Nets Are Scorching

Kevin Love blew out his competition for the Most Improved Player award and took the award that he rightfully deserves. However, I’m sure most of us hoped that Kris Humphries would get some love from the voters. Humphries finished 5th behind Love, Lamarcus Aldridge, Dorell Wright, and Derrick Rose. He received one first-place vote, 13 second-place votes, and 19 third-place votes.

It’s possible that in another season Humphries would have been named the MIP. However, 10-11 wasn’t most seasons. With Rose transcending from All-Star to superstar and likely MVP, Aldridge going from role player to All-Star, and Kevin Love having a historic season, Humphries didn’t really have a shot. However, I feel like he should’ve scored above Wright. While Wright turned into an above-average scorer, Humphries moved from a selfish and unproductive power forward into an elite rebounder and a great finisher. Hopefully it wasn’t a contract year enigma.

After the debacle that was 2009-2010 Nets season, Avery Johnson was the coach hired to pick up the pieces and rebuild this franchise from the ground up. In what certainly can be called a process, you can definitely make the case that with Avery leading the charge, the Nets took positive steps forward this season.

Personnel moves aside, the Nets overall wins doubled, going from 12 in 09-10 to 24 this season. Some of their simple numbers like point differential, offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency all improved and while some of that goes to an improved roster, a lot of that improvement has to get credited to Avery. On a night in and night out basis, Johnson had the Nets playing much harder and with a young and changing roster, that was a good accomplishment.

The Pink Shirt: Avery Johnson gave us a lot by way of X’s and O’s. While no one would put AJ on the par of wizards like Gregg Popovich or Doc Rivers (yet), Avery certainly held his own. Nets Are Scorching looked at this play back in January, in which the Nets drew up some creativity to secure a win over the Chicago Bulls.

The Paper Bag: With another chance to knock off a playoff team, the Nets held a three point advantage over the Oklahoma City Thunder late in double-overtime. Coming out of a time-out, Avery Johnson and the staff elected to foul immediately, instead of just playing straight defense, and it led to Jeff Green getting fouled in the act of a shooting a three-pointer. The foul was committed by Stephen Graham, who also earned a paper bag for this play. Green hit all three foul shots to tie the game in which the Nets eventually went on to lose.

Final Thoughts: Avery brought respectability and stability back to a franchise that, at the time, desperately needed it. Towards the second half of the season, Brook Lopez seemed to be back on the path towards the all-star caliber center we all hope he can be and Kris Humphries played the best basketball of his career. Avery Johnson has to get credit for some of those career developments. Deron Williams had great things to say about Coach Johnson in his post-season comments, but now the question will be can Avery get the Nets to the next level and begin contending for playoffs again.

Grade: B-

Billy King had an end of season press conference with the various beat reporters on Wednesday. Some tidbits from the conference include:

• With an improved roster next season, King believes that the team should shoot for the playoffs as their target. Cue Jim Mora.
• King believes that Deron Williams is happy with the organization so far. Apparently, D-Will wants the Nets to move in the right direction (aka playoffs). Here are King’s exact words:

“He said his druthers is to be here and our goal is to be in the playoffs next year and move in that direction. He’ll know if we’re moving in that direction. We all will. I’m not sitting here feeling like I have an hour-glass here and it’s ticking.”

• Brook Lopez will have a minor surgery in order to fix the calcium deposit in his arm. It was bothering the Nets’ promising big man all season long and could be key in restoring his rebounding prowess.
• King affirmed Avery Johnson’s statement by saying that signing Kris Humphries is a “high priority” this season. However, the signing of free agents will all depend on the new CBA for the Nets.

As usual, King was his optimistic self. A lot of what was said in this press conference has already been stated or implied, but what struck me the most was the Lopez news. Lopez had a very puzzling season; his scoring improved, but his rebounding tanked as well as his aggressiveness. Hopefully the removal of the calcium deposit is the key in bringing out the Brookie Monster for good.

Apparently Johan Petro saved his best for last and finished the season strong (13 points, 8 rebounds). This post seems to imply that Johan could’ve done this all season, but chose not to or something. Johan is a great guy and it pains me to make fun of him in this post, but I couldn’t resist on going after him this time.

