Nets Are Scorching

A few days before the draft, TNT’s David Aldridge was kind enough to answer some questions from some bloggers. Well, as the trade deadline approaches, Aldridge did it again, with a question from NetsAreScorching was feature during the chat:

16. If the Nets break the record for most losses, will that keep free agents from signing with New Jersey? (Sebastian Pruiti — Nets Are Scorching)

DA: I think it’s going to be difficult for them to attract the difference-making type of free agent. Certainly players like Dwyane and LeBron I don’t think are going to go to New Jersey. But somebody always takes the money. There is always a free agent that wants to get paid, so they will have the ability to sign one or two maybe second or third tier free agents, depending on who they consider to be second or third tier free agents. They should really get somebody and I just don’t know that they’ll be able to get those really special players that can really take you somewhere. And that to me is the dilemma New Jersey has is how much money do you put into good but not great players and I think that’s what they’ll be able to get this summer.

You should seriously go check out the whole thing, since there is ton of great info and questions from fellow bloggers.  A big thanks goes out to NBA.com for setting this up and to David Aldridge for taking the time out to answer these questions.

Starting with the Nets win in New Jersey against the Los Angeles Clippers the Nets have played a string of 9 competitive games (yes I am last night’s game against Milwaukee).  However, the Nets have only been able to win 1 of these games.  Now there are a number of reasons why, and they have been talked about just about everywhere (including here) , but something that isn’t really getting talked about is that role players have been absolutely killing the Nets.  Don’t believe me?  Let’s take a look:

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AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

Hoopdata Boxscore | Bucksetball| Brew Hoop

Since the calendar turned to February, the Nets have done a solid job of keeping games close and competitive. It hasn’t exactly translated to any wins, but at least the effort was seemingly there, providing a glimmer of hope that if some things bounced right for them, they might be able to pull a few “W’s” out and avoid becoming the worst team in NBA history.

Last night was following a similar script until about the 3:30 mark in the third quarter, when an innocent enough substitution by Kiki Vandeweghe turned the game on its ear, resulting in a in 97-77 blowout loss for the Nets against the Milwaukee Bucks, mercifully ending New Jersey’s first half with a 4-48 record headed into a much-needed all-star break.

Kiki subbed in Chris Quin for Devin Harris with the Nets down 60-59 in a back-and-forth game with the Bucks. Harris was in the middle of probably his best game of the season, finishing with 27 points and 9 assists, but after missing Tuesday’s game due to injury, it’s understandable that Kiki needed to sit Devo for at least some portion of the second half. The problem was, the rest of the Nets looked like they had had enough by that point, and packed it in, getting outscored 37-18 the rest of the way, including a fourth quarter where the Bucks started the period 8-10 from the field. It was the usual array of Nets problems that were most evident during their embarrassing west coast swing in January, that reared their ugly head again. Poor rotations and help defense allowing easy buckets on the interior (the Bucks outscored the Nets 48-26 in the paint for the entire game), along with just awful, awful shot selection from the Nets down the stretch.

Don’t believe me? Let’s use a little visual aid here to demonstrate the Nets shot selection in the fourth:

Note that the two shots taken at the rim (a make by Kris Humphries with 23 seconds left and a miss by Chris Douglas-Roberts with 1:53 left) didn’t come until the game’s final two minutes. Outside of those two shots, the next closest attempt was a missed 6-footer by Kris Humphries. Every other shot attempt by the Nets in the fourth was from 10-feet out or more, including a mind-numbering 12 attempts from beyond 15-feet. The emotional side of me just wants to jump to the conclusion that these guys were going through the motions, but I guess that’s a little irrational of me to think a 48-loss team headed into the all-star break with their head coaching situation in potential flux for the second time this season would phone in the last 15 minutes of a basketball game being played in front of 1,100 people during a blizzard.

A few more thoughts after the jump.

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First a programming note. I understand I missed “Hump Day” yesterday. My brain is still a little scrambled from basically moving from one end of New York City to the other. Hopefully, next week I’ll remember it’s Wednesday and you’ll be able to start in Hump’s dreamy eyes again.

Over at ESPN’s Daily Dime, our boy Sebastian writes about Brook Lopez’s selection to the 2010-2012 Men’s National Basketball Team.

With the arena all but empty last night, Al Iannazzone captures some color from the fans: There were chants of “CD-R,” who didn’t play until garbage time, and one fan screamed, “Kiki, fire yourself.” In this setting, Vandeweghe had to have heard it. You could hear everything the fans were saying.

Meanwhile, on the agenda this weekend in Dallas, Rod Thorn will meet with Mikhail Prokhorov over dinner to discuss how those two can turn the Nets around.

So the shameless endless marketing of the Nets continues as the newest promotion is courtesy of Zappo’s: enter to win to be coach of the Nets for the day alongside Kiki Vandeweghe. Of course, the contest doesn’t explain what happens if Kiki gets canned in the next couple of weeks. Maybe if you win, they’ll just let you be the coach without a proper assistant.

For those of you with ESPN Insider, David Thorpe does his usual rookie/sophomore rankings but combines them this week in advance of All-Star Weekend. Thorpe determines that Brook Lopez is the No. 1 rookie/soph in the NBA currently.

Rick Pitino is apparently lobbying the Nets for their head coaching job. Rod Thorn is denying it.

Tom Robinson of the Virginian-Pilot writes about the Nets being on pace for all-time futility and includes the line of the day in his column: I’m not a Nets hater. Trying to think, but I can’t remember a time when I was more than vaguely aware there was a Nets.

Come to think of it, what’s the Virgnian-Pilot and how do they have a columnist dedicated to the general NBA in this world of shrinking print media?