Nets Are Scorching

Beşiktaş Milangaz cruised past Armia in game two of FIBA Eurochallenge play as Williams was good for 31 points, including 5-of-9 shooting on threes, and six assists in the 103-82 win. Nets fans might also note that their theoretical player Sundiata Gaines turned in a nice eight-assist, three-steal performance for Armia.

via BallInEurope

These videos are both wonderful and mildly heartbreaking. On the one hand, the whole reel is just beautiful. You can’t pinpoint just one move. The entire thing is just a basketball masterpiece, orchestrated by virtuoso Deron Williams. But those are our 31 points! That’s our reverse layup! Our crossover! Give him back, Besiktas! (Er, David Stern!)

Don’t get me wrong. He made the right decision. Playing in Turkey is a great move: he stays in shape, plays high-level (okay, maybe not so much) competition, makes some highlights, and makes $5 million. It’s a better alternative to nothing. But it’s not nearly as good as… well, you know.

On a personal note, in addition to managing this blog I’ve begun working full-time. So while daily stories may go up less frequently, I’ll make sure we hit all the major ones. You’ll still be seeing our mugs on #NASTV, and we’ll have some more basketball-related content coming in the days and weeks, season or not.

"Never again," Derek Fisher proclaimed as Maurice Evans shielded his eyes. "The injustice is over."

Worried that NBA fans could potentially subject themselves to 82 more games involving the New Jersey Nets, Derek Fisher and Billy Hunter moved to decertify the NBA Players Association in an effort to ensure that the no fan will ever have to watch the team play again.

Fisher noted that this was a grand victory for the union: “we may lose one season, we may lose more, but as long as we keep the Prudential Center free of basketball — is that what they call what they do there? Basketball? — we’ll do anything we have to.” Hunter went on to say that “not only will removing the New Jersey Nets from our collective consciousness clear our minds, we also expect New Jersey’s quality of life to rise dramatically in all sectors.”

“Our one goal: to ensure no basketball will be played in New Jersey ever again,” Hunter added to raucous applause from the media.

This comes as a stark contrast to the union’s earlier position, that regardless of how terrible and frightening Nets games have been in the past two seasons, they must sacrifice for the health of the other 29 teams in the NBA in order to give them a chance at not becoming the Nets.

But that weight became too much for the union to bear.

“Why subject you to this any longer?” Fisher said with increasing force, pointing to a screened montage of the 137 shots Johan Petro attempted from outside 16 feet in 2011. “It is our duty to protect our fans from this. It’s not right. It’s not humane!”

Later, as a still image of the Nets starting lineup on April 10th flashed on the screen, reading “Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Stephen Graham, Dan Gadzuric, Brook Lopez,” Fisher shook his head sadly, dropped the mic, and walked offstage.

This appears to be the only system issue that the NBA and union agree on completely. David Stern released a statement through deputy commissioner and Dobby the elf impersonator Adam Silver, reading: “while we originally would have preferred to subject our fans to 82 tortuous games of Travis Outlaw again, we understand the union’s position that no man, woman, child, or animal should be subject to such suffering.”

“Maybe I’ll learn to paint,” Outlaw said to reporters outside of his Starkville, Mississippi home. “I’m just glad I can take a year off from doing nothing. Do you know how hard it is going out there, pretending to practice your shot, but never actually following through every single day?”

Stephen Graham confirmed he was unsure how hard it was.

This comes as a blow to the seven New Jersey Nets fans still in existence, who hung on to that last chance that they might one day waste four hours watching the Nets lose another excruciatingly painful Nets-Bobcats matchup.

“What am I supposed to do now? Watch the Giants and Jets? College football? College basketball? Catch up on reading? Start a new television show? Focus on my future?” said a Nets fan, known only as Waffles-Kid.

After a moment, he added: "Actually, those all sound pretty good."

Other Nets players expressed a combination of relief and indifference. Upon hearing the news via telephone, Jordan Farmar cut off the reporter with a laugh and said, “I just won an MVP over here! I’m finally the MVP no one in America recognized. I can shoot whenever I want, I get all the credit when we win, I just won an MVP, and I’m playing in front of more fans than I ever saw in Newark. You really think the Euroleague Week 3 MVP is going to sully his reputation in America? Come on!”

Farmar then refused to answer any further questions unless the reporter began his statement with “MVP Farmar…”

A short time later, a jubilated Deron Williams went to Twitter, merely tweeting “HAHAHAHAHA” over 140 characters in 17 straight tweets, following it with “I’M FREE I’M FREE” a few minutes later. He did not answer a phone call seeking comment, though Williams changed his outgoing message to: “You’ve reached Deron Free Man Williams. If you’re Billy King, don’t even try.”

