteran guy like Alston who only seemed to succeed in New Jersey at alienating the immature young-uns like Terrence Williams and CDR. Eduardo Najera was supposed to bring toughness and grit off the bench, but he couldn’t keep his body from breaking down long enough to be an example for anyone.

Read more…

Hey, I know that Sebastian Pruiti guy. Check out his breakdown of the critical possession of the Nets-Hornets game from Friday.

Rod Thorn on trades; more to come: “You’re probably going to see some major deals before it’s over with,” he said. “We’ll be talking to people on a daily basis to see if there’s other things we can do that we feel will help, whether it be short term or long term.”

Dave D’Alessandro profiles the two newest Nets, and wonders if their acquisitions makes the roster more “high-maintenance.”

Eduardo Najera is one happy dude now that he’s been traded; “Today is the first time I’ve been able to smile.”

In Orlando, our old friend Vince Carter may be headed to the bench in favor of JJ Redick. Orlando Pinestriped Post (formerly Third Quarter Collapse) has the analysis.

Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn is trying to connect the dots between Gilbert Arenas and Mikhail Prokhorov.

Speaking of DDDB and Daniel Goldstein, he’s “still not going anywhere.” Hat tip NetsDaily.