Editor’s Note: We like to hear from your readers, and if you got something you want to say, you should let us know either in the comments section, or sending us your thoughts via electronic mail. Here’s Josh Burton, talking why the D-League does matter.

By Josh Burton

Much like the NBA Nets this year, the team’s D-League affiliate, the Springfield Armor, wasn’t very good finishing with a 13-37 record. But before you say, “Hey, why does anyone care about the Armor? Who even cares about the D-League?” Here are some reasons why you should:

• The D-League has produced many productive current NBA players like Dorell Wright who was first in the league in three-point field goals made this year, our own Net Jordan Farmar, along with countless other players.
• The D-League is a treasure trove of cheap talent for NBA teams that need to beef up their roster before and even after the trade deadline. Avery Johnson and Jerry Sloan can attest to that as well with how well Sundiata Gaines played last year in Salt Lake City and then this season when he was brought to New Jersey before he injured his hip. With the Jazz, Sundiata hit a huge buzzer beater for them in the to beat the LeBron-led Cavs. With the Nets, he has filled up the stat sheet and helped (along with Deron Williams of course) to lead the Nets to some big wins against one of the best teams of the East in the Celtics.
• You can follow those great players from college who just weren’t good enough to make it to the NBA. On just the Armor alone, there are 2 guys that played their college careers in the Big East and 2 that played in the ACC. You college basketball fans probably remember Gavin Edwards from UCONN and Scottie Reynolds from Villanova. Lance Hurdle from Miami (FL) and Chas McFarland from Wake Forest are also on the Armor’s roster.

Final Stats: 82 G, 82 GS, 35.2 MPG,  20.4 PPG, 1.6 APG, 6.0 RPG, 0.6 SPG, 1.5 BPG, .492 FG%, .787 FT%, 19.33 PER

For the second time in as many seasons, Brook Lopez was the offensive leader of the Nets, boasting an impressive 19.33 PER over the course of the season. Unfortunately for him, rebounding woes shrouded what was a notable season on the low block. Lopez remains unique in the NBA with regard to the way he gets his points. While he isn’t the best of the best among scoring big men, he possesses an affinity to score from the 10- to 15-foot range that precious few others have. With his combination of jump hooks, set shots, fadeaways, and a propensity to draw fouls (particularly on the rip move increasingly loathed around the league), Lopez relies heavily on skill, not on talent, to show up in the scoring column.

Still, that rebounding total was a major scarlet letter. It’s not worth debating here the reason that he was so poor on the glass. The only way to approach this is to call it unforgivable and encourage him to do the work in the offseason to improve. Having spent a year with Kris Humphries, hopefully he picked up some things and will know how to work alongside him next year (assuming Humphries returns). But another asset of Lopez’s that continues to go under the radar is his unflappable durability. Lopez still hasn’t missed a single game in his three-year career, and given the injury problems the Nets have faced that was a blessing in disguise.

The Pink Shirt: While it wasn’t his best game statistically, Lopez’s greatest moment probably came against the Cavaliers on January 24. He ended up with 28 points on 50 percent shooting while pulling in 7 rebounds. The greatness of the contest came in the final moments, when Avery Johnson had the ball dumped into the post to Lopez, who backed down Ryan Hollins (withstanding his Bongo Defense) and hit the jump hook from midrange.

The win was of particular importance, as the Cavaliers were in the midst of their historic losing streak at the time. If they had beaten the Nets, they wouldn’t have set their records for futility.

The Paper Bag: Lopez had a handful of games in which he didn’t score productively, but he tended to rebound in those games. In one particular game, against the Hawks on March 26, Lopez scored just 6 points on 3-of-9 shooting, didn’t pull in a single rebound, and didn’t shoot even one free throw. Needless to say, the Nets lost that game.

Final Thoughts: Brook Lopez is a valuable commodity in this league as a center who gets buckets. In fact, with regard to the Nets, he’s indispensable — with one exception. Should the Magic be amenable to a sign-and-trade deal with Dwight Howard for Brook Lopez, the Nets shouldn’t even hesitate to pull the trigger. Lopez is great, but Howard is the franchise center that the Nets would love to pair with Deron Williams to set the foundation for a successful franchise.