King was unavailable for comment, though sources in his offices noted that he was upset, mainly due to his inability to trade Brook Lopez for Samuel Dalembert and sign him to another 6-year, $65 million contract.

His sentiments aren’t shared by coach Avery Johnson, though. Johnson, with a 24-58 record after one season in New Jersey, is a long-standing supporter of the lockout, happy at any opportunity he has to avoid the Nets franchise.

“I’m so proud,” Johnson declared to the one guy in the country that could stand hearing his voice. “I’ve just been so sick of Brook Lopez’s inattentiveness to defense and obsession with reacquiring Ryan Anderson, so it comes as a nice surprise that he’s not allowed to text me for an additional year. The fact that the owners and players just couldn’t come together to save the season… well, it’s just wonderful.”

“I mean, you really need complete idiots to see how bad a lost season is for the NBA right now,” Johnson added. “And thank God, we’ve got them!”

It’s been a while since I checked in on the statuses of Nets currently under contract in ULOAUNBA (un-locked-out alternate universe NBA), so here’s a quick roundup.

Bojan Bogdanvoic: Bojan has heated up after a slow start, scoring in double figures in three of his last four games, including a season-high 19 on 7-13 shooting in just 22 minutes in a 73-70 victory over Bandirma.

MarShon Brooks: Start at :40 here. Hey, it’s not much, but it’s something. Like you, I just want to see that in an arena. Many rookies picked after #20 (and before) are sitting around uninvited to charity games, and Brooks is dropping slams in a game organized by veterans. Just sayin’.

Jordan Farmar: Farmar continues to rip up the Euro basketball circuit, most recently dropping an 18-6-5 on Sasha Vujacic’s Anadolu Efes in a 79-72 victory. Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv has won nine straight games over its three leagues, and Farmar continues to act as the catalyst.

Sundiata Gaines: Gaines has played surprisingly solid basketball for Georgian team BC Armia. After a double-double (14 points, 12 assists, to go along with 5 rebounds) in a 100-62 rout, Gaines followed up with a 24-4-4 performance and another solid outing (13 points, 5 assists) in two additional victories. I would be 100% okay with Gaines as the backup point guard next season… or this season… or whenever.

Damion James: Along with just getting a twitter account (@KONJames10), DJ will play in a charity game this coming Sunday to benefit The John Lucas Foundation, which provides substance-abuse training and counseling for basketball players.

Avery Johnson: With no team to coach, Avery has taken to visiting high schoolers in Baton Rouge, preaching “effort and excellence.”

Brook Lopez: Brook seems to make it his mantra to stay out of the spotlight, which may aid the idea that he’s not a legitimately great player. His most high-profile picture this summer is a shot of a dog attacking his arm. Since he’s not a particularly public persona, all we know about his whereabouts in the past week are that he attended Stanford football’s 53-30 loss to Oregon on Saturday with twin brother Robin. Other than that… well, I just hope he’s working on defense.

Anthony Morrow: Starred in a charity event benefiting COMP (Children of Murdered Parents). No official stats from the game, and even so, you’d take them with more than a grain of salt, but judging by Morrow’s twitter feed, the event came shortly after a workout and was, by all accounts, a great success.

Travis Outlaw/Johan Petro: I’m far from a native French speaker, but I believe this French website speculates that writers in the US believe Johan Petro is an amnesty option for the Nets. Naturally, those voices are drowned out by the voice of reason, which clearly states that if you’re gifted the opportunity to take $28 million off the cap over four years for a guy that’s struggled with conditioning issues and put up a career-worst 8.8 PER in his first full season since 2009, you do it. With that said, I would not be surprised to see Outlaw have a resurgence wherever he ends up — after all, he can’t get any worse, right?

Deron Williams: The star has been shining. D-Will has followed up his impressive performances by continuing to excel, scoring over 20 points in each of his last three games, capped by a 28-point performance yesterday against Mersin. In five TBL games, Deron is averaging 21.4 points and 6.6 assists per game, shooting over 50% from both inside and outside the arc, and including games prior and concurrent to TBL is leading Besiktas to an 11-game winning streak.

Jordan Williams: As NetsDaily points out, Jordan will be cloned this week so that he can play in two charity games at the same time. No word on if his clone’s name is “Josh Boone.”

Today is day 137 of the NBA Lockout.

After originating at Zuccotti Park, the Occupy Wall Street protests have spread throughout the nation, hitting cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, Oakland, et al. Additional movements popped up in New York City, and Occupy Brooklyn has hit Atlantic Yards in protest.

Famed protester Daniel Goldstein, known best for heading Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn until reaching a settlement with Bruce Ratner worth roughly $3 million, was on hand to protest, stating that “There is no greater monument to crony capitalism in all of Brooklyn than the Atlantic Yards Project.”

