Nets Are Scorching

The official word from Avery Johnson and the Nets is that Troy Murphy is heading back to New Jersey because of a viral infection. He will not be available today against Chicago or tomorrow against the T-Wolves. Is a trade in the works involving Murph or is he actually sick? It seems a bit peculiar to me that they would send him home from the road trip just because he’s sick but who knows.

Jordan Farmar will not be available for the next two games either, leaving the Nets with only 10 warm bodies. Enjoy the game…

Happy New Year’s Eve Nets fans! Before you all ring in 2011, the Nets have an afternoon matinee today in Chicago. This will be the first meeting with the Bulls this season, who have been one of the better teams in the East through their first 30 games. The Nets come off of two disappointing performances against Orlando and OKC, and in today’s Star-Ledger there was an interesting look on whether the Nets have lost their losing mentality or not (let’s be honest, they haven’t). Here are some keys to keep an eye on today in the Windy City:

Devin vs. Derrick: Derrick Rose burst onto the scene a few years ago and has quickly become one of the top 5 point guards in the NBA. He is averaging 24 points and 8.5 assists per game in his first 29 contests of the season. If the Nets are going to keep this one close today and have a chance to win, Devin Harris will have to play well and not just let D. Rose do whatever he wants out there.

Offensive Execution: The Nets were never really in their last two games against the Magic and Thunder and a big reason for that was offensive execution. In the Orlando game, they didn’t turn it over that much (only 14 times) but shot just 39.7% from the field. That scenario was reversed against OKC, as the team shot 47.9% but turned it over 23 times. It would be nice to see them combine their offensive effort and keep the turnover numbers down while shooting a respectable percentage from the field.

Can Nets Power Forwards Slow Down Boozer? Although he missed the first part of the season, Carlos Boozer has come back with a vengeance and has been particularly effective over his last few games. He has double-doubles in four of his last five and has scored at least 24 points in the Bulls’ last four. The Nets power forward trio of Kris Humphries, Troy Murphy and Derrick Favors will have to try and slow down Boozer on defense, and will also need to produce on offense to make him work.

The Post’s Fred Kerber yesterday wrote a quick article Wednesday about how Stephen Graham relishes being the team’s “defensive stopper,” and it got me thinking. Yes, there are players throughout NBA history who have deservedly developed a reputation for being all defense and no offense (Bruce Bowen comes to mind), but oftentimes, at least as it pertains to Nets history (ahem, Trenton Hassell), when someone is labeled a “stopper” it has more to do with the coach’s perception rather than actual reality. Considering the most memorable defensive play Graham has made this season involved fouling the Thunder’s Jeff Green on a three-point attempt at the end of a double overtime in early December, allowing OKC to tie and eventually win the game in triple OT, I wanted to look at some statistical indicators to see if I can debunk Avery’s logic.

What the numbers show is a mixed bag, some good things some bad, though I’m ultimately leaning towards saying that Graham, at least statistically, is not that asset on the defensive end he is perceived to be. First the good. According to 82games.com’s opponent counterpart numbers, when Graham is on the court, opposing SGs are averaging 20.9 points per 48 minutes, on a .407 effective field goal percentage and a Player Efficiency Rating of 10.6. That’s really solid.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell the whole story.  For the season, when Graham is on the court, Nets opponents score 111.9 points per 100 possessions and when he’s off the court, the team allows 108.1 points per 100 possessions. Considering that until recently, the bulk of Graham’s playing time has come with the second stringers, that’s not a promising indicator. Meanwhile, when Graham is playing with the starters (Devin Harris, Travis Outlaw, Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez), the team is allowing opponents to score 111 points per 100 possessions. For a sense of context, that would be the worst defensive efficiency rating in the NBA if that Nets maintained that rate for an entire game.

Meanwhile, Graham continues to be a deterrent offensively. He’s averaging 8.8 points per 40 minutes on 36 percent shooting, good for a PER of 5.58. I know with Anthony Morrow injured, the Nets are very thin at SG, but if Graham is not going to make that much of an impact defensively when he plays, the team would be better off grabbing a D-Leaguer for the bench and starting Sasha Vujacic at the two. Johnson’s insistence to keep rolling with Graham despite what the numbers say is reminiscent of the Lawrence Frank era when it seemed like players were rewarded with playing time for having good practices, rather than good performances in games. I guess that builds player morale, but it’s no way to win games.

