Nets Are Scorching

As we approach this year’s NBA draft, I can best sum up what we know about where the Nets are headed with the #27 pick by quoting former WCW wrestler Sting:

“The only thing for sure about Sting is, nothing’s for sure.”

It’s safe to say nobody really knows what the Nets are going to do, and what they do may depend on who’s available or what trades are out there, but I will do my best to sum up what we know so far. Earlier today, NY Post Fred Kerber and The Record’s Al Iannazzone reported it was down to four players:

• Reggie Jackson of Boston College
• Justin Harper of Richmond
• Nolan Smith of Duke
• Andrew Goudelock of College of Charleston

Reggie Jackson’s refusal to work out with most teams raised some eyebrows. I think Nolan Smith will stick in this league, though he doesn’t necessarily fill a pressing need for the Nets.

Al Iannazzone reports that the Nets are exploring options to try to package picks in order to move up in the draft, potentially to select Georgia Tech’s Iman Shumpert. Shumpert’s stock rose tremendously following all of the NBA’s pre-draft combines. His physical tools are off the charts, but there are still a lot of holes in his game.

In two of the latest mock drafts, Chad Ford of ESPN’s mock draft 7.0 has the Nets selecting Reggie Jackson at 27 and Jonathan Givony of draftexpress.com has the Nets selecting Chandler Parsons of Florida at 27.

Some of the other names that have either been reported or appeared in mock drafts with the Nets:

• Josh Selby of Kansas
• Tyler Honeycutt of UCLA
• JaJuan Johnson of Purdue
• Trey Thompkins of Georgia
• Davis Bertans of Latvia

Selby’s best basketball days are ahead of him, or at least that’s the prevailing thought. Honeycutt could be an interesting player, considering the tract record recent UCLA players have had in the league.

The remaining list of draft prospects (as previewed by the Nets Are Scorching team):

• Jeremy Tyler of Tokoyo
• Charles Jenkins of Hofstra

If Tyler is still there at #27, I think the Nets would have to think long and hard about selecting him. The way we are viewing him now could have been vastly different had Tyler gone the traditional route to college after high school.

Yinka Dare

Earlier today, Mark had the dubious honor of trying to come up with the Nets’ top five best non-lottery choices. I decided to take a look at the worst non-lottery choices that the Nets have made. Needless to say, my list was much easier to come up with than his list. The hardest part of my list was narrowing it down to just five. Because of that I decided to focus on first round selections only. Because of that, on this list you won’t see Mile Illic, Christian Drejer or Tamar Slay, but you will see plenty of familiar names that may or may not have caused you heartache. Enjoy.

No. 5 – Vicktor Khryapa: The player from CSKA Moscow gets some points knocked off his poor NBA performance due to the fact that the Nets traded this pick on draft day to the Portland Trail Blazers for, brace yourself, Eddie Gill and cash considerations (Yes! More cost cutting!).

In a four year career that spanned from the Trail Blazers to the Chicago Bulls, Khryapa boasted blistering averages in the NBA of: 4.5 ppg, 3.4 rpg, and 1.0 apg. He has since returned back to CSKA Moscow.

Notable Players Passed Over: Tony Allen, Kevin Martin, Delonte West and Anderson Varejao.

No. 4 – Zoran Planinic: After the 2003 season the Nets were looking for a backup guard to spell Jason Kidd, among others. So, naturally the Nets decided to select a relatively young Croatian swing player to do the job. The results were underwhelming to say the least.

Planinic never really made his mark on the Nets or in the NBA, as he was unable to continue running the Nets fast break offense that they employed back then. The most memorable thing about Zoran’s NBA career?…his hair.

Notable Players Passed Over: Kendrick Perkins, Leandro Barbosa, Josh Howard, Mo Williams.

No. 3 – Marcus Williams: In 2006, the Nets were still looking for that backup guard to Jason Kidd and with Kidd aging, even drafting a potential heir to his throne. The Nets opted to take enigmatic point guard Marcus Williams of UConn. The lefty guard seemed to have a great feel for the game and his rookie season yielded mixed results, but enough was done for there to be some cause of optimism.

But, all clouds have a silver lining. Williams’ decision-making began being called into question and his work ethic and conditioning were always cause for concern from day one. As Williams’ role on the team diminished, so did his attitude, topping out with a trade to the Golden State Warriors for a first round pick. Who knew a guy who tried selling stolen laptops while at UConn would become a character problem anyway?

