Nets Are Scorching

Well, we now know why Shawne Williams was waived yesterday.  He was charged by police yesterday with four counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to manufacture/deliver/sell and four counts of conspiracy to manufacture/deliver/sell a controlled substance, a codeine-based syrup. Both are Class E felonies and carry standard sentences of 1-2 years, on conviction.

Henry Abbott of TrueHoop talks about Chris Quinn, who’s still trying to relocate himself since the trade with Miami earlier this month: But he was frank that this is not a glamorous phase of life. In Miami the weather and wins were nice and plentiful. In New Jersey … “I heard that I was traded, and packed pretty much the biggest bag I had with any kind of winter clothes I could find,” he says. “And on the road trip, I bought a coat, so at least I’d have a coat when I got up here.”

Those who say Devin Harris isn’t a vocal leader didn’t hear him Wednesday night in the locker room: “Since I’ve been here, that was the first time he’s actually been upset like that,” Chris Douglas-Roberts said of Harris. “He wasn’t pointing fingers at anybody. He was upset with himself. He knows it starts with him, and that’s where the emotion came from.”

Chris Douglas-Roberts fights back some more yesterday, telling beat writers he’s not selfish and that he doesn’t appreciate what some Nets “fans” are saying to him: “Nets fans have been all right,” he said. “But it’s just been love-hate since I’ve been here. That’s just how I feel. Earlier on, I wasn’t going to be anything. Then as the season started I was loved. Now that they hear or read a story that they really don’t know what’s true or not – now it’s get rid of him.

With trade rumors swirling, the best a lot of these guys can do right now is talk to their agents to find out what’s what.

Brook Lopez, CDR and Courtney Lee all make ESPN’s top 20 sophomores list.

The Brooklyn Paper questions what security will be like at the new Barclays Arena in Brooklyn.

Sigh.  6 minutes.  6 minutes is all it takes to make a close game and put it out of reach.  The Nets were competitive for all of 6 minutes, but boy were those 6 minutes bad.  The Pacers scored 41 points in the second quarter, and never really looked back.  The Nets were able to cut it to 15 a couple of times, but the Pacers hit a few shots and the lead stretched back to 20.  The Pacers hit 13 threes and most of them were uncontested.

• People like to get on Devin Harris because he isn’t the vocal leader.  I don’t care about that, he leads this team by example.  He takes more shots than anyone I have seen play this year, and he always pops up after them.  He played very well tonight going for 22 on 7-15 shooting (including 7-10 from the line).
• Brook Lopez finally shook his demons against Roy Hibbert.  Brook went for 27 on 9-16 shooting (including 9-9 from the line).
• CDR and Courtney Lee really struggled tonight, and they just didn’t look aggressive except a few plays here and there.  3-13 combined for 11 points.
• The craziest thing about these past few games is that the Nets are taking care of the ball (only 8 turnovers tonight), they just miss way too many shots to make that meaningful.
• Kris Humphries looks good, and he looks like he is trying to make the most of this opportunity.  15 points on 5-7 shooting.  He had a tremendous block of Roy Hibbert, and he showed his basketball IQ on a play by “pulling the chair on Hibbert” forcing the turnover.  He looked real good.
• Six minutes…

Tonight Brook Lopez is going up against his old nemesis Roy Hibbert.  I’m serious, Roy Hibbert gives Brook fits.  Hibbert is big enough to be able to push Brook around and on the offensive end, he seems to get pumped for this match-up and plays well.  Against the Nets, Hibbert has just plain dominated.  He has shot 60.7% from the field, scores 19.5 points, and gets 9.5 rebounds per game.  On the other hand, Brook Lopez’s numbers are poor against the Pacers.  In 2 games Brook has only shot 36% from the field.  Ouch.  Anywho…onto the matchup!

Devin Harris vs. Earl Watson

Earl Watson is a favorable matchup for Devin, and I am hoping that Devin can use his speed to get into the lane and cause some problems.  You might get tired of reading this, because I say this a ton, but in my opinion getting to the middle of the lane is key for Devin.  He can draw fouls (which is something he is very good at), get easier attempts, and draw help (this leads to easy baskets for his teammates).

Advantage:  Devin Harris

Courtney Lee vs. Luther Head

Dahntey Jones seems to have fell off on the offensive end, which is why Luther Head has replaced him in the lineup.  Head is a very good shooter who can attack the basket as well.  I think Courtney should be able to contain Head because he has the size to keep him in check.