Victor Nash of Whoop De Damn Do takes a closer look at why Travis Outlaw has been so awful this season (putting aside his contract, I don’t think anyone expected him to struggle this much):

The main reason for this is, of course, his horrible shot selection. In the 08-09 season, Outlaw hit 44% of his shots from 16-23 feet out, while attempting 3.5 of them per game. That’s pretty decent for a guy coming off of the bench. This season, however, he is still putting up 3 of those per game and is only converting on 34% of those shots. Obviously, that’s a steep decline. Then comes the three point shooting. Outlaw is chucking up 3.4 threes per game and has an eFG% (formula that adjusts for the three point shot counting for 1 extra point) of 49.1%. In that Portland season, Outlaw was shooting 2.9 threes per game, which is similar to what he’s doing now, and connecting at an eFG of 57%. The decline in shooting of some players can be attributed to the %assisted numbers, which tracks how many shots a player is assisted on. In Outlaw’s case, he is getting assisted on the same number of shots that he was in Portland.

I think Outlaw has the potential to be a very good complimentary piece, but because of injury and his contract, he’s being forced into something more. If the Nets ever do acquire another scorer at one of the wings, it would relegate Outlaw back to 6th man where I think he might do better.

Those who have campaigned against a Carmelo Anthony acquisition for the Nets may have a reason to rejoice if Ken Berger’s latest report is accurate. According to Berger, who, it’s worth noting, has been pretty entrenched in the ‘Melo/Nets saga, the Nets front office is getting tired of the mixed signals coming out of Denver and they may actually “reevaluate” their pursuit of Anthony:

In view of their frustration, the Nets have not yet gotten to the point where they’re ready to pull all their chips off the table. But it’s clear that the Nets are “sick of the whole charade,” according to one source and have “backed away,” according to another.

I wouldn’t blame the Nets for being fed up. Trade talks obviously cooled when Anthony’s sister passed away last week, but Denver’s reported demands seem to change by the day and I found it odd that a team that has a disgruntled superstar that they stand to lose for nothing at the end of the season is seemingly playing from a seat of power.

However, I still don’t believe the Nets are done with this pursuit. From my perspective, the Nets will only truly tip their hand that their out if they move Troy Murphy’s expiring contract in another deal. Murphy’s contract may be the most important asset under the Nets control because it will help salaries match-up with other teams, which is usually more important with NBA trades than the actual talent exchanged.

AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

Boxscore – Daily Thunder – Welcome to Loud City

After recapping last week’s Nets/New Orleans Hornets game, one of our faithful readers suggested I was being a bit of a “Grinch” with my negativity about the team. I thought the comment was justified – the Nets had just come off back-to-back wins, including a road victory against a pretty good Memphis Grizzlies team, and they  happened to come up lame on the second end of a back-to-back against another good team in NOLA. Performances like that happen to even the best NBA teams. I vowed to go easier on the team moving forward.

But then the past week happened, capped with last night’s 114-93 blowout defeat the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder. It all started with that stinker in New Orleans and has gotten progressively worse for the Nets, losing to the Hornets by 14, the Orlando Magic on Monday by 16, and then last night by 21. They’ve scored 90.6 points per game in that three-game stretch and allowed 107.6 points on 52.5 percent shooting to their opponents. While there have been a number of small variables that have changed from game-to-game, the two consistent issues can be boiled down to NBA Hoops 101: the Nets can’t score and they can’t defend … anyone.

