Nets Are Scorching

This isn’t so much a superlative post as it is just one to point out some interesting statistical trends in the Nets’ 2010-2011 season, but it still warrants inclusion in our review series here on Nets Are Scorching. So I went to the NBA’s new sleek StatsCube to uncover some of the more compelling numerical notes on this season.

(As soon as you have a chance, go ahead and play around with StatsCube a little bit. You can get a lot of data out of there, and the application possibilities are nearly endless. It’s worth a look.)

Here are a couple of the highlights from my investigation:

Give the Reigns to Gaines

Sundiata Gaines was a no-risk pickup by the Nets in the second half of the season to get some playing time will the other point guards spent all kinds of time in the infirmary. He wasn’t supposed to do all that much, other than provide some effort and passing. While offensive production certainly wasn’t the hallmark of Gaines’ injury-shortened stint with the Nets this season, examining his on-off splits on StatsCube provided some rewarding nuggets with respect to his value to the Nets:

As you can see, Gaines actually had a profound effect on the Nets’ offense when he was in the game. Inexplicably, he facilitated the creation of a lot of three-point looks, as the Nets’ long-range attempts increased by 50 percent when he was on the floor.

More alarming, though, was has impact on the Nets’ rebounding. Both the offensive and defensive rebounding totals went up when Gaines was on the floor, and so did the team’s rebound rate. One might argue that it had to do with Gaines’ mostly playing with the second unit (when Brook Lopez was not on the floor), but StatsCube showed that the Nets’ rebounding lines were virtually equal whether or not Lopez was in the game.

The rebounding increase can probably be explained simply with regard to effort, as Gaines was a very tenacious player who loved to rebound. Maybe that dedication and commitment was contagious, and all the Nets looked to go harder on the boards with him on the court.

The three-point shooting is a bit harder to understand. By no means is Gaines an elite distributor, and yet he was creating many more open looks for shooters when he was on the court. Furthermore, take note of the zone-by-zone shooting discrepancies in on- and off-court splits for Gaines:

Gaines had a jaw-dropping effect on the Nets’ shooting everywhere except the corners and the not-at-rim paint area. The latter is easily attributable to the fact that he was almost always playing with Johan Petro, who fired away from there with regularity but without efficiency to match. It’s not so easy to identify why there was no correlation in his passes for threes above the break and those to corner shooters.

Considering, though, that he fired just three attempts from the corners and 34 from above the break himself, he just stayed in his comfort zone by passing to shooters in that area more often, too.

The main caution one should take away from this analysis is sample size. Gaines didn’t play all that much with the Nets, so his benefit to the offense could have been mere coincidence. Still, for someone who barely costs the team anything in terms of salary-cap space, these stats are justification enough to sign him on for a backup deal next season.

With constant rumors swirling around his star player, Magic GM Otis Smith tried to quell the expectations of another ‘Melodrama. Smith said all the right things and even claimed that the Magic had offered Howard a two year extension earlier this season, but were unsure as to how serious Howard and his camp would consider it. Smith also said that the Magic are “not trading him (Howard).”

Essentially, Otis Smith is trying to avoid what happened with Denver this season. Carmelo news dominated the locker room of the Nuggets until the day he was traded and was obviously a distraction to the fans and the players. Ideally, the Nets should attempt to swipe Howard from Orlando over the offseason once the CBA issue is resolved.

With the elimination of Dwight Howard’s Orlando Magic last night, the story now turns to where will Dwight land next?

Matt Mitnick, a close friend and personal trainer for Deron Williams began tweeting his thoughts last night in regards to the situation.

Below is the screen grab from those tweets.

Others weighed in on the Dwight speculation today too, among them our friend and Nets beat writer Al Iannazzone. His tweets:

Now, what does this all mean? Well…virtually nothing. As stated in the title, there is nothing actually being reported here, just merely speculation on Dwight Howard’s possible desire to be playing elsewhere, namely a big market.

It’s always easy to speculate about a star player wanting to leave his team after a playoff ouster, especially one that reeks of a lack of a supporting cast being the reason for the ouster, as is the case with Dwight Howard and the Magic.

