Nets Are Scorching

Obviously, this is a New Jersey Nets blog, however, the NAS crew absolutely love the NBA in general. So, every week, Sebastian, Mark, Devin, and myself will answer questions regarding the L.

Sebastian is off the table this week as he heads to Blogs with Balls in the Windy City. He’ll also be running a covert operation to ruin the Bulls’ chances of signing LeBron… oops, did I just write that?

1) LeBron James told CNN’s Larry King that the Cleveland Cavaliers have “the edge” to re-sign him. Does this make sense for LeBron or should he get away from that under-performing situation?

Mark:
I have thought, dating back to two summers ago when the summer of 2010 was first becoming something for Nets fans to look forward to, that it made too much sense for LeBron to stay in Cleveland. And while being bounced in the second round is a major disappointment, Boston took care of the Magic in similar fashion – so maybe their run has more to do with their pieces coming together at the right time (along with some great defensive schemes from Doc Rivers and Tom Thibodeau) rather than the Cavs underachieving. With Mike Brown now out of the picture, LeBron could hand pick his own coach while staying in his home state. The idea that he has to come to the NY area for more marketing exposure is a myth. No one is going to care about LeBron if he’s leading the Knicks to an 8 seed or helping the Nets rebuild. If he stays in Cleveland, he’s all but guaranteed to be playing for a title contender, even if it hasn’t worked out that way the past two springs.

Devin:
As a Nets fan who is infatuated with LeBron James, I’m obviously inclined to say, YES, YES, LEAVE. It also makes me inclined to say that the “edge” he is talking about is purely financial – the Cavs can re-sign him for more money than any other team can offer due to the nature of the free agent market. As a basketball fan, though, I’m not so sure it would be good for his legacy to leave. Look at the great players in the history of the NBA. Kobe will be a lifelong Laker. Magic too. Jordan was a lifetime Bull who never played anywhere else, ever, not even four years after he retired. Russell and Bird were Celtics their entire careers. If he shows loyalty to Cleveland, it could potentially be exactly what the doctor ordered – the FA cloud looms over them no more, the focus is finally on basketball, and a championship could be soon on the horizon.

However, LeBron, Harris, Lopez, and Favors/Cousins/Turner would be an awesome combo…

DV:
Previous to the Cavs getting tossed out of the playoffs by the Celtics, I thought LeBron would bolt Cleveland unless they won the championship. However, while the Cavs didn’t win the title, they lost in such a bad way and a lot earlier than expected, I quickly changed my train of thought. There was no way that LeBron would stand to leave his legacy in Cleveland after that horrible series where the team seemed to give up, LeBron was not being the attacking LeBron, and his leadership seemed to dissolve right before our eyes, both on the court and off. I thought at the very least, he would opt for the one-year in 2010-11 and become a free agent again after that season. That said, I do think he’ll re-sign with the Cavs and does make sense in a lot of ways – the team should contend again next season while teams like the Knicks and Nets won’t. The Bulls possibly could, but geting back to legacy, I don’t think he’ll want to be in the Land of Jordan. So, if he really believes what he’s saying about his hometown and the fans, as well as winning a title in that mix, he should re-sign. Plus the Cavs can offer him $30 million dollars more than any other team. Money always seems to talk.
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This is both hilarious and ridiculous. The City of New York has launched a “C’Mon LeBron” campaign begging the Cavs Megastar to leave Cleveland this summer. Smartly, Mayor Bloomberg alludes to both Knicks and Nets highlights in his intro… remember kids, Brooklyn residents vote in the mayoral elections too:

So, just to recap: In anticipation of Draft Night, last week, I looked back at the Nets’ history with lottery picks. When examining how the Nets fared with picks number one through four, we saw that the Nets never pulled away as a true winner with those picks – with Derrick Coleman and Kenny Anderson have amazing potential but ultimately flaming out, and Chris Morris and Dennis Hopson never playing at a level that justified their high selection. Now, we’re looking at the Nets remaining lottery picks – the slots where good talent can be found, but is even less of a guarantee than the top four picks.

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I came across this information from NetsDaily, and when I read the title I did a double take.  “It couldn’t have been straight up could it?” I said to myself.  When I realized it was a proposed straight up deal, I was initially shocked.  The Nets just turned down the #2 pick of the 2008 draft because they didn’t want to give up a role player who will more than likely be cut by the Nets.  There was (and probably still is) a bit of outrage, and I was right there with them…

Then I thought about it some more, and you know what?  This is a very smart move by Rod Thorn.  I’m not even talking about the cap situations, which you guys probably already know about (only $500,000 of Dooling’s contract counts against the books if he is dropped by the 29th vs. Beasley’s nearly $5,000,000).  This was a smart move because the Nets already have a better version of Michael Beasley on their roster, Yi Jianlian (and if you want to talk about salary, Yi’s contract for next year is about 1 million less than Beasley’s).  This isn’t a joke either, I am dead serious.

