Nets Are Scorching

As the trade deadline passed, there were no trades announced by the Nets. There was a pretty big move announced today though, as the Nets have made it known that they reached an agreement and will be playing their games in the Prudential Center soon.  The Star-Ledger has the details:

After months of speculation over whether the struggling NBA team would leave Izod Center in the Meadowlands for a two-year stay at the new Prudential Center in Newark, a deal was struck today to allow the Nets to break their lease for $4 million and move to Newark, according to officials involved in the negotiations.

The early termination fees could be offset in part by advertising, suite revenue and other credits.

The agreement came after the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority voted in secret to approve the deal at a special meeting this morning. A formal announcement is expected later today by Gov. Chris Christie.

This is a great move for the Nets.  While there is no word on when the games are going to start being played in Newark, I am guessing it will be next year.  I know the move is only temporary, but you know that Free Agents would rather play anywhere other than the Izod Center.  I have also been in the Prudential Center (not as a fan), and I can say the locker-rooms and facilities are very very nice.  This is a good place to play while waiting for Brooklyn to get done.  I am not saying that the Prudential Center will draw fans on it’s own, but it is much more attractive than the Izod.

Plus, this is better for the fans.  The Prudential Center is just blocks away from a train station.  This means that there is finally a way to get to Nets’ games using mass transit, something that wasn’t all that possible for the Meadowlands.  In the article, there was one final interesting note:

Additionally, the Nets agreed that it would not stand in the way of another NBA coming to New Jersey in the future — which leaves the door open to another team coming to the Prudential Center should the Nets finally move to Brooklyn.

Not sure that it would actually ever happen (in my opinion it all depends on how the Nets draw in the Prudential Center), but can you imagine having two New York teams and a team in New Jersey?  That could be interesting as a fan…

Like just about every other Nets fan, I think that Brook Lopez needs more touches.  In fact, after last night’s game, I was ready to blast Kiki and Brook’s teammates for not getting him the ball enough.  To prove that he wasn’t getting the ball enough, I went over to my favorite statistical website (HoopData.com) and I looked for Brook’s Usage Rate, expecting to see it low compared to other NBA centers.  Well, I was very surprised with what I saw.  As it turns out, Brook Lopez is getting plenty of touches.  Among centers who get over 25 minuets per game (37 of them), Brook Lopez is 5th with a  Usage Rate of 23.73.  This is slightly below guys like Al Jefferson, Shaq, Tim Duncan, and Chris Kaman.  Brook is ahead of guys like Dwight Howard, David Lee, and Andrew Bogut.  The average usage rate among centers is 16.92.

Usage Rate measures the percentage of possessions used by the player.  While it isn’t a perfect measure of a player’s touches (it only counts possessions that directly end because of the player -  free throws turnovers, and shots), it is the best that we have at this point and time.

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AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

Hot Hot Hoops – Peninsula is Mightier

While no one has ever stopped me from writing my opinions on Nets Are Scorching, I’ve always sensed that there’s been this unspoken rule about not outwardly ripping on a coach or specific coaching decisions. I get that. I’ve never been a professional coach. I’ve never played professional basketball. I’m just a guy who happens to follow the Nets, who also happens to write a blog about the Nets. It’s a lot easier for me to judge what’s right or wrong about a game-time situation 8 hours after the fact from the comfort of my living room couch.

I’m tempted to make an exception about this unspoken rule after last night’s 87-84 Nets loss to the Miami Heat, but I’ll try to honor the code and instead look at a very specific moment in the game and its aftermath. You could call this moment the turning point if you’d like. Otherwise, I’m going to do my best to withhold any value judgements. Just the facts ma’am.

At the 4:45 mark of the fourth quarter, and the Nets clinging to 80-74 lead, Kiki Vandeweghe took out Keyon Dooling, who had just converted a three-point play when he was fouled on a layup, and put in Courtney Lee, who was shooting 0-7 for the game. Over the next four and a half minutes, the Nets missed all of their field goal attempts, including two missed threes from Lee, who went on to shoot 0-9 for the night. Meanwhile, the Miami Heat, who were without Dwyane Wade for most of the game after he left in the first quarter with an injury, went on an 13-4 run to put the Nets away.

I understand that Keyon Dooling is far from an all-star, especially on a Nets team that would have won two games in a row for only the first time this season if they found a way to overcome their terrible finish. But, Dooling had come into the game at the 2:20 mark of the third and the Nets trailing 66-60. Dooling proceeded to score 10 of his 14 points during that 9+ minute stretch of play. On the aforementioned three point play, Dooling looked absolutely pumped after the foul, and his teammates seemed pumped by his performance as well.

Do you see where I’m going with this? In the game’s critical closing minutes, the guy who perhaps playing the best and providing the most energy on the team in that exact moment, was sent to the bench in favor of a guy who hadn’t hit an open shot all game. I know Courtney Lee is a part of the future of this franchise – he had a great game Tuesday night in Charlotte and I even noticed with about 90 seconds left last night he sprinted back on defense after Michael Beasley rebounded a Devin Harris shot attempt in order to stop a fast break attempt by Miami. But, I would have rather seen Dooling play out the last few minutes of the game, to see if the Nets could have put the Wade-less Heat away, in similar fashion to the way they distanced themselves from the Bobcats on Tuesday. Instead, we saw another Nets collapse. We saw the Nets lose another winnable game. We saw the Nets move one step closer to the worst of numbers in the NBA – 73, as in losses for a season, when the number 6 seemed a lot more plausible in the moment. It’s taking me every last bit of restraint to not say what I truly feel about Kiki Vandeweghe right now.

More thoughts after the jump.
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