Nets Are Scorching

Deron Williams has been blogging from Turkey, and his blogs are mostly innocuous — his family’s doing well, he can’t find a good Jack Daniels sauce anywhere, and he’s enjoying his time with Besiktas, who’s doing very well in Euro ball. (Just yesterday, Besiktas defeated Fenerbahce Ulker, Bojan Bogdanovic’s club, led by Deron’s 21-5-5.)

But at the end of Friday’s blog, Deron said something to stir the pot:

The lockout is still going…if the CBA is finalized and I’ll need to come back to the NBA, I think it takes some time for them to get everything on paper, maybe three or four weeks. If we make a deal, I’ll try to come back as soon as possible. Also, as far as living,  I don’t have a place in New Jersey yet. I don’t want to buy anywhere, just planning to rent for now. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do after the NBA season. We’ll see…

Deron has three options after the season: exercise his player option through 2012-13, re-sign with the Brooklyn Nets, or terminate his contract and enter free agency.

So he’s not ready to buy a house in New Jersey. If you’ve been paying attention to what Deron’s been saying, none of this surprises you. Deron’s been clear on what he wants if he’s to stay with the Nets: better players. The franchise (when they’re allowed to function), the direction, the move to Brooklyn… all good. If the Nets can entice an improved, contending roster, he’ll sign. If not, he’ll bolt. It’s a great ultimatum for a player to throw down, and it’s one that Billy King’s job likely rests on.

But I’m not up in arms that he won’t buy a place in Jersey while playing in Turkey. Last I checked, the Nets won’t be there for long anyway. Deron was one of the players pushing for union decertification on July 1, and he’s long expected the lockout to last the full season. It would be much more odd (though welcome) if a superstar playing on the other side of the world was fully committed to a franchise that’s locking him out of playing in the highest-quality league on the planet, or to buying a house in the state that they’re moving out of.

This will all seem much less like doomsday once Deron wears a Nets uniform again. That is, until the full-speed emotional roller coaster of 2012 free agency hits.

And while I think everyone knows this by now, it’s never been clearer who “better players” means after Deron retweeted this:

@DeronWilliams DWill youre given haters retweets, its time you give us big fans a retweet too my man #dwight2brooklyn

November 6, 2011 3:44 pm via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@SameepGirglani

Sameep

He's not available. I know, I know. I'm bummed too.

Last week, we looked at the free agent market for small forwards. The Nets still face questions at the other forward position, too — a much thinner market. Today, Justin DeFeo, Dennis Velasco, and I try our hand at answering those questions:
 
 
1) Before free agency: Is Kris Humphries worth re-signing?

 Justin DeFeo: In a vacuum, without knowing the market for other power forwards, yes, Humphries is worth re-signing. He’s a professional, he’s entering the prime of his career, and he’s proven he can succeed playing alongside Brook Lopez. Plus, coach Avery Johnson already endorsed his return, so at this point it’s safe to say the Nets should have more use for Hump than Kim Kardashian did.
Read more…

How you know we’re in a lockout: Jordan Farmar earned the week 3 Euroleague MVP award today, after his 27-point, 10-12 shooting, 5-assist, 4-rebound performance lead Maccabi Tel-Aviv to an 88-82 victory this week. Farmar’s performance rating index (basically Euroleague’s PER) of 35 led all players, and he proved that if you’re faster than everyone else, attacking the basket is a good idea.

In other overseas New Jersey Nets news, Bojan Bogdanovic’s Fenerbahce Ulker and Deron Williams’s Besiktas Milangaz are facing off tomorrow at 4:30 PM EET, or 9:30 AM EST. That’s according to Fenerbahce’s official website, though it’s hard to gauge the accuracy of a one-sentence news brief when some schedules claim they should’ve played this morning.

As for this side of the basketball world, the players union and owners are meeting again today, and federal mediator George Cohen has returned to the sitcomnegotiations to provide a comedic twisttry to help both sides solve their BRI differences. We’ll see.

Jordan Farmar and Bojan Bogdanovic, two of the three Nets players the Nets have rights to in the un-locked-out alternate universe NBA (or ULOAUNBA, pronounced “you-loan-buh”) played well for their respective overseas clubs today. Bogdanovic scored 11 points on 4-7 shooting in 15 minutes for Fenerbahce, while Farmar dominated for Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv, scoring 27 on 10-12 shooting, dishing five assists and drawing eight fouls. Both players did so in victories: Fenerbahce defeated SLUC Nancy 90-86, while Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv defeated Real Madrid 88-82.

