Nets Are Scorching

For the first half of the game, the Armor’s defensive intensity that helped them defeat the Maine Red Claws last week was absent in Friday night’s 118-110 loss to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants.

“We didn’t come out with the defensive mindset we did in our previous game,” said head coach Bob MacKinnon.

The second quarter that came back to hurt Springfield (1-1). After leading 30-25 after one, the Armor went through a dismal 12 minutes as the Mad Ants (2-0) outscored them 36-21.

Fort Wayne’s backcourt of Walker Russell and Cameron Jones, who had 17 of his game-high 31 points in the first half, took advantage of the defensive lapse.

Offensively, Springfield didn’t help itself either, by committing 10 turnovers and shooting 2-13 from behind the arc. The Armor didn’t attack the basket like they did against the Red Claws, which was the strategy going into the game.

“We took bad three-point shots in the first half. That’s why we got down. We shoot the ball well when we go in and out, but when we go down and jack up the first one that’s the one we miss,” said MacKinnon. “We’re good shooters when we shoot good shots; we’re bad shooters when we shoot poor shots.”

In the second half, the Armor found that aggression on defense that lacked in the first.

The Armor cut the lead to six early in the third quarter, but every time Springfield threatened, Fort Wayne countered. Mad Ants guard Corey Almond hit back-to-back threes to help give Fort Wayne a little breathing room after Springfield brought the score to 68-62.

Springfield began the fourth trailing by 12, but just like the third quarter the Armor began to chip away at the lead. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Armor reduced the lead to three, but Jones responded with a three from the wing on the next possession to give the Mad Ants a 98-92 lead.

With 3:30 left, the Armor again cut the lead to three, but just 20 seconds later Russell responded with a difficult shot from the baseline to bring the lead back to five.

“We stopped allowing easy drives,” said MacKinnon. “We got back in the game because we picked up the defensive intensity.”

The Armor’s best chance to capture the lead came with just over a minute to go. After a Jeff Foote layup, the Armor went to a full court press and trapped Jones as soon as he received the pass. Jones forced a pass to half court, which was intercepted by JamesOn Curry. He immediately hit Jerry Smith in the corner for three, getting the Armor within one at 104-103.

Once again Fort Wayne responded by knocking down free throws down the stretch. Russell, Jones, and Tory Jackson combined to sink 18 of 18 free throws in the final minute of the game.

“It’s hard because you’re always fighting uphill and we dug ourselves that hole by not coming out with a defensive mindset in the first half,” said MacKinnon.

Curry led the Armor with 28 points and 10 assists. Smith chipped in with 22. Newly acquired Jeff Foote, a 7-foot center, provided a lift to the frontline scoring 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds (six offensive).

Fort Wayne’s backcourt all had big games. Jones had 31 points, Russell recorded his second double-double of the season with 24 points and 14 assists, while Almond and Jackson finished with 19 and 18, respectively.

Springfield hits the road for a game Saturday night against the Red Claws (0-2).

Due to the truncated nature of free agency and training camp — both begin on December 9th, just 16 days before the Christmas kickoff — the pre-season will essentially function as a practice shot for the season’s free throws. Some teams may play just one game, but the Nets will play two, both against the cross-state rival New York Knicks.

(John Kenney of Knickerblogger and I talked about this for a bit on last night’s episode of Nets are Scorching TV, which you can view here, and is pretty awesome.)

The Nets will host the first one in Newark on Saturday, December 17th, followed by a matchup at the Garden on Wednesday the 21st.

No word yet on the official schedule, though it’s expected to come sometime next week.

From the end of Al Iannazzone’s piece on the contract extension Deron Williams was never going to sign:

BRIEF: Among the players the Nets have expressed interest in are Caron Butler, Tayshaun Prince, Shane Battier, Shawne Williams, Rasual Butler, Arron Afflalo and Josh McRoberts. King also contacted Kris Humphries’ agent, letting him know they remain interested. But Nene and Chandler are the Nets’ top priorities.

