Nets Are Scorching

The buzz around the organization the last 24 hours has been Rod Thorn, who looks to be staying on as team president once Mikhail Prokhorov takes over.

Here’s Ben Couch with the video of Rod.

From Al Iannazzone’s report, Rod on the coaching candidates: “I’m trying to ascertain who might have interest,” Thorn said. “We have some people we have interest in and then maybe some candidates you wouldn’t consider who might have an interest in it.”

Fred Kerber asks an executive their advice for Rod’s coaching search: “They have young players there; they’ve got a bunch of picks. Maybe they even trade a pick to get a coach,” the exec said. “But whoever they get is going to have to develop a lot of young guys and be the bridge until the move.”

Julian Garcia reports that the Nets are interested in Boston Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau.

Dave D’Alessandro includes Rod’s plans for Chris Douglas-Roberts, who has a team option: “As of right now that decision has not been made. Because we don’t know exactly what we’re going to do. For a lot of these options, a lot will depend on … who are we (signing), who we might be able to sign, how much money that we’ll need. A lot of things that need to be firmed up.”

Former Duke players don’t see Coach K. leaving the university’s coaching ranks.

One Bleacher Report contributor believes the Nets will be in the NBA Finals in four years.

Freddy’s Bar, ground zero for the opposition to the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, is closing and relocating to Park Slope.

This is going to be  a long, and hopefully eventful off-season for the Nets, so before NAS start getting into our analysis regarding the overall direction of this franchise in terms of coaches, draft picks and free agents, I thought we’d take a look back at the performance of our roster to dissect what went wrong (unfortunately a lot) and what went right (more than you might think in my opinion).

Let’s kick our off-season awards with what should be an easy and obvious choice. As the MVP of the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets, I’m going with Brook Lopez.

Expectations were fairly high for Brook Lopez headed into this season. As one of the Nets two “cornerstones” (the other being Devin Harris at PG), and with Vince Carter traded to Orlando, it was clear from the onset of the season that Lopez was going to have to evolve into a “go-to guy” for this team, which meant his game was going to have to evolve.  The fact that you can make a very good argument that Lopez exceeded those expectations with his performance, is a testament to how talented of a player Lopez is, and how his ceiling is much higher than many pundits (ahem John Hollinger) initially thought.

In terms of where he improved, let’s start with the advanced metric that measures it all, Player Efficiency Rating (PER). Lopez finished with a 20.11 PER this season, up from 17.94 in his rookie campaign, and higher than Hollinger’s projected PER of 18.82. This was good for 7^th best among NBA centers (6^th if you discount Greg Oden, who only played in 21 games). Only Dwight Howard, David Lee (who could be playing PF for the Nets next season), and Andrew Bogut ranked ahead of Lopez in the Eastern Conference, meaning he truly is evolving into one of the conference’s best centers not named Dwight Howard – as NAS, and others, predicted before the season started.

Read more…

There have been a ton of these popping up all over the internet, so I thought I would try my hand at making a search story.  What better subject than the Nets season?

A little depressing, I know.  So I made another one for the optimists around here:

For Nets fans, the worst is now over. But it’s going to take some time before it gets better. The team is looking to add a new owner, a new head coach, a top draft pick and a free agent or two this summer. But until the NBA season is officially over, is just going to be a waiting game.

Terrence Williams is the league’s Rookie of the Month.

Your sophomore of the year, if there was such an award: Brook Lopez (ESPN insider access only).

Which five Nets ballers were out partying in Miami until the wee hours before their season finale Wednesday? Check the Post’s page six for scintillating details.

NetsDaily points out that the Nets have removed the words “New Jersey” in the architect’s renderings of the Newark court.

Al Iannazzone runs down where the Nets need to improve this off-season. Uh… everywhere?

Kki Vandeweghe’s role with the organization may be uncertain, but it’s business as usual for him: “I’m a little bit looking forward to getting back to my day job and preparing for the draft,” Vandeweghe said after the Nets’ 94-86 double-overtime loss to the Heat in their season finale. “I’m excited about that.”

Devin Harris plans to be here next season: “Increase our size up front, become better defensively. We didn’t shoot a high percentage, got outrebounded,” said Harris, acting as if he’s staying whether or not John Wall is drafted. “We don’t know what management’s doing or if they get the No. 1 pick. I’m going to prepare like I’m going to be here.”

AP Photo/Alan Diaz

Hot Hot Hoops – Peninsula is Mightier

The Nets haven’t done a whole lot right this season, so it’s only fitting that they even found a way to screw up their final game of their worst-ever season. With the Miami Heat playing for nothing but seeding, sitting Dwyane Wade, the Nets fell into a huge hole in the third quarter and looked to be playing another game on cruise control on course for their 70th defeat. But rather than just punching the clock and finishing off this putrid season, they came all the way back in the fourth to tie it, had a chance to win it on a fluke offensive foul call by the refs, played poorly in the first overtime but still forced a second, only to ultimately lose anyway.