With their pending move to Brooklyn, the acquisition of a pass happy point guard in Deron Williams and the, an owner willing to spend and a glut of young, tradable assets at their disposal, the Nets figure to be players in any star players willingness to relocate.

We will keep tabs on this as things progress, but its possible we are in for a big off-season.

On Wednesday, Billy King and Deron Williams toured the Barclays Center together as Deron got a glimpse of what will hopefully become his future home. Good news for Nets fans; on his facebook page, Deron called the Barclays Center a ballers’ paradise.

It is looking like the likelihood of D-Will re-signing is increasing with every moment. At nearly every press conference or public event that Williams has spoken at since the trade, he has claimed that the Nets are a great franchise. Williams, obviously, is the franchise player that franchises dream of. Let’s hope that more news like this continues to surface in the offseason as the Nets continue to woo Deron.

Considering the player I gave this award to last year ended up being my “Bust of the Year” after this season I should probably proceed with caution. But I’m sincerely intrigued to watch Damion James in a Nets uniform next season – primarily because I didn’t see enough of him this season to know exactly what the Nets have here.

What makes James rookie season odd is that he was promoted from the get-go as a finished product. The Nets were praised for trading up to get an NBA-ready player in James though the caveat was that he may have already hit his ceiling. Now, after an injury-plagued season that only saw James play in 10 percent of the team’s total minutes, his potential for next year is as much as an unknown as the rawer, more unpolished Derrick Favors, who is obviously Utah’s concern going forward.

In the glimpses I got of James, what I saw was an intriguing two-way player who doesn’t have an overwhelming offensive skillset, but has the capacity to be a strong rebounder and lockdown defender – a total defensive package the Nets were missing from the SF slot all season. Is James actually a SF? That’s where Avery Johnson played him most of the season and his 6’7” body would seem to indicate yes, but he also has added length that could match up him up against some PFs, though at 220 lbs, he probably doesn’t have the bulk and strength to defend that position.

This is worth bringing up because of some of the names being brandied about as possible free agent targets for the Nets, two of them are similar hybrid frontcourt players, the veteran Andrei Kirilenko, and the younger (but restricted free agent) Thaddeus Young. Something to note, if you go by advanced metrics like rebound rate and assist ratio, James was better than Young at both, and a better rebounder than Kirilenko. As for defense, James, in his small sample, did an admirable job against opposing SFs, holding them to a Player Efficiency Rating of 9.7. This is probably unsustainable over the course of an entire season, but AK-47, who has earned praise as a defender, held opposing SFs to a PER of 12.2. So there’s some comparability here.

But where James’ game declines from Young and Kirilenko is the offensive side. He does not have the long-range shooting of AK-47, at least he hasn’t show it yet, and he’s not the explosive finisher that Young is. James shot a disappointing 52.8 percent on all shots at the rim according to HoopData, though as he moved away from the rim, Damion demonstrated some consistency – shooting 44 percent from 3-9 feet, 42 percent from 10-15 feet and 41 percent from 16-23 feet. So if James could just find a way to finish more regularly, he would could actually end up being a more dynamic offensive player than Young whose game declines the further away he gets from the rim.

But again, we all need to see James actually on the court this season to get a sense if he can do this, and with their being options to upgrade the SF available this summer, he may not get an opportunity to prove himself as a starter. He’s already been determined as part of the “core” going forward, which is a great sign, but we don’t know the role. But given his small sample, he’s without question the player to watch for next season.

Recently, the debate over the space surrounding the Barclays Center has escalated. Most recently, a club called “Players” is looking to open its doors near the center and local residents are worried about this likely post-game venue becoming a distraction to their daily lives.

The Atlantic Yards project has trudged through many legal disputes just like this one. This shouldn’t do anything to halt progress on Bruce Ratner’s brainchild and the Barclays Center will probably be built in due time. That being said, hearing stories about the project causing trouble for local residents is certainly disheartening.

Jubilation In Newark!

