Nets Are Scorching

Just a pitiful effort for the Nets tonight, as they jumped out to a quick 8-0 start, and then completely fell apart, losing to the Bucks 98-76 to end their homestand 1-6 and to run their overall record to 3-31.

• The Nets padded their record rebounding woes, getting outrebounded for the 22nd straight game, this time 44-37.
• The Nets were off the mark all night, shooting 37.9 percent from the field and 20 percent (2-10) from three. The Bucks shot 45.6 percent for the game and were 3-14 from three.
• After his off game against Cleveland, Yi Jianlian responded with 22 points on 7-12 shooting. The “Muscle Devil” was only able to grab 2 rebounds however.
• Just an awful, awful night for Devin Harris, who scored 5 points on 0-4 shooting. According to my unofficial records, it was the first time Harris was held without a FG while playing 30+ minutes a game since December 10, 2007.
• Equally awful games for Courtney Lee (6 points, 3-12 shooting) and Brook Lopez (11 points, 2-6 shooting) who just never got into any kind of an offensive flow tonight. Meanwhile Eduardo Najera made his return to the rotation (trade bait anyone?), and looked awful, scoring 0 points on 0-4 shooting.
• The Bucks got a boost from their bench with Carlos Delfino (17 points), Hakim Warrick (13 points) and Luke Ridnour (11 points).
• Nice return from Jarvis Hayes, who had 7 points and 6 rebounds and was 1-2 from three-point range.

Well then, today has been interesting hasn’t it?  Rafer Alston is out and Chris Quinn is in.  Quinn is a nice shooter, and has a phenomenal NBA.com picture.  I think that this is a precursor to another move, so hang in there.

Also wanted to touch on Rafer Alston real quick.  I thought he was a good fit here, but obviously I was wrong.  He dribbled the ball too much and shot too much.  Plus I still have no idea what he was yelling at the bench that one game, but it does seem like he was trying to be a good teammate throughout, so I wish him the best.

As for tonight, I think that the Nets should be able to get a W if they can play the same way they have been playing for the past two games.  Oh and Jarvis Hayes is back, Boone and Najera are out, but day-to-day.

Devin Harris vs. Brandon Jennings

This is the match-up everybody wanted to see the first game these two teams matched up.  Both of these guys are the new breed of scoring PG, using their speed to get into the lane and cause a lot of problems for the opposition.  Maybe going up against Brandon Jennings will get Devin going.

Advantage:  Devin Harris

Courtney Lee vs. Michael Redd

Michael Redd is a terrific shooter and he has been playing well the last couple of games.  Courtney Lee has been the opposite of a terrific shooter this year, but Courtney has been doing everything else great.  If you want something to watch during this match-up, check out Lee defending Redd.  Lee is a great defender, so that should be fun to see.

Advantage:  Michael Redd

Chris Douglas-Roberts vs. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute

Luc was out the last time CDR played the Bucks, a game where CDR put up 31 points, so you might not want to expect a repeat performance.  Luc is a biggish 3 who can play strong defense and contribute when necessary on the offensive end.  I think CDR will have another 20+ game though.

Advantage:  CDR

Yi vs. Ersan Ilyasova

Jeremy from Bucksketball.com (Truehoop Network’s Bucks’ Blog) has a pretty interesting take on Yi:

One of the great fears many Bucks fans have is that Easy Yi will one day go on to live up to the vast potential he has, scarring us for life and making us forever rue the day he was given up for what practically amounted to one season of Richard Jefferson. In his last five games, Yi has averaged 20 points and seven rebounds while shooting just a shade under 50 percent.  When he was drafted it was expected those types of performances would be common place for Yi, but he did so little in his one year with Milwaukee that he hardly seemed a better prospect than Charlie Villanueva.  Regardless, he’s looked good lately and that has everyone on watch in Milwaukee, even if it probably wouldn’t have happened here.

Advantage:  Yi

Brook Lopez vs. Andrew Bogut

Bogut got the better of Brook the first match-up, but I think that was before the Nets decided to focus on getting him the ball.  The Nets now have a couple of quick hitting plays they can use to get Brook the ball with good position in the post.  Look for him to put up a 20 and 10.

Advantage:  Brook Lopez

Yeah, so this is starting to get more and more interesting.  From Adrian’s twitter:

Miami has agreed to send Chris Quinn to Nets for future 2nd and cash to free roster spot and will sign Rafer Alston, sources say.

From Al Iannazzone:

The Nets are going to buy out Rafer Alston’s $5.25 million contract for roughly $4 million and in a separate move are going to acquire Chris Quinn, Miami’s second round pick in 2012 and cash for a trade exception, league sources said.