Notable Players Passed Over: Kyle Lowry, Paul Millsap.

No. 2 – Sean Williams: In 2007 the Nets selected Sean Williams of Boston College with the 17th overall pick. A long and athletic 6’10″ forward, Williams was hailed as having talent worthy of the lottery, but due to character issues while at Boston College his draft stock dipped. The Nets took a chance on him and got just about what you’d expect from a guy who was suspended twice from his college team in a three-year career. But he could jump so high!

Much like Marcus Williams, Sean’s rookie year could have been dubbed a semi-success, and we saw the athletic potential we had heard about upon drafting him. But due to his on the court mishaps (“Wait, Coach Frank, what do you mean help defense?”) and his off the court trouble (Ok so he smashed one computer monitor at a mall, NBD!) his role on the team shrunk and he was used sparingly in his second and third seasons, eventually being released by the team in 2010.

Notable Players Passed Over: Wilson Chandler, Arron Afflalo, Glen Davis.

No. 1 – Yinka Dare: Ah yes, everyone’s favorite, Yinka Dare. The Nets selected Dare 14th overall in the 1994 NBA Draft. Dare was a seven-foot Nigerian born center and seemed like a competent player coming out of college.

The NBA proved to be different for Mr. Dare, however. Dare will forever be remembered, in my eyes at least, for his 95-96 season in which he played in 58 games and did not record a single assist! As a matter of fact, Dare played 1002 minutes in his NBA career and recorded only four total assists, for a scorching average of one assist per 250 minutes played. Not bad Yinka!

Notable Players Passed Over: Charlie Ward, Aaron McKie.

Remember to come back later tonight and join us for our annual live draft chat. The chat will begin approx. at 6:45 pm est. Seeya then!

The Nets have had a hard enough time over the years getting picks right when they were in the lottery, so putting together a “top” list of non-lottery picks is a lot tougher than it should have been. Hopefully when the Nets pick at No. 27 tonight, their selection has a career in New Jersey/Brooklyn more in line with one of these five players rather than past non-lottery picks like Sean Williams, Marcus Williams, Yinka Dare and Mile Ilic:

Honorable Mentions: Tate George (22^nd pick, 1990), Rex Walters (16^th pick, 1993), Antoine Wright (15^th pick, 2005), Josh Boone (23^rd pick, 2006).

No. 5 – Brian Scalabrine: “Veal,” gets points for his longevity in the league, and for his prominent role it what might have been one of the greatest Nets games in recent memory. In a critical game 5 of the 2004 Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Nets and the Detroit Pistons, Scalabrine was forced into playing 23 minutes when four members of the Nets frontcourt – Kenyon Martin, Jason Collins, Rodney Rogers and Aaron Williams – had fouled out. Scalabrine responded with 17 points, including four three-pointers in the triple overtime victory against the Pistons, giving the Nets a 3-2 series lead. If the Nets had only sealed the deal in game 6 in New Jersey, Scalabrine would probably be an even bigger part of Nets folklore.

As it stands, for most of his four-year Nets career, Scalabrine was the 12^th man on the bench, though he did play a more prominent role in 2004-05, when he started in 14 games and averaged 6.3 points on 4.5 rebounds. Picked 35^th overall (second round) in 2001, Scalabrine’s Nets and general NBA career is at least more distinctive coming out of the second round, than numerous first rounders picked by Nets President Rod Thorn during this era.

No. 4 – Ryan Anderson: Anderson, taken with the 21^st pick in 2008, is actually putting together a very solid NBA career for himself as a back-up stretch four. The problem is he’s doing it for the Orlando Magic after the Nets front office threw him in for the deal that unloaded Vince Carter for Courtney Lee and the expiring corpses of Rafer Alston and Tony Battie. Anderson, the throw-in, has probably been the best player since the trade went down, putting up a PER of 18.15 and 19.09 during his two seasons in Orlando, while establishing himself as a solid shooting big-man and a good enough rebounder who fits in perfectly with Orlando’s “spread the perimeter for Dwight” offense. Meanwhile, a case could be made that Anderson should have been given more of a shot in New Jersey, averaging less than 20 minutes his rookie season while the Nets coaching staff and front office continually shoved Yi Jianlian down the fan’s throats. While Yi is never going to evolve into the next Dirk, Anderson is looking like a mirror image of Troy Murphy (before he came to Jersey and his career went to pot).