The Nets came into this contest on a four-game winning streak and with a record of 21-43. The excitement over Deron Williams was peaking and the future of the organization was looking brighter and brighter as the days went on. However, the Celtics came in at 47-17 and were 2nd in the Eastern Conference at the time. The big four was healthy and ready to pounce on a team that it had picked on for years and years.

No one really thought that the Nets were going to take this game.

Brook Lopez scored his generic 20 points. Anthony Morrow scored 15. Kris Humphries had 16 points, 15 rebounds, as The Incredible Hump (okay, it’s a bad nickname) actually outplayed Kevin Garnett. KG actually had some nice words for the Nets after the game: “We knew they’ve been playing well lately, playing with a lot more energy,” Garnett said. “D-Will, he’s come over here and gave them sort of like a winning mentality, seems to be working for them. Kris is playing really well for them, Brook is playing really well. They have players that are playing really well, just they’re trying to put it together it seems like.”

Even Travis Outlaw scored 12 points. It doesn’t get much better than that.

This game wasn’t about them, though. Nets fans were all waiting for Deron Williams’ “hero moment,” and they got it on this night. The fourth quarter was just euphoric. The Nets took a 74-62 lead on a Travis Outlaw three. Allow that to sink in for a second. Travis Outlaw… three. The Celtics then made the run that everybody knew would happen, as they cut the lead to 2 with 1:30 remaining.

I fully expected the Nets to lose at this point. The Celtics were on a tear on both ends of the court as the Nets Cinderella game was finally going to drift back into reality. However, the Celtics never scored again. Brook Lopez scored to make it 83-79 before D-Will hit the biggest shot of the year: a step-back three with 35.6 seconds remaining to put the Nets up 86-79. This buried the Celtics, and extended the Nets’ win streak to five. Instantly, the word “playoffs” was on the tongue of players and fans alike.

Oh, and let’s not forget this. Let’s never forget this.

However, what impressed me most wasn’t Williams or Humphries, or the kid in the pink shirt. It was the ability of the team to work as an effective unit and overcome all kinds of adversity to win in the end. Despite the moniker “sell out” getting thrown on this one, most of the fans in the stadium were dressed in green. On top of that, the Celtics took a 14-0 run in the first quarter and led 23-14 at the end of one. It looked like another blowout loss for the Nets. I don’t think that anyone watching would’ve predicted what happened next. The Nets made their own run and outscored the Celtics 22-15 in the second as they trailed 38-36 at halftime. New Jersey then took a step forward and actually had a six point advantage at the end of three quarters, which allowed me to think, “Woah, the Nets might actually win this one.”

Of course, the rest is history. The Nets lost 15 of 17 to end the season as another losing, non-playoff season was in the books. But we’ll always have this game: the most memorable of the 10-11 season and hopefully a turning point for this franchise.

Recently, a few Nets fans have set up a website called DwightBound, aimed at (what else?) the Nets’ interest in that Orlando Magic guy: Dwight Howard.

The site as of now is relatively plain and contains some grammatical errors (Alot, anyone?). However, it includes some quotes by Deron Williams that show optimism over the superstar guard staying in New Jersey, as well as this message from the site’s creators:

The New Jersey Nets are preparing for their last season in New Jersey after a 2011 season in which they doubled their win total. But the headline from this season will be all about acquiring All Star PG Deron Williams. D Will instantly changed the culture and direction of the franchise. D Will averaged close to 13 Assists per game once arriving in New Jersey. Dwight Howard and D Will would bring instant credibilty back to the Nets and make for an Exciting Last Season at “The Rock” The Nets would surely be on their way to being Contenders for their opening season in Brooklyn. Just Imagine a Williams-Howard Combo in Jersey, Its one the rest of the league would hope is only a dream.

I think that it’s great to see Nets’ fans publicly campaigning for Dwight on the Internet. The Nets have been known to have a small fanbase, so hopefully this adds some credibility to the franchise’s reputation. As for Dwight, the Magic are getting destroyed by the Hawks right now and will likely lose the series, despite the big win last night. Howard has to be somewhat upset at this fact, especially because it is unlikely that the Magic can get much better this offseason. He has to be thinking about Deron a little bit, right?