Advantage:  Push

Chris Douglas-Roberts vs. Troy Murphy

CDR is in a no-win situation tonight.  If he takes a lot of shots and scores, he will be called a selfish player by the media.  If he plays within the offense, only takes a couple shots, and picks up a few assists, the media will talk about how he hates his teammates for not getting enough shots.  The only way this stuff will cool down is if the Nets get a win, I hope that happens.

Advantage:  Push

Yi vs. Danny Granger

Danny Granger is going to give Yi fits on the defensive end.  However, I expect Yi to make Granger work.  Granger is back and healthy, and will probably go off against the Nets tonight.  If he does, the Nets need to contain everyone else if they want a chance to win.

Advantage:  Danny Granger

Brook Lopez vs. Roy Hibbert

We already talked about this up top, but I wanted to talk about why Hibbert gives Brook trouble.  Hibbert is big enough to push Brook farther out than he wants to be.  This makes Brook catch it farther out, and when that happens, he either settles for the shot, or he makes a move too far away from the basket and he takes an awkward shot.

Advantage:  Push

The Indiana Pacers make their second and final visit to the Izod Center, so NAS is serving up our second and final Bloggers Talk with the fantastic Eight Points Nine Seconds site from the TrueHoop network. Tim Donahue, who helped us out earlier in the week by providing some insight on Shawne Williams, does the honors.

NAS: Are you more optimistic about where this season could end up for the Pacers now that Danny Granger has come back from injury?

Not particularly, at least in terms of the standings.  To have a shot at the playoffs, the Pacers would probably have to win a minimum of 26 or 27 of their remaining 45 games.  With Danny, they’re probably a team that is .500, maaaaaaybe a little better, but I don’t think they’re capable of playing well enough to put together a stretch at 8 or 9 games above .500.

It really depends on how you look at things.  Some could view Danny’s return would result in .500 ball the rest of the way, putting their win total in the low 30′s, but likely moving their draft out of the top 5.  The fear is that we once again finish with a middling pick and get a middling player and don’t really move forward.

Objectively, I understand the value of just being bad and getting a Top 5 pick.  The fan in me, however, hopes that Danny can play like he did last year (and for the last three quarters on Monday), the young guys can develop, and the Pacers can be competitive for the rest of the season.  It may be ill-fated, but I’ll take a middling pick over the outright embarrassment I’ve felt over this team and it’s play at times this season.

Three big reasons – two related to Lopez and the third towards your team’s strategy.

First for Lopez, he takes too many jumpers.  In two games against us, he took a total of 16 shots from 16-23 feet.  He only hit 3 of them.  That doesn’t put enough pressure on Hibbert, who will get in foul trouble if tested.

Second, Lopez plays behind Roy too much defensively.  If you let Hibbert catch the ball, and work, he’s going to be very effective.  He’s not overly strong, but he does have size and a very, very nice set of post skills, when he’s not rushed…which brings us to the team strategy:

When Smits played here, the teams that he struggled against were the teams that knew they were too small to play him straight up.  Essentially, they dug and doubled and harassed him so that he could never get into any rhythm.  On the other hand, he had a tendency to destroy centers that would seemingly be able to deal with him without help:  Ewing, Mutombo.  The same’s going to be true with Roy.  It’s been a while, but my impression was that NJ did very little in terms of helping Lopez.  Therefore, Hibbert had time to work, and if you let him do that, almost every Center in the league is going to be reduced to hoping he misses (or gets in foul trouble).

I’d have Lopez mix and match his positioning, and I’d send diggers.  The Knicks doubled aggressively a couple weeks ago, and Roy ended up with 7 assists, but that game was such a disaster, it’s difficult to tell if that meant anything.  Also, you have to attack Hibbert, both on perimeter penetration and in the pick and roll.  He’ll take himself out of games with fouls.

I like the idea of Jefferson, but I would not want him if it cost us Danny Granger.  The other problem is that playing Jefferson and Hibbert together results in two players who would get in each other’s way offensively, while being disastrous defensively.  I suppose you could build a package around Hibbert, but, truth be told, I’m far from convinced that Al Jeff is the second foundation player we want to put next to Danny, and our assets are so sparse, that it’ would be difficult to come up with a coherent offer that excludes Danny.