And what did those 10 extra minutes actually do for the Nets as the organization looks to greener pastures this summer? MIA for all of the fourth quarter and OT periods was their present, Devin Harris, and their future, Terrence Williams, while Brook Lopez was inserted back in for the first OT, only to turn the ball over three times on boneheaded plays (a travel, a shot clock violation and an offensive foul). Yi Jianlian, who’s still trying to prove he belongs on this team in some capacity next season, finished with a more than solid stat line of 23 points, 15 rebounds and 2 blocks, but was virtually ignored towards the end of regulation when Courtney Lee opted to take the ball to the hoop and draw a foul rather than pass it to the wide open Yi in the corner for a chance to win the game. Also, it was nice to see Chris Douglas-Roberts get into the game and make some plays on offense, though 9 points and 4 turnovers for a guy that’s supposedly going to make hay in this league as an instant offense guy is a bit of a letdown.

It was a happier time for Chris Quinn, who looked like a JV player playing out of his league on the varsity squad during Monday’s loss to Charlotte. Last night, Quinn ran the point effectively, only netting 5 points and 2 assists, but grabbing 7 rebounds – which is amazing in itself when you consider he’s the most physically unimpressive player on the floor by far – and not turning the ball over, which is a major accomplished for a team that gave the ball away 20 times last night, leading to 23 points.

But a Yi scoring outburst, some good/some bad from CDR and some efficient play from Chris Quinn are not really the things we as Nets fans should be having dreams about headed into the summer. While this season was far from promising back in October, at the very least, I thought it would be entertaining, watching Devin Harris shoulder the burden by himself, while watching players like Lopez, CDR, Yi, TWill and Courtney Lee evolve into legit NBA ballers. It really didn’t work out that way. Harris seemed overmatched when he wasn’t injured, Lopez grew up, but CDR regressed as the season went along. There’s promise in Terrence Williams, but we haven’t seen enough consistency, and more importantly, accurate shooting, to say anything more, and Yi remains an enigma, the Oliver Perez of the NBA for all of you Mets fans out there. Last night, Harris didn’t play when it mattered, TWill was off, Lopez looked gassed, CDR was okay, and Yi was alternating between sweet looking jump shoots and being rejected by the rim and turning the ball over.

Whereas a team like Miami can essentially play for nothing but a rank – I’d personally rather take on Atlanta in the first round as the #6 seed than Boston as the #5 seed – with their superstar/all-world player on the sidelines in a suit, and still find a way to win. The Nets are still finding ways to lose, perfecting it like a Julliard student does the violin. It was an absolutely ugly game, with the Nets shooting 36 percent, while the Heat shot 40 percent. The only offensive weapon the Heat had, Michael Beasley (25 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks) fouled out  in the first overtime. Yet it was Yakhouba Diawara, playing his first minutes of the game, drilling a critical three in the second OT to stretch the lead for Miami.

What I’m getting at is that it’s frustrating to look at Miami’s players on paper, especially when Wade is out, and watch them still outslug the Nets like this, even if it took them two overtimes to do it. 82 games and a few additional minutes later, and I still don’t know what to take from this Nets season. There was the 0-18 start, the Frank firing, the January to forget – where I saw this team play about as uninspired and awful as I’ve ever seen an NBA team play – and the last 6 weeks or so where this team demonstrated a pulse, and more importantly, some ability. But then the last two games for the Nets left a sour taste in my mouth. There was a lot of the “old” Nets on Monday and last night – letting a depleted opponent getting ahead, failing to make a shot when it mattered, the spontaneous disappearance of Devin Harris – and that’s disappointing after an other promising end to the season. When pondering the foundation of this Nets team, are they the players who came out and took advantage of a San Antonio Spurs team without Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker, or are they the team that lets Mario Chalmers and Yakhouba Diaware beat you in double OT? I guess we have all summer to find out.

Just because the regular season is over doesn’t mean there still isn’t a few news items out there.

Rod Thorn expects to be aggressive this summer, even if there are delays with the ownership change: “It’s not a slam dunk. There are a lot of people out there that have money, so the competition will be greater than normal. But I feel confident we’re going to get it turned around. We’re going to be as aggressive as we can with the (budget) we have. And we know we’re going to get a real good player in the draft.

Was it unfair of the Nets to bench Bobby Simmons for the last few months of the season?

Al Iannazzone does his season review of the Nets. Staying? He thinks Brook Lopez, Terrence Williams and Courtney Lee are the only gimmees.

Meanwhile, Fred Kerber talks to the guys who’s future is a bit more uncertain with the organization.

Brook Lopez already has his summer plans: Watching his brother Robin in the playoffs.

As if the Nets haven’t tortured us enough this season, it took them two overtimes before falling to a depleted Miami Heat 94-86 in the season finale tonight in Miami.The Nets finished the 2009-10 season 12-70.

• The Nets were down double digits headed into the third quarter, but the bench got them back into this game, as Devin Harris and Terrence Williams sat out the fourth quarter and both overtimes and Chris Quinn ran the point. Quinn rewarded Kiki Vandeweghe with 5 points and 7 rebounds.
• Yi Jianlian finished his season on a high note with 23 points and 15 rebounds. Courtney Lee chipped in with 17 points and 6 rebounds.
• Brook Lopez finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds and had just about as bad as an overtime that you can have when he turned the ball over three times in the first OT. Of course, Lopez had been sitting for a bulk of the fourth quarter.
• Josh Boone had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 badly missed free throws off the bench.
• The Heat, who were without Dwyane Wade, were led by Michael Beasley, who finished with 25 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks before fouling out. Mario Chalmers finished with 15 points and 7 assists and was 3-9 from three.