Arron Afflalo is the top dog in this list of guys (at least we think so), but given how many suitors he has on the market the Nets are a step or two behind in acquiring him. The other guys are filler players, which actually doesn’t upset me too much. It’s all about short-term contracts now.

via Marc Stein’s twitter account:

A growing number of execs starting to believe that Magic will indeed give strong consideration to doing Dwight deal before season starts

December 2, 2011 12:06 am via UberSocial for BlackBerryReplyRetweetFavorite

@ESPNSteinLine

Marc Stein

As for teams in the hunt, the top two teams at this moment are:

• The Nets, whose primary trade chip is a 7’2″ jump shooter with poor defensive and rebounding skills, and
• The Lakers, whose primary trade chip is a 7’1″ knee injury waiting to happen, and that’s suspended for the first five games of the season for throwing at elbow at a guy that may literally be half his weight.

Now, I know I rag on Brook often (most recently two sentences ago), but I do wonder if the narrative of Brook outstripped the reality somewhere along the way. In the summer of 2011, Brook fought a nasty bit of mononucleosis, never really recovered, and still didn’t miss as much as a quarter all season. Despite seeing his field goal percentage sink into the low 40%’s in the middle of the season, he still finished the year with 49.9% shooting on over 20 points per game. Only one other center matched those numbers, and the Nets are trying to trade for him now.

As for Brook’s rebounding, his rebound rate shrunk from 15.8% his rookie season to 13.5% his sophomore campaign to 10% last year. That’s an anomaly, not a rule. With Humphries and mononucleosis gone, his rebound rate should be closer to the first two numbers than the third.

As far as this past summer? Oh, you know, just working out with Hakeem Olajuwon.

Brook is still one of the most talented offensive centers in the league, a premier low-post scorer in a league that has few of them. Is he a top-20 player in the NBA? Absolutely not. But let’s not act like he’s worthless, or a throw-in trade chip that’s a major step below some of the other talent the Magic could acquire.

We had a great show tonight but in case you missed it, feel free to watch the replay below by just pressing play.

Tonight we were joined by John Kenney (@johnbkenney) of Knickerblogger and from Celtics Hub, Ryan DeGama (@celticshub).

Via Al Iannazzone:

Deron will not be signing the extension,” Jeff Schwartz told The Record this afternoon.

THE DOOMSDAY!

Oh, wait.

“Based on the new rules it doesn’t make any sense for him to sign the extension. It has nothing to do with how much he likes New Jersey. Because of the rules, he’s going to play the season out and probably opt out of his deal.”

According to the new rules, Williams can get a two-year extension from the Nets for roughly $39 million that would be tacked on to the two years, $31 million he has remaining on his deal. If Williams opts out after the season, he could get five years, and about $101 million from the Nets or four years and $73 million from another team.

This is a monetary decision, not a basketball one. The extension possible in the new CBA isn’t the maximum contract.

In other words, nothing changes. Put your torches down. Business as usual.

To quote one of our era’s great philosophers – “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

As a long-suffering fan of a franchise that had historically played the meekish red-headed stepchild to the Broadway New York Knicks, I can’t deny how much I appreciate the bravado of the Nets’ current regime. You know it’s the dawn of a new era of Nets basketball when a bitter lockout has ended and less than 24 hours later, the Nets are the top headline-makers in the NBA with their rumored pitch to Orlando: give us your poor, tired, and over-extended assets (and Dwight Howard), and we’ll throw you a lifeline that might enable your franchise to remake itself into a middle-of-the-pack Eastern Conference team for the next decade.

The proposed trade that would send Brook Lopez and draft picks to the Magic for Howard and Hedo Turkoglu makes sense for many reasons. It gives the Nets organization it’s second coveted “star” to build around alongside Deron Williams as the team makes its move to Brooklyn in 2012. It enables the Magic the gracefully get rid of its star and some toxic contracts, while acquiring some decent rebuilding assets in exchange. The Nets are really the only team with both the assets and the cap space available to pull this trade off before the free agency period starts. And Orlando is likely to not get a better offer elsewhere, even if Howard would rather suit up with the Lakers or the Mavericks.

Where have I heard this all before?