No. 3 – Jason Collins: So I had to think long and hard here for a minute about the 18^th pick in the 2001 draft because technically, “Twin” was selected by the Houston Rockets and then traded to the Nets (along with Richard Jefferson and Brandon Armstrong) for Eddie Griffin on draft day. While I waffled about including Collins for this very reason, he’s also one of the new non-lottery draft picks to play with the Nets in their rookie year and go on to have a very solid career with both the Nets and beyond.

Collins is never going to win any awards and his statistics are downright awful, but he’s one of the few players in this league whose positive contributions honestly can’t be found in a stat-sheet. Despite being 32 now, he’s still a very solid post-defender and was part of Atlanta’s “kryptonite” strategy against Dwight Howards in the playoffs this past year. He was with the Nets for seven years, making the playoffs in his first six, including back-to-back finals his first two seasons where he had to defend hall-of-fame caliber Centers in Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson. And that was the extent of Collins role – go out there and defend that big guy. And he did a good job at it. Of course, it leaves you wondering how the Nets could have done if they had a Center who can hold his own in the post defensively, but actually put the ball in the basket, but that’s a debate for a different day.

No. 2 – Nenad Krstic: Krstic gets on this list for his nickname alone, “Curly,” but was also one of the few players taken by the Nets outside of the lottery who was evolving into a potential-all-star with the organization before a crippling knee injury derailed his career in 2006-07. Taken with the 24^th pick in the 2002 draft, the Nets had to wait two years before Nenad joined the team, but he was worth the wait, starting 57 games for the team after the coaching staff admitted they were trying to work him into the rotation slowly. He was a huge offensive asset in his first playoff series in 05 against the Heat, averaging 18.3 points and 7.5 rebounds on 56 percent shooting. In his final season with the Nets, he was averaging 18.1 points on 53 percent shooting before injury ended things for him. He’s worked his way back into being a decent big man option for NBA teams, though he was buried on Boston’s bench during their playoff sputter this past season.

No. 1 – PJ Brown: The 6’11” Power Forward/Center out of Lousiana Tech University, has had, by far, the most accomplished NBA career of any non-lottery pick for the Nets. He was picked with the 29^th pick (second round) in 1992 and sat out his first year to play in Greece. Brown played three solid seasons with the Nets, where he became known as a great rebounder and defender with a decent mid-range jumper. He started in 198 games, overall averaging 8.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.37 blocks during his tenure in New Jersey. He also played in the inaugural NBA Rookie Game during the 1999 All-Star Weekend.

After leaving the Nets, Brown’s profile was raised when he joined the Miami Heat. He made the all-defensive second team twice during in Miami and may be best known by Knicks fans for flipping Charlie Ward and igniting a brawl during game 5 of the 1997 Eastern Conference Semifinals against New York. The brawl changed the course of the series, as a number of key Knicks players were suspended and the Heat came back from a 3-1 deficet to take the series.

Brown went on to spend the next chunk of his career in Charlotte/New Orleans. During the 2002 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Nets, Brown averaged 8.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2 blocks a game against his former team. Brown finally won an elusive ring, along with Brian Scalabrine, on the 2007-08 Celtics team.

Also see the Nets top 5 worst non-lottery selections.

The 2011 NBA Draft will soon be upon us, and the Nets are starting to carve out a list of prospects. This week, Nets are Scorching takes a look at the players the Nets might select.

College Stats: 33 GP, 37.3 MPG, 22..6 PPG, 4.8 APG, 3.4 RPG, 0.7 BPG, 1.7 SPG, .517 FG%, .824 FT%, .420 3p%

Charles Jenkins finished his four year career at Hofstra University as the school’s all-time leading scorer and most prolific player in program history (Sorry Speedy Claxton). During his time there, he received many individual accolades, among them was the recipient of the Haggerty Award, an award given to the best Division I player in the metropolitan area. Jenkins became just the third player all-time to win the award three times, joining Jim McMillan and Chris Mullin.

Jenkins is a classic example of a player who had tremendous collegiate success playing at a mid-major college, but against mid-major competition (though you could make the argument that with the final four runs of George Mason and VCU, the CAA is not a normal mid-major conference). During Jenkins’ four years, his team never qualified for the NCAA tournament, thus, Jenkins’ successes in college went relatively unknown to the greater population of the United States.