Now, I am all about upgrading the huge hole at the PF spot (because there is one), but Beasley isn’t the one to do it.  Preferable, we need an inside guy to start the game with a “stretch 4″ coming off the bench.  Yi is that “stretch 4.”  Bringing in Michael Beasley doesn’t fix that problem, since he basically does the same thing as Yi.  Don’t believe that Beasley is a stretch 4?  He shot 104 threes last year.  What’s worse he shot 27.5% while shooting over 100 threes.  That’s not the only similarity (with Yi winning out) between the two

Offense

Here are a few numbers from the fantastic tool, MySynergySports (a tool that tells you how successful a player is in certain situations – and even lets you watch video of it):

Iso Sets

• Michael Beasley – 325 possessions (24.5% of total)/.83 PPP (Points per possessions)/10.2% Turnovers
• Yi Jianlian – 90 possessions (12.5%)/.71 PPP/6.7% Turnovers

Post Ups

• Michael Beasley – 76 possessions (5.7% of total)/.71 PPP/14.5% Turnovers
• Yi Jianlian – 108 possessions (15%)/.86 PPP/10.2% Turnovers

Spot Ups

• Michael Beasley – 344 possessions (25.9% of total)/.86 PPP/5.8% Turnovers
• Yi Jianlian – 224 possessions (31.1%)/.88 PPP/4.5% Turnovers

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While this post may come across as stating the obvious, it’s worth noting that one of the main consequences of the Nets landing the third pick in the draft is that, barring some kind of blockbuster trade, Devin Harris is going to be the Nets’ point guard this coming season.

Logic seemed to dictate that despite the talk that Devin Harris and John Wall could have coexisted in the same backcourt, the Nets would have explored trading Harris if they landed the number one pick to make room for the Kentucky point guard. This is clearly a moot point now, and I don’t know what to think about that.

On one hand, I think trading Harris this summer was a lose-lose proposition. His value is probably as low as it’s going to get, despite showing flashes of being the type of dynamic player he was two seasons ago with Vince Carter in the backcourt. Harris gets injured too often, relies too much on drawing contact around the hoop to get his points (ergo leading to more injuries), doesn’t shoot well and reportedly rarely demonstrated leadership abilities when it was clearly *his* team last year.  But then you look at his 08-09 season, specifically the first part of it, and you have to wonder if Harris can match that type of production again if there’s another scorer on the floor to draw the attention of defenders. And that’s what would have made trading Harris so maddening – because they would have received spare parts or bad contracts in return for a player that is hypothetically not that far away from finding it again.

In an interview in Russia, new owner Mikhail Prokhorov said he was not disappointed by losing out on the Wall sweepstakes because the Nets had Harris. And while I have to praise Prokhorov for sticking up for his current guys and being an optimist, it’s easy to question whether or not the Nets would have been better in the long term having the opportunity to select Wall and moving Harris. But with that situation now being very unlikely, the Nets and Nets fans need to start operating as if Harris is there point guard now and in the foreseeable future.

Man, does this hurt now.

Welcome back to NetsAreScorching for the third edition of the mock draft. The first two were relatively stable, with a couple of changes. Now that all of the combine numbers are out there, however, things are starting to shake up a bit. As a result, you’ll still see a lot of similarities at the top (for now), but a lot of rumbling in later picks as the mock goes forward.

We’ll be doing the top 20 this week, and move up to the top 27 (where the Nets’ 2nd pick is) next week.

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Jeff Van Gundy, a leading candidate to be the next coach of the Nets, reportedly won’t be coaching anywhere next season. Dave D’Alessandro is reporting, and Rod Thorn more or less confirmed that JVG has informed executives that he’s going to keep his spot as a television analyst next season.

“I don’t want to say anything about it … but I think from everything I gather, that it’s probably true,” Thorn said today.

Asked whether it was accurate to state it from another perspective, and confirm that Van Gundy is no longer one of the “four to six” candidates on his short list, Thorn replied, “That would be correct.”

I think JVG is a great coach, but the biggest knock against the guy is his commitment to coaching. He’s left both the Knicks and the Rockets high and dry during his career and with so many teams looking for coaches this summer, this was probably his best shot to get back into it. If he’s taking himself out of the running, I think it’s fair to question whether he’ll ever want to coach in the NBA again, and if there’s a situation where he says he does, I don’t know if you can believe him.

The guy on the left. No, the right. No, left. No, right. Ugh, screw it. Take Zoubek.

(Fair warning: You thought my John Wall article was exhausting to read? This is about twice as long. Good luck, guys.)

Since the day the Basketball Gods confirmed that they do not exist and allowed Washington and Philadelphia to pick above us, a debate has raged on in NetsLand about who they should select with their upcoming #3 pick. Assuming John “The Great” Wall and Evan “The Franchise” Turner are selected with the first and second picks, the third pick remains much more up for debate – between Derrick Favors of Georgia Tech and DeMarcus Cousins of Kentucky. Both freshmen big men, both with pronounced strengths and weaknesses, both with a solid case to be drafted.

Unlike my blogger-in-crime Dennis Velasco, who has made up his mind already on who we shouldn’t take, I am far more split. Because of that I’m going to do the only thing I can decide on: debate with myself on the issue. That’s right. Welcome to my own version of Stephen Colbert’s Formidable Opponent, only this one promises to be much more about basketball and much less funny.

There are six main points to the argument that I see that can make or break the pick: athleticism, ability in the post, other basketball skills, production, better fit, and mental makeup. Thus, I will be arguing all six, split-personality style.

I swear, guys, I’m not crazy.

Onward!

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