According to the terms of Goldstein’s $3 million settlement, he “cannot actively oppose the project.” Oops. While I’m not sure if this qualifies as “actively opposing” under the specific language in the settlement, it’s safe to say this isn’t exactly “actively promoting.”

Stefan Bondy pens a great piece on Sundiata Gaines’s most fearful childhood memory, being accidentally shot at just four years old:

“I knew something was wrong. I knew I was bleeding,” Gaines says. “I didn’t want to touch it, but my mother was over there panicking. It kind of felt like a quick sting. I was kind of alert at the moment. I was calm. And then my mother started panicking, then I’m in a state of panic – what’s going on, what’s going on.”

Gaines was shot in the neck. The bullet went through the right side and out the back under his hairline. One inch in another direction and it would have ripped through his jugular vein, killing the toddler.

Gaines, currently playing in the Republic of Georgia, goes on to note that due to his contract situation — he’s signed through this season with New Jersey — the prospect of a lost season is “real tough” and that he has little interest in going back to free agency.

Sundiata was great in the backup point guard role, albeit for a limited time due to his freak injury. Like him (though perhaps for different reasons), I’d like to see a season, though in a more serious sense I’m also just glad he’s alive.

Today is day 134 of the NBA Lockout.

The New Jersey Nets are one of five teams that would stand to lose more money by playing 2011-12 with a 50-50 split of BRI than if the NBA cancelled the season, according to a study by Forbes. Forbes lists the other four teams as the Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and Charlotte Bobcats — explaining Michael Jordan’s recent stance as a hardline owner.

The player’s association said yesterday that they would accept a 50-50 split if the NBA was willing to bend on certain system issues, most of which revolve around the luxury tax. Henry Abbott breaks it all down here. The two sides will meet at 1 PM today in an effort to compromise on those system issues. If they can’t agree on a deal, the owners have threatened that their offers will get substantially worse as we miss more games.

Despite this valuation, it doesn’t necessarily mean that Mikhail Prokhorov wouldn’t approve a 50-50 split:

• The Nets suffered operating losses last year and likely would this year at a 50-50 split, but this is just the first year of a ten-year CBA. With the impending move to Brooklyn, operating costs — and revenues — are going to change drastically once the Nets leave Newark. The Nets aren’t profitable now, but over the course of a ten-year CBA, they stand to cover those losses.
• On the court, the Nets have one major priority now — retaining Deron Williams — and that’s easier to do if he’s playing basketball in the Western Hemisphere. There’s no guarantee he’ll re-sign even if the union and NBA agree in time for a shortened season, but without one the Nets are at greater risk of losing their franchise player after just 12 messy games.

There’s no doubt that Prokhorov enjoys the psychic benefits of owning an NBA franchise, but the franchise’s profitability isn’t ancillary. Prokhorov is a businessman, one of the best in the world. He bought the Nets to get them to Brooklyn, build a billion-dollar arena, win a championship, and make a jet-skiload of money. The move is what piqued his interest in throwing Bruce Ratner a $200 million lifeline, he’s said as much himself. But he also knows Brooklyn’s a tougher sell with Jordan Farmar as the starting point guard.

Today is day 132 of the NBA lockout.

Next season's success starts here.

In last week’s editions of 3-on-3, we looked at different targets the Nets might pursue in free agency at the small forward and power forward positions. This time, we’re talking about who we’ve got now — and what they’ll do next year.

Joining Justin DeFeo and myself is perpetual riser/grinder Beckley Mason, founder of the phenomenal site HoopSpeak, and host of their weekly live online show HoopSpeak Live. You can follow Beckley on Twitter @BeckleyMason. If you don’t, the cool kids at the other lunch table will make fun of you.

 
1) Over/Under: Deron Williams will average 10 assists per game next season.

 Justin DeFeo: An optimistic over. In his 12 games with the Nets last season, D-Will averaged 12.8 APG and he was over 10 in his last four years in Utah. Perfectly able to balance his scoring and dishing, the Nets should provide just enough offense around him to make 10 assists a game possible. Adding another scorer in Marshon Brooks should only help the cause.
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The full repertoire on display: the off-balance ballhandling and shooting, the dump-offs inside, the curls off screens, the fakes, and the smart decisions, all wrapped up in one neatly packaged three-minute video. I know it’s European basketball, but the way he toys with defenders is just special. If he’s having fun playing with Semih Erden and Marcelus Kemp, he’s going to make Brook Lopez and Anthony Morrow look like demigods.

(Yes, I am the eternal optimist. Either he’s staying, or he’s going. I just hope he gets a shot in NJ.)