When Alston clears waivers the Heat are expected to be the frontrunners for his services.

So Chris Quinn is a good shooter who can play some point.  Will the Nets keep him?  No clue, Adrian’s tweet makes it sound like the Heat are sending money to free up Quinn’s spot, but Al seems to think we are keeping Quinn.  Either way, the Nets add another pick, and you can’t complain about that.

The Nets end their homestand tonight with the Milwaukee Bucks, so we are going to treat you with the final (for now) Bloggers Talk by chatting with Jeremy Schmidt from the TrueHoop Bucks site, Bucksetball.

NAS: After a surprise start, the Milwaukee Bucks seem to be falling to the back of the pack in the East. What are your theories about the decline, and do the Bucks have the personnel to turn it around?

I watch every single Bucks game and I still can’t tell you whether or not the Bucks have the personnel to pull themselves out of the 5-15 tailspin they’re currently mired in.  They don’t really have anyone on the team that can be expected to score 20 points a night, or even 15.  There have been too many wild inconsistent swings on this team and not just from the role players.  Andrew Bogut can finish one game 14-18 and then shoot 6-20 the next night.  That’s the life of a big man with a finesse game, but not 15-foot jump-shot.  Brandon Jennings hasn’t consistently made many shots since his quick start and has settled in as an under 40 percent playmaker, though he can occasionally carry the team for short spurts.  And Michael Redd?  Sigh.  Who knows about him.

NAS: This could be related to question one. Does Michael Redd still have a role on this team?

Coach Scott Skiles is always saying all the Bucks need Redd to do is make open shots.  Well, he hasn’t really been doing much of that, shooting 35 percent and less than 30 percent on three’s.  Redd’s said that he’s not in basketball shape yet, and the only way he’ll get there is by playing, but he’s generally been more terrible than good when he’s been playing.  But the Bucks don’t really have any other scoring options.  Redd’s been a consistent scorer for the last six years and has offensive talents that no other Buck has.  At least, we all assume that he still does, because there have been some games where we’ve seen flashes of those talents.  Whether he’ll be able to stop flashing them and start using them consistently any time soon remains to be seen.  Regardless, the Bucks are probably stuck with him, so they’ll have to keep trotting him out there hoping he figures it out.

NAS: Given their roster makeup, are the Bucks better off making a deal and competing for one of the bottom seeds in the Eastern Conference or taking their chances in the draft lottery?

I’m not sure a deal is necessary for the Bucks to grab a bottom two seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race.  The franchise has placed a lot of importance on attempting to make the playoffs this year while not taking on any additional money for 2010 and beyond, so I don’t see them making any deals unless it’s for expiring contracts.  Everyone wants them to make the playoffs.  It’s hard to develop talent in losing situations, guys want to see some kind of light at the end of the tunnel sooner rather than later.  So I think the playoffs are the first goal.  That being said, the Bucks have movable pieces should they decide the playoffs are out of the question would be the expiring contracts of Luke Ridnour, Kurt Thomas, Hakim Warrick and the 2011 expiring Michael Redd.  If the Bucks want to sell come trading deadline, they have some pieces playoff teams could be interested in for depth purposes.

NAS: Make the early case for Brandon Jennings winning the Rookie of the Year award:

I’ll be honest, Tyreke Evans is nuts.  He’s 20-5-5 every night and that’s not easy to do.  Jennings’ Bucks might be closer to a playoff spot, but that’s really just because the East is watered down.  If Jennings can start hitting shots again, he could make it interesting, but it’s tough to make the case right now.  That all being said, for a 6’1 160 pound point guard that didn’t go to college and supposedly couldn’t shoot, Jennings is doing just fine for himself.  19 points and six assists is nothing to sneeze at, especially when he’s playing the most difficult position to learn in the league.

From Adrian Wojnarowski’s twitterpage:

Rafer Alston has agreed to a contract buyout with Nets, and Heat and Cavs lead list of possible suitors for free agent, sources tell Y!

Remember that post Mark did this morning, and how a lot of those rumors had to do with a roster spot getting open?  Well here is that spot kids, look for more action to be coming in the near future.

I am assuming this to be true as Wojnarowski is usually spot on with everything.  The Rafer experiment didn’t really work out, and I can see Rod and Kiki buying him out because they couldn’t get anything on the trade market.

Update #1: It is being reported by Adrian as official.

Update #2: Dave D chimes in with a quote from Rafer’s agent –

“We’ve reached an agreement in principle regarding a buyout for Rafer,” agent Dan Fegan said in a phone conversation.

The Nets have been getting killed on the boards.  A lot of it has to do with offensive rebounding, and the Nets allowing their opponents to do it too much.