Here’s what you’re getting if you draft Charles Jenkins: A 6’3″ combination point guard, shooting guard. Jenkins is an example of a “tweener”, a label given to those who don’t fit a prototypical position in the NBA. Jenkins has the game and mentality of a two guard, but his body is better suited as a point guard. As I stated earlier, Jenkins was one of the most consistent scoring guards in the country as a senior. His 22.6 ppg average had him finish sixth in the country in scoring and this was with the opposing defenses’ schemes built almost entirely to stop him.

Despite being considered undersized at his position (SG), Jenkins has solid length and quickness. While he is not the most dynamic athlete in this draft, Jenkins does possess athleticism as well as strength which aids in his finishing at and around the basket. He also possesses NBA three point range and one quick glance at all of his shooting numbers suggests if nothing else, Jenkins can certainly put the ball in the hole with the best of them.

The real question for Charles going forward is, what position will best suit him in the NBA? While he became known for his scoring in college, he does possess the ability to pass and get his teammates involved, as evidenced by his 4.8 assists per game average, which led his conference. Also, it is noted, that at Hofstra, Jenkins was far and away his team’s best player and most reliable scoring option, therefore, it was in his team’s best interest for Jenkins to look for his shot first.

Can he make the types of adjustments necessary to play point guard at the NBA level? Or, is Jenkins enough of a capable scorer, that even despite his lack of size, he’ll still be able to score against NBA guards? These are the questions facing most NBA GM’s as they head into the draft.

Quotable: Outside of his physical tools, Jenkins seems like a high character kid, who has a keen awareness of his own game. Here’s Jenkins on how his game will translate to the NBA:

“One thing that separates me from a lot of other guys is I don’t force things,” he says. “I know I’m not going to get there and finish over a guy like Dwight Howard, but I have a pull up jump shot that I can rely on and I’m a great passer which a lot of people don’t really know. People see my scoring numbers and that’s really all they see, but I’m smart enough to know the ways I’m going to score there.”

 

Final Thoughts: It is in my opinion that Jenkins will be able to be a contributing guard in this league, given the right situation. I feel as though his ultimate destiny would be that of a combo guard used off the bench to provide back up to both guard positions.

If the Nets select Jenkins at 27, he would give us more scoring depth in our backcourt. Jordan Farmar would still provide most of the primary back up point guard duties, Jenkins could fill in nicely as the third point guard and second or third shooting guard shooting guard on our depth charts. With the size that Deron Williams has, Jenkins could easily play in the backcourt alongside Williams, without the Nets sacrificing much on the defensive end.

That being said, the Nets backcourt could become crowded with Deron, Farmar, Anthony Morrow and Sundiata Gaines already holding up spots there, so I don’t see the Nets going the route of drafting another small guard. Jenkins’ name has been popping up at various different points in most mock drafts I have seen. He has generally been falling late first to early second round.

At his latest press conference, Billy King fielded numerous questions about the NBA Draft. King has been known for his draft-day deals; when asked about the talks he is having with other GMs, King told Al Iannazzone that he has had conversations, but that the Nets pretty much know what they are shooting for.

Apparently, the Nets are looking to trade up for Georgia Tech guard Iman Shumpert, ironically the same player that was allegedly responsible for Derrick Favors’ underwhelming college statistics. Personally, I don’t really want Shumpert. Can he play good defense? Maybe. However, he doesn’t really have skills as a point guard and I’m not too sure of his offensive capabilities as a shooting guard. I would rather have Justin Harper or even Nolan Smith.

Nets General Manager Billy King is doing his first draft in New Jersey, and as you’ll quickly learn, he is no stranger to wheeling and dealing. In today’s NBA Draft Chat hosted on ESPN by Chad Ford, Ford noted that this year is no different:

(The Nets have b)een trying to package 27 & 36 to move up a few spots. They’d love to get their hands on Reggie Jackson, but are afraid he won’t be there at 27.

A few analysts have mentioned Reggie Jackson and the Nets, and he’s been moving quickly up draft boards. Stay tuned…

Nolan Smith, PG, Duke.

I’m not a huge fan of this pick (this is a prediction, not a preference), but I’m not a fan of most picks in this draft after #2. With Justin Harper going off the TrueHoop Mock board to Dallas just before this pick, I can see the Nets taking Smith instead. He fits the bill: he’s an intelligent, high-character senior who succeeded at the highest level in college. We’ve already discussed Nolan Smith to the Nets a bit here, so I won’t go too much further in-depth.