Grade: A-

SASHAAAAAAAAAAAA

Final Stats: 56 G, 17 GS, 28.5 MPG, 11.4 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 2.3 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.1 BPG, 40.4 FG%, 36.9 3P%, 85.1 FT%, 105 ORtg, 12.6 PER

In December, after the Nets decided they had finally had enough of Terrence Williams, they went on a mission searching for someone, anyone to trade for him. They ended up swinging a three-team deal that netted them some draft picks and a Slovenian guard who had fallen out of Phil Jackson’s favor. Since that day, my emotions on Sasha have varied wildly: from pure, molten-hot rage at the deal (this is all we could get for Terrence Williams!?!?) to unadulterated respect (Yeah, let’s use the word “respect”) to confusion about his role, and climbing all the way through this wild rabbit hole to land on a spectacularly unspectacular conclusion: Sasha Vujacic was an average bench player.

He had his moments of good and bad. You could say he shot too much – over 10 attempts per game – but since most of those were of the catch-and-shoot variety, he rarely drew fouls or turned the ball over. Since almost half of his attempts were from beyond the arc, his effective field goal percentage was a respectable 48.6% – a huge boon from his “standard” 40.4% mark. He also ended the year with a usage rate (the amount of possessions used by a player relative to his team) of a below-average 19.6, so he wasn’t hogging the ball or anything. His defense was pesky if unspectacular, and while he has the ability to catch opponents napping he doesn’t really have the athletic ability to play consistently solid defense.

He was the pinnacle of mediocrity, which I swear is a compliment. I appreciated everything he brought to the team, how much he seemed to care about the fans, how he was the first guy off the bench high-fiving everyone. He fit well into the system here. That being said, it was a system that won 24 games.

The Pink Shirt: There are a couple of moments one could point to as Sasha’s apex – he had a huge impact on that Hawks game I mentioned earlier, one of those beyond-the-box-score games. However, I’d have to go with one game that Sasha made a difference in both in and out of the box score – February 9th against New Orleans. With Chris Paul having an off night, Sasha took full advantage, scoring a season-high 25 points on 9-14 shooting, including 5 shots from deep. He also grabbed four boards, dished out four assists, and knocked down shots throughout the game.

The Paper Bag: You would usually give a paper bag to a poor performance on the court, but for Sasha, it was perhaps the most infamous quote of the year:

“I know I can score 20 or 30 points anytime I want, but I’m not that kind of a guy. I want to win. I want to play the right way. Some games I’m going to get 10 shots, some games 15 shots; sometimes, especially coming off the bench, you’re going to feel cold, and you need time to get in the rhythm. But right now, what I care the most is for us to become a better team. And we are really capable of doing that.”

While in context, it’s not a particularly damaging statement, Sasha should have known better than to drop that line casually, and smart writers took full advantage.

Final Thoughts: I like Sasha. I know that’s silly, but I think in the right role, he could help the right team. He certainly did in Los Angeles. At a reasonable price, I can see the Nets re-signing him, but I honestly don’t see them giving him more money than some other team starved for outside shooting might. The Nets would probably welcome him back with open arms at that right price, but I doubt the two sides will end up meeting at that price. Still, the energy he brought to the team every single night was appreciated.

Final Grade: B

On Friday, Al Iannazone gave Nets’ fans some knowledge of who is staying, who could be staying, and who is definitely leaving. Iannazzone tags Sasha Vujacic, Brandan Wright, Ben Uzoh, Stephen Graham, Dan Gadzuric, and Mario West as definitely leaving. He has Jordan Farmar, Travis Outlaw, Johan Petro, and Sundiata Gaines as players who could stay or go. The “core”, also known as Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez, Deron Williams, Damion James, and Anthony Morrow are the only guarantees to remain with the team (barring a trade for some guy named Dwight Howard).