As for the small variables, the unique wrinkle for last night’s game was just how terrible the Nets were at distributing the ball. With a team assist ratio of 13.2 percent, the Nets are already near the bottom of the league in the percentage of team possessions that end in a dime (tied for 27th with Minnesota). Devin Harris is actually having a career year distributing the ball which means the team’s overall assist ratio speaks volumes to just how awful the rest of the roster is at passing the ball around. So with these stats in mind, just how awful were the Nets last night? They had only 14 assists for the entire game on 34 field goals made. Their team leader in that category was rookie Ben Uzoh with 5, who happened to get them all in a garbage time stint by Avery Johnson in the 4th quarter. If Uzoh, who was clearly trying to prove himself in his limited minutes as a backup PG capable of running an offense rather than trying to score on everyone, never made it into the game, the Nets could have possibly finished with single digits assists. That alone is deplorable. But the worst isn’t over. The Nets turned the ball over 23 times last night, finishing with a team assist-to-turnover ration of .61. A performance like that would have made the late Yinka Dare proud.

Meanwhile, the Thunder resembled the ultra-talented, sky-is-the-limit team many expected them to be before the season started. From a ball distribution standpoint, they racked up 31 assists on 45 field goals made, including three guys, Jeff Green (5), Russell Westbrook (7) and Eric Maynor (7), who had just as many or more than Uzoh. They shot 55 percent for the game, and racked up 58 points in the paint. As has been the problem even in some of the Nets wins the past months, OKC came out in a flurry early, going up 10-4 as Devin Harris (19 points, 3 assists) and Kris Humphries (4 points, 7 rebounds) missed some easy layups. While the Nets actually led this game at one point, 22-17 in the first quarter, they peaked early.

Midway through the third quarter after the Nets went on a small 9-2 run cutting OKC’s lead to 11, YES color-man Jim Spanarkel said the Nets were fighting back and keeping the Thunder from blowing their doors off. Naturally, it was the last gasp by the Nets, who spent the majority of the second half playing a bored and boring brand of basketball. The issues that plague this team offensively just don’t change, and while I understand it ultimately falls on the players, I’m starting to wonder if Avery Johnson just expects to sit tight until Carmelo Anthony is dropped in his lap before he even attempts to change his team’s approach. There needs to be more than just Harris and Brook Lopez constantly trying to create for themselves, regardless of how this strategy disengages the rest of the team. Sasha Vujacic (11 points, 3-7 shooting) has his moments offensively and is known as a tenacious defender, so maybe he should be starting at SG rather than Stephen Graham, who only scored 4 points on 1-3 shooting and did very little to distinguish himself as a defensive “stopper” considering Kevin Durant went for 27 points on 11-19 shooting.

A few more thoughts after the jump:
Read more…

I thought this was a piece of a fun news to link to (before I get to the massacre that was last night’s game). Herb Turetzky, the Nets’ long-time scorer, has just published a book of poems and collected writings, “Basketball and Life.” The Queens Courier has profiled Turetzky and it’s worth a read if you want to learn about a significant Nets person who can’t dunk the ball:

“Over the years, I would write poems for special occasions,” said Turetzky. “Some were about basketball and some were about family. After a while, I decided that maybe I should do something with them.”

What can I say? I’m a sucker for community journalism.

Last time these two teams met at the Prudential Center, the game went into three overtimes before the Kevin Durant-less Thunder took down the Nets. Here are some keys for tonight’s rematch in OKC:

Russell Westbrook is Awesome: Yeah, and the Thunder have Durant too. But last time, Westbrook took advantage of the Nets being without Devin Harris and scored 38 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists. Avery Johnson threw a number of different defenders at Westbrook, including most curiously Travis Outlaw. The Nets need to have a much better gameplan tonight or they’re going to get romped.

Who’s the Third Option? This isue has been ongoing all season for the Nets. On Monday, Brook Lopez and Harris accounted for 50 percent of the team’s offensive output. I realize that Anthony Morrow is still injured and will continue to be for a while, but somebody else has to step forward as a consistent scorer for this team. Outlaw is the most likely candidate, but he’s apparently a lost cause in the first year of his five year deal.

You Got to Get Meaner than That Brook: The last time these two teams met, the Thunder were forced to play Nenad Krstic in overtime, and Lopez did very little to distinguish himself in the post. This is the kind of match-up Lopez needs to thrive on, rather than get sucked into Krstic’s game of playing away from the rim.