Tough call…I’d say it’s really all or nothing.  I think O’Brien is implementing Bird’s policies almost to a T.  I also think it’s because they’re pretty much in sync, worldview-wise, as opposed to Obie being a “yes” man.

Honestly, I don’t expect there to be a shake up this summer.  It makes no fiscal sense, and probably only makes marginal basketball sense.  If there is one, I believe it will be Bird deciding to step down, because he simply doesn’t want to deal with the crap, and his replacement possibly firing O’Brien.  However, David Morway is sure to succeed Bird, and I could easily see him staying with O’Brien for the last year of his contract (2010-2011).

After it appeared like they were willing to give him a second chance in New Jersey, the Nets announced today that they have waived Shawne Williams, according to a team news release.

Williams was acquired along with Kris Humphries for Eduardo Najera earlier this week. Initial speculation was that the Nets were going to immediately waive Williams, who has been plagued with legal and character problems throughout his four-year career. However, the Nets then made it sound like they were going to keep him a give him a look. There could be 500 reasons for the about face, but perhaps a trade is in the works where the Nets need roster room (they’re down to 14 players).

It also opens the roster to a D-League player. As Sundiata Gaines proved last night against the Cavs, a hungry D-Leaguer could be exactly what this team needs.

After the blowout by the Celtics (which Mark does a great job examining), people are going to forget that the Nets actually had a chance at a win this past week.  Yes, I am talking about the Nets game vs. the Hornets.  The Hornets ran a simple pick and roll, but it was good execution more than bad defense that lead to the basket.

After getting the ball inbounds (which they failed at doing their last possession), the Hornets quickly go into a pick and roll. David West comes up and sets the screen, and Chris Paul uses it.

Late in games, teams usually switch every screen, and the Nets are no different.  Because the Hornets probably like to switch screens, they are anticipating the Nets doing the same.  The screen isn’t designed to get Chris Paul to the basket or to get David West open on the roll.  The screen is set to get Jarvis Hayes defending Chris Paul.

After the Hornets get what they want, Paul then attacks. He quickly gets Jarvis Hayes on his hip, and he has a lane to the basket. You would like it if Devin Harris was closer to the middle of the lane, but that is the beauty of how the Hornets set this up. They put Peja (a knockdown shooter that you need to stay with) on the side Chris Paul was going to drive to. This means that Devin can’t help.

Paul finishes the lay-up, and gets fouled, clinching the win for the Hornets.  The Nets set a “moving pick” on their final possession and the rest is history.

NAS already spent many hundreds of words lamenting the Nets’ performance against the Celtics Wednesday night. Not to make you relive the horror, but we really thought the utter beatdown the Nets received in the first half had to be seen to be believed. Here’s the Nets first half in about two minutes of visuals:

Tonight’s Pacers-Nets showdown has one Indy Star writing about another upcoming competition between the two struggling teams: the chance to draft John Wall.

Speaking of which, not a specific “Nets” article, but Kelly Dwyer at Ball Don’t Like looks at the risks of “tanking” to get a superstar in the draft.

Al Iannazzone has a little more from the new Shawne Williams, who’s probably a week away from game shape: “It is a fresh start because it’s a new place, but I feel like I [haven't] been in trouble in the last couple of years or whatever,” he said. “So I’m not dwelling on anything, trouble stuff or nothing because I’m older now and I know how to act. I’m more mature, a professional now so I’m not even worrying about that.”

Iannazzone, wearing his Nets Insider hat, on the laid back nature of the team: But none of that should matter. Professional pride should take over more often than it does, and when it doesn’t everyone should be upset. It seems since Lawrence Frank left the only person who gets excited and shows emotion is assistant coach Tom Barrise. He laced into the players a few weeks ago in Toronto, drew a technical a few games ago and was said to be a little angry at halftime last night. It’s not Kiki Vandeweghe’s personality to get loud and critical, but he has to do something to fire up his team because his outwardly laid-back style is not working.

Hat tip to Shea23 for pointing this article out to us. NBA.com looks a point differential to get a team’s “expected” win total. The last part should be alarming to Nets fans.

A formal groundbreaking at the Barclays Arena is getting close. Stay tuned for the next pint-in-hand reaction from Freddy’s Bar.