In the past week, a number of sources have reported that the Nets have been testing the trade market by offering some of their expiring contracts. First, there was the Nate Robinson/Darko Milicic for Rafer Alston/Tony Battie trade proposal, tweeted by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski this past weekend. Then yesterday, in an ESPN chat, Chris Sheridan suggested that the Nets were “peddling” guys like Battie, Bobby Simmons, Josh Boone and Eduardo Najera. Sheridan speculated a possible match with the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for PF Boris Diaw, but he never says such a trade was ever floated by either team. Beat writer Al Iannazzone also speculated that Alston’s name will likely be connected in more trade talk considering how his playing time has been dramatically reduced despite coach Kiki Vandeweghe saying the erratic PG “deserved to play.”

Earlier this morning, Yahoo’s Marc Spears talked about a couple of trades that have seemingly fallen apart: Eduardo Najera to Dallas for Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams – which would have given the Nets a monopoly on player’s named some variation of Sean Williams, though the player from Dallas would have been bought out. To try and open a roster spot for these players, the Nets were looking to send Josh Boone to Denver for Joey Graham.

None of this news is surprising. The Nets are a last place team with a young core and most of the players mentioned in these trade scenarios could provide a playoff-bound team with a veteran piece on a short-term contract. However, depending on what these players may bring back in a trade – and considering that most of these players, especially Alston and Simmons, are experiencing miserable seasons – they may ultimately be more valuable to keep. Because once those contracts expire this summer, it equals salary cap flexibility for the Nets in one of the best free agent markets in recent memory.

Of the rumors being floated, the Robinson/Darko trade made the most sense for the Nets, since both are young players with expiring contracts who could essentially audition for supporting roles on the team next season, or be cast away come the summer for greener free agent pastures. Boris Diaw, on the other hand, makes no sense. While he was once a nice component of those exciting Phoenix Suns “7 Seconds or Less” teams, he’s also owed $9 million in each of the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons and is not enough of a difference maker to warrant sacrificing valuable cap space for.  Kris Humphries has a player option worth $3.2 million is not guaranteed money next year, and the Nets would have been dumping Najera, who’s owed money by the Nets for two more seasons due to the absurd contract he was offered before 2008-09.

So what are the Nets options? Whereas the Nate/Darko trades sounds great on paper, common sense says the Nets are more likely to be offered a player of Diaw’s ilk – a salary dump that will clog their flexibility at exactly the wrong time. Humphries is mildly interesting, as he has above average PER 40 minutes numbers, but he’s known as a “shoot first” guy, with poor defense and has been turnover prone throughout his career. I don’t know how he’s that much of an upgrade in the frontcourt over Josh Boone. Plus it would cheat Rob Mahoney over at The Two Man Game of his weekly “Hump Day” post. But I guess if you want change for the sake of a change, he’s an option.

While Kiki may have a soft spot for guys like Alston and Battie – who probably deserve better than to be rarely used bench players on a 3-30 team in their contract years, this hopefully won’t lead the GM to make an ill-advised trade in an effort to make right by then. As I preached last week, the Nets need to stay true to their commitment headed into this season, even if the losses keep mounting. This rings especially true if changing directions brings the Nets a Boris Diaw type-player and contract.

Al Iannazzone talks about the Nets rebounding woes over at Nets Insider. NAS will also be taking a look at this later today so stay tuned: “Personally, I think it’s one, getting a body on everybody, but then it’s pursuing the ball,” Vandeweghe said. “To me, it’s a matter of desire, and you’ve got to want the ball and realize that rebounding is part of defense. The only way you get the ball back is either you get a rebound, you get a steal or the other team scores – and the last one’s not so good. So you’ve got to get rebounds.”

Talking about Courtney Lee and his shooting issues: “He’s got to become a better isolation player,” Nets president Rod Thorn said. “He has to get his shot off quicker, and there’s an adjustment there. And he needs to continue to work on his dribble-drive move. He’s good all the way to the basket, but his intermediate range is what he has to get better at — the one- or two-dribble pull-up.

Expect Jarvis Hayes back for real tonight: “He’s such a big part of our team,” center Brook Lopez said. “He’s definitely one of the leaders on our team. We have been missing that leadership on the floor. Just basketball-wise, he’s a guy who can stretch the floor, really open things for us.”

Marc Spears of Yahoo has some trade talk involving the Nets. First a proposed trade with Dallas offering Eduardo Najera for Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams are on “life support.” It also looks like a trade deal dried up between the Nets and Denver that would have sent Josh Boone for Joey Graham. More on Nets trade talk in a few hours.

The Empire State Development Corporation talks eminent domain in Harlem today. No word on whether there will be any questions about their activity in Brooklyn.