Bonus: former Nets training camp invitee Jaycee Carroll scored 22 for Real Madrid.

Now, since we don’t have footage of any of these guys, here’s two of my favorite Euroleague bloggers miming Bojan Bogdanovic as a caterpillar.

Happy days to all of you.

The Springfield Armor has begun to piece together its 2011-2012 roster. JamesOn Curry, Lance Hurdle, Jerry Smith, Eugene Spates, and L.D. Williams have already re-signed with Springfield. They will enter training camp, along with at least one player from the open tryouts held Oct. 22-23.

The rest of the roster will consist of Armor draftees from the 2011 D-League Draft, which takes place Thursday night.

The D-League Draft follows a serpentine format, meaning the order will alternate each round. For example, the Los Angeles D-Fenders have the first pick of the draft. In the second round, the D-Fenders pick last, and so on.

Springfield had the 16^th overall pick (the last pick in the first round), but traded it to the Tulsa 66ers in exchange for Scottie Reynolds. Springfield does have the 17^th overall pick (the first pick in the second round).

The Armors other picks include, the 48^th, 49^th, 80^th, 81^st, 112^th, and 113^th.

Some former NBA players are eligible for this year’s draft, including Jamaal Tinsley, Gabe Pruitt, Alando Tucker, Jamal Sampson, and Cedric Bozeman.

Terrence will be live at the Armor draft party giving updates on Twitter, so follow him @terrence_payne for each Armor draft selection.

With no NBA to gamble on, professional betting site Accuscore is having a little fun, simulating the NBA season day by day. In Accuscore’s simulation, the Nets start the season 1-0, defeating the Wizards 112-100 on “opening night:”

John Wall had himself an opening night notching a triple-double. He had 27 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 3 steals but it still resulted in a loss to New Jersey. The Nets shot 52 percent from the field and hit 9 threes to pull out a 12 point win. Six Nets scored in double-figures led by Deron Williams’ 24 points and 10 assists.

My only complaint: no box score.

(Also, it’s not real. But that’s not their fault.)

Dre Alvarez, writer at David Berri’s sports/economy blog Wages of Wins, breaks down the value of each player in the NBA in an interesting way: combining the share of BRI per win with Berri’s Wins Produced formula. The math is basic: with $2.1 billion in BRI and 1,230 wins in a season, the math comes out to roughly 1.7 million per win.

I’ve never been quite sold on Berri’s measurements, if only because they don’t pass what Bill James would call the “sniff test.” One example: Kevin Love ranks as the most valuable player in the NBA, with 25.8 wins produced on a team that won 17 games.

Sure enough, my nose is bugging out. Kris Humphries, he of the career year last year, ranks as the tenth-best player in the league, with 14.8 wins produced valuing him at $26.2 million, while Brook Lopez comes in 335th (or fourth-worst in the NBA), as his -2.7 wins produced qualify him for the league minimum.

I’m as critical of Brook Lopez as anyone, but if you had the choice of paying him the league minimum or Kris Humphries $26.2 million… I don’t think even David Kahn couldn’t screw that one up. (After all, Kahn has the most valuable player in the league!)

Stephen Graham, Johan Petro, and Travis Outlaw also finished with less than zero wins produced, and thus also qualified for the league minimum. Deron Williams, worth $19.5 million, ranks 28th.

In some alternate universe, today the point guard I prayed would end up in New Jersey faces off against the point guard no one saw coming. Brook Lopez begins his quest to prove that last year’s descent into rebounding mediocrity and defensive sievety (don’t care that that’s not a word) was just an aberration caused by mono, countering Javale McGee as he helicopters his way into another year playing above the rim and below his potential. Anthony Morrow’s finally going to get all those open looks promised by playing next to Deron Williams.

In that universe, MarShon Brooks and Jordan Williams begin their professional careers today. The Nets signed a starting power forward, and it’s possible his highly public divorce could affect his play. The Nets have amnesty’d Travis Outlaw and his remaining $28 million, and hopefully replaced him with someone from the free agent market. In that universe, the Nets might win 40 games this season. Maybe more.

Oh well. Play this game on 2K12 if you can. It’s the only way you’ll see it today.