In terms of the who could stay or go group, I would only keep Gaines. Outlaw will be almost impossible to move, but Petro might be a different case. Petro has 2 years and 6.7 million left on his contract; he’s not worth the money, but it’s definitely not a cap crippling deal. If the Nets can find a team that desperately (very desperately) needs frontcourt help, it’s possible that they could swing Petro for a future second rounder. That was all probably extreme wishful thinking, but I can dream, right?

Final Stats: 77 G, 1 GS, 11.6 MPG, 3.5 PPG,0 .6 APG, 2.7 RPG, 0.4 SPG, 0.4 BPG, 45% FG, 54% FT, 9.91 PER,  92 Ortg

When does a guy who only plays 11 minutes a game backing up a a player who has never missed a game in his NBA career become a lighting rod for fans? When your front office agrees to pay that guy more than $9 million over three years despite not demonstrating anything throughout his career that would indicate he could be an effective NBA player.

Yes, it’s only about $3 million a year and there’s only two-years left on his contract, which means Petro is at least not the immovable rock anchor tied around the organization’s ankle that Travis Outlaw is, but the Petro deal is still indicative of an organization that spent poorly last summer and now has to consider creative ways to shed that salary so they can build a legitimate contender around their star PG moving forward. Back in January, Petro was one of the key guys going to Detroit in the proposed three-team trade between the Nets, Pistons and Nuggets that would have brought to New Jersey an even bigger salary albatross in Richard Hamilton. And P.S., the Pistons still wanted a draft pick for the trouble of taking Petro, despite shedding Rip’s otherwise immovable deal.

What’s so bad about Petro? He’s got an athletic build and is 7-feet-tall, yet he doesn’t block shots and his rebounding rate of 14.0 is about league average for a Center (at least he’s a better rebounder than Brook Lopez). Additionally, he shows little to zero effort or instincts on offense, settling for jumpers 70 percent of the time, according to 82games. For a team that needs a little bit of muscle and toughness off the bench, or maybe some instant offense, Petro provides neither. He’s just there, putting together a season that Josh Boone could have given the organization if he wasn’t in China though I can’t recall Petro ever getting blocked by the rim like Boone, though he wasn’t able to properly cup the ball for a dunk on a fast break against the Knicks in April.

The Pink Shirt: What Petro lacks in basketball ability, he more than makes up for in humanity. In April, after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Petro got onto Twitter where he has more than 340,000 followers and helped raise money for “Save the Children.” In an otherwise dreary April for the organization, Petro’s charity efforts deserve to be commended.

The Paper Bag: It’s difficult to isolate one game for Petro, so let’s look at his February. With the entire team on the trading block and Derrick Favors’ being showcased to the league, Petro finds it getting harder and harder to log minutes, shooting only 37 percent and grabbing 2 rebounds in 10 minutes a game for the month. Meanwhile in an indictment of how poorly this team’s bench was constructed, Petro was actually forced into a start at PF against the 76ers in April before being replaced by the great Dan Gadzuric.

Final Verdict: When you look at some of the Centers with a lower PER this season than Petro, at least Kendrick Perkins was coming off an injury, Joel Anthony is an effective shot blocker and screen setter for the Miami Superfriends and Jason Collins has the defensive chops to aggravate Atlanta’s arch nemesis in Dwight Howard. But what did Petro bring to the Nets and what can honestly be expected the next two seasons? He’s well below replacement-level in production and he doesn’t specialize in any one particular thing except heaving 18-footers, the most inefficient FG attempt in basketball. In short, Petro is the model of basketball inefficiency, and that’s without even considering his contract, which needs to be moved and likely will be moved at the risk of sending a draft pick or taking back another untalented/injured player like the deal that sent Yi Jianlian to Washington last summer for Quinton Ross and cash.

For the contingent of the fan base that just wants other Nets fans to stop complaining about Petro and to swallow this bitter pill because the team’s owner is a billionaire and nobody was going to sign in NJ for any less last summer, THAT’S the problem we have with this guy. You can’t expect the front office to be perfect, and there’s something to be said about the stigma for playing in Jersey, but I’m still scratching my head trying to figure out what Rod Thorn/Avery Johnson ever saw in this guy.

Final Grade: D