With that said, I’d also like to note that Billy King is one of the biggest draft-day dealers in the NBA, and I would be very surprised if the Nets stood pat during this draft.

The 2011 NBA Draft will soon be upon us, and the Nets are starting to carve out a list of prospects. This week, Nets are Scorching takes a look at the players the Nets might select.

Israel Super League Stats: 10 GP, 7.6 MPG, 2.1 PPG
Basketball Japan League Stats: 33 GP, 15.4 MPG, 9.9 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 0.5 APG, 0.7 BPG, 2.3 TOV/G, 0.5 SPG, .511 FG%, .454 FT%

In a draft liberally sprinkled with names like Jonas Valanciunas or Bismack Biyombo, perhaps the most intriguing international man of mystery is San Diego’s own Jeremy Tyler.  After establishing himself as one of the top prep players in the Class of 2010, the then 6’9” Tyler went Brandon Jennings one better and skipped his senior year of high school to play professionally in Israel. 

Shockingly, the 18 year old who had never before been overseas had difficulty adjusting to life in Israel and saw his maturity repeatedly called into question.  As a not-particularly-flattering New York Times profile put it, “the consensus is that he is so naïve and immature that he has no idea how naïve and immature he is.”  After just 10 games Tyler called it quits on his Israel experiment having logged less than 8 mpg and scoring 21 total points.

With his basketball future very much unsure, Tyler signed with the wonderfully-named Japanese team Tokyo Apache.  Besides boasting some of the most amazing websites in the sports world, the BJ League is also home to a nice mix of homegrown talent and imports against which Tyler could measure himself.  Playing on a roster with notables like former Oklahoma State PG Byron Eaton and 2004 lottery pick Robert Swift, Tyler averaged 9.9 points and 6.4 rebounds in his 33 games and put himself back on NBA scouts’ radar.

Over the past few months, Tyler’s stock has only continued to rise, which makes a lot of sense considering his natural physical attributes.  A combine-measured 6’10 ½ ” in shoes, Tyler’s athletic measurements nearly mirrored those of Derrick Williams with the exception of the bench press.  If he can cut his combine near-worst 13.4% body fat in half even by a third and add some muscle, he’ll really be a physical specimen and a handful in the post. 

 That’s Tyler in a nutshell; if he works hard and has his head straight, he has one of the highest ceilings in his draft, but with his lack of experience and the red flags shown during his time in Israel, he also has some of the highest potential to be a bust.  Besides the makeup questions, he also has the raw and limited offensive game typical of young post players.  But still, that potential…

 If I may climb on my soapbox for a moment, one thing that’s really gotten on my nerves about Jeremy Tyler is how universally his decision to go abroad has been panned.  The standard narrative seems to be that the only reason he’s not a top 10 pick this year is because of how badly he screwed that up.  What’s ignored is that while he did wash out, he did so during what would have been his senior year in high school, meaning he’s had more than a year to rebuild his image before the draft.  Could he have dominated the NCAA as a freshman and played himself into contention for #1 overall?  Sure.  But he could also have acted like the same immature, entitled kid who and damaged his reputation even further, and more visibly at that.  The line between Jared Sullinger and Derrick Caracter is a fine one indeed, and while Jeremy Tyler has some strikes against him he’s also seen how precarious athletic stardom is, wisdom that may prove beneficial for both him and his NBA team.

Quotable: Former NBA coach Bob Hill, who coached Tyler in Japan:

The staff that drafts him needs to stay on him and continue to teach him exactly what it is they want from him. If that is done on a consistent basis, he will be fine…Five years down the road, he could become an outstanding player, because he really wants this and has a very good motor.

Final Thoughts: Two months ago, Jeremy Tyler was considered a second round prospect.  He didn’t crack Chad Ford’s mock draft until its third iteration, and even then only at pick #29.  In the latest version Ford has him going to the Celtics at #25.  Tyler has been on the rise, and it’s very possible he’ll be gone by the time the Nets pick.

 If he is there, though, he may prove too tempting to pass up.  As has been pointed out on this very blog, Tyler’s character and experience don’t fit what the Nets seem to be looking for, and most recent mock drafts have had the Nets looking guard.  That said, Jeremy Tyler has as much potential as any big man in the draft, and it’s tough to pass on a top 10 talent at pick #27.  If the draft shakes out right and they have the guts to pull the trigger, Tyler may fall into their laps and the Nets may find themselves with a high-upside PF to replace Derrick Favors.