A year ago at this time – well last preseason at least, which is more like 13 months ago at this point – I was convinced that Carmelo Anthony was going to be a Net. The Nets had the assets, the cap space, and the interest of the Denver Nuggets to pull off a trade. Despite the protestations of the Knicks, a deal built around Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and draft picks was more enticing than what the Duh Mecca’s had to offer. The only snag in the deal was: what did Anthony actually want? – not to mention Denver’s insistence to wait until the trade deadline to milk every last asset from the Nets while dumping every toxic contract they could find on New Jersey’s doorstep. The end result was a half-season of utter turmoil for Nets in a year where the team was trying to change its identity and create an organization of stability and optimism. While the acquisition of Deron Williams certainly polished the turd that was the first half of the 2010-11 season, there’s no question that the preceding months of Melo Drama was agonizing for both Nets players and its fans. In an effort to march into a new era, the organization did its best to alienate many of its hardcore supporters, who just wanted someone to show a backbone and either move away from the table, or admit that a path to relevancy cannot be laid so simply.

I can only hope that lessons were learned by Mikhail Prokhorov and Billy King. Simply put, history cannot be allowed to repeat itself with Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. Clearly, acquiring Superman is the fastest path to Eastern Conference relevancy. A team of D-Will and Howard, along with complimentary pieces like Anthony Morrow, Jordan Farmar and Damion James, would be better than the Knicks and could be enough to overcome the Bulls, Celtics and Heat atop the Eastern Conference.  But these rumors cannot be allowed to linger beyond the beginning of the 2011-12 free agency period next week. As currently constituted, the trade proposed is one that needs to be completed here and now. No wait-and-see from Orlando for better draft picks. No text messaging from Howard to find out if there’s a way Kobe or Dirk can use their clout to get Superman into their respective cities. The Nets, Magic, and most importantly, Howard, need to agree to a deal now or back away from the table – for good. Otherwise, the Nets could potentially forego an opportunity to dramatically improve the organization through free agency and other, under-the-radar trades, and instead resemble the Knicks – who will probably only be offering one-year deals to marginal players, and finding ways to shed cap space in order to make a pipedream free agency run at Chris Paul next summer.

The Dallas Mavericks proved last summer that to win a championship you don’t need multiple superstars in their prime. You just need one and some extraordinary complimentary pieces. Some of those players could be available to the Nets next week. Imagine the defensive presence Tyson Chandler would add to the Nets frontcourt. Or picture how much open space there will be on the court if both Morrow and free agent sharpshooter Jamal Crawford are getting playing time alongside Lopez and DWill. And what if there’s another all-star out there waiting for a trade that none of us are even talking about? Did any Nets fans at this point last year think Williams would be on the team by late February?

Don’t take my words of caution as aversion to a Howard deal. The Nets absolutely must make this deal if all parties agree to it. If Orlando needs additional incentive (i.e. additional players), you send them. A core of Williams and Howard is strong enough to still be competitive even if the Nets have to pilfer the NBA’s scrap heap for role players, plus I’m sure there are quite a few NBA players out there who would take less money for a chance to compete with the best PG/C duo in the NBA.

But it’s because the proposed deal makes too much sense that I urge a decision to be made quickly and painlessly. The Nets cannot resume these conversations again in January and February after already deciding what to do with their amnesty clause and already committing to other players during free agency, thus limiting their available cap space. It is the financial flexibility allowed at this stage of the preseason that makes this deal so perfect. If it can’t come together now, it wasn’t meant to be. And after predicting that was the case with Carmelo Anthony a year ago, I hope the Nets front office has the stones to admit to fans that it’s now or never with Howard and that there’s a legitimate “Plan B” to build a contender in Brooklyn that doesn’t involve endless headlines circulating around trade rumors for the same player.

Hey, guys. On the day that practice facilities open for the Nets, Justin DeFeo and I will host our first non-lockout episode of Nets are Scorching TV. We’ll talk Atlantic Division with John Kenney and Robert Silverman of KnickerBlogger, and Ryan DeGama of CelticsBlog from 7-8 PM EST.

You can watch, ask us questions, and generally be merry. We’ll talk about it on Twitter (with the hashtag #NASTV) as well, so if there are any topics you want us to touch on, let us know.

Also, here is a quote from Billy King regarding the Dwight Howard rumors:

“I’ll go on the record that I haven’t talked to Orlando about a trade since February, right before the trade deadline,” King said. “I have not had any conversations at all with my good friend Otis (Smith, the Magic general manager).

“So, I don’t know where that is coming from.”

Via ESPN AP — NBA teams, agents begin talks