Nets on the Net: 2/28/10 Edition
Feb 28, 2010 Bobby Simmons, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Nets on the Net, Rod Thorn
Brook Lopez is thinking what all Nets fans are thinking after yesterday’s shocking victory against the Celtics: “To finally break through against a good team like this shows us what we’re capable of,” Brook Lopez said after leading the Nets with 25 points.
Kevin Garnett, on the other hand, is saying what all Celtics fans are saying after last night: “I’ve got nothing to say,” Kevin Garnett said. “I feel disgusted.”
Speaking of Celtics fans, Zach Lowe of CelticsHub has some fun with video entitled how to lost to a five-win team.
Fred Keber of the New York Post, talks with Courtney Lee about his ankle injury: “It’s stiff right now because I just iced it,” said Lee, who hit one of the game’s biggest shots — a jumper in the third quarter when the Celtics were charging and the crowd was roaring. “Usually, when I sprain my ankle it’s something I can get over real quick.”
Bobby Simmons is one of the most expensive benchwarmers in the league, but he at least has a good attitude about it during an interview with the Daily News’ Julian Garcia: “It’s not really embarrassing because it’s out of my control,” says Simmons, who plays less than any of his teammates.
Rod Thorn remains coy about his future with the organization, according to Al Iannazzone: “Not a thing going on,” Thorn said. “Nothing at all. We’ll just see if and when Mr. Prokhorov takes over, he’ll do whatever he’s going to do. But until, as you’ve seen me quoted, I have nothing to say about any part of ownership. Period.”
Nets on the Net: 2/7/2010 Super Sunday Edition
Feb 7, 2010 Bobby Simmons, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Nets on the Net, Tony Battie
I’m sure all you sports fans out there are really focused on the Nets today on this Sunday since there’s nothing else going on out there….
Expect Bobby Simmons to either be traded or released in the next few weeks. Chris Douglas-Roberts is also on block, confirms Al Iannazzone.
In a profile in the Worcester Telegram, Tony Battie explains that the Nets goals for the remainder of the season are very focused: “We have that in the back of our minds,” Battie said. “I hate to say it, but that’s a goal of ours, to avoid that record.”
Mitch Lawrence of the Daily News gives a state of the NBA column and mentions how the Nets are one of 13 teams losing money hand over fist.
Another media outlet attempts to justify the Nets woes of this season by proclaiming, the Nets can turn it around next year.
Can the Nets Tank Something That’s Already Been Tanked?
Jan 12, 2010 Bobby Simmons, Chris Quinn, Devin Harris, Eduardo Najera, Josh Boone, Kris Humphries, Rafer Alston, Roster
So the common theme surrounding the New Jersey Nets is that after shipping out Rafer Alston, Sean Williams and Eduardo Najera, they’re not even close to being done with their roster makeover. According to numerous league sources, Josh Boone, Tony Battie, Trenton Hassell and Bobby Simmons could all be shipped out at any time, provided the Nets get what they’re looking for in return (younger players who won’t put in a dent in the cap flexibility for the summer). Heck, ESPN’s Chad Ford suggested that even Devin Harris could be on the block if he nets the team a superstar.
But looking at more realistic roster scenarios, ESPN’s Marc Stein recently suggested the Nets are trying to dump their veterans and free up roster space for “fresh blood from the D-League.”
Whenever I see firesales of this magnitude it seems to indicate one thing – a team is tanking the season in an effort to secure a top flight pick in the draft. The fact that the Nets appear more interested in importing D-League players, who they can likely sign on super short-term 10-day contracts, in favor of winning a few more games with some of their veterans, is a clear indicator that they’ve officially given up on trying to salvage any respectability this season.
Or is it? There’s one huge whole in this logic that must be considered for fans and spectators who criticize the “tank” strategy. The Nets have been incredibly awful with their current mix of young up-and-coming players and veteran, playoff –tested guys. At 3-34, is there really any reason to believe the Nets are a better team with Rafer Alston and Eduardo Najera rather than Chris Quinn and Kris Humphries?
The Nets are in a unique situation that a “tanking” strategy could actually make them better. What’s better for a team that’s currently built around five 20-something guys in Devin Harris, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Yi Jianlian and Chris Douglas-Roberts (provided they’re not on the block too)? Picking up players for their bench who have been overlooked for playing time in playoff towns like Miami and Dallas, and filling out the roster using D-League guys who are trying to prove that their NBA-caliber? Or having a veteran guy like Alston who only seemed to succeed in New Jersey at alienating the immature young-uns like Terrence Williams and CDR. Eduardo Najera was supposed to bring toughness and grit off the bench, but he couldn’t keep his body from breaking down long enough to be an example for anyone.
Alston Says Fire the Players. Let’s Start with Him.
Dec 1, 2009 Analysis, Bobby Simmons, Rafer Alston
When talking with reporters after Lawrence Frank was fired Sunday, Rafer Alston said that sometimes “players need to go” when a team is struggling as the Nets have. I hope Alston believes these sentiments, because coincidentally, Rafer would be the first person I would fire based on poor performance, with Bobby Simmons running a very close second.
Yes, Alston and Simmons have been that bad this season. These two players are so bad, they hardly resemble NBA players anymore, yet because of injuries, and coaching decisions, they both have logged major minutes all season, and have played a pivotal role in the Nets historically heinous start.
Talking Health and PER
Nov 13, 2009 Analysis, Bobby Simmons, Eduardo Najera, Injuries, Josh Boone, Rafer Alston, Terrence Williams, Trenton Hassell
While the Nets 0-8 start to the season is a pretty definitive indicator as to how the rash of injuries is affecting the team’s performance, there are some advanced statistics out there that really hammer home what happens when a team is forced to either play guys out of position, or give starter’s minutes to players who are career back-ups or in some cases, career-12th-men.
One of the more interesting statistics available on the great statistical site 82games, is PER (Player Efficiency Rating) differential. 82games looks at a player’s PER while playing a specific position, and then also provides PER data for opposing player’s slotted at that same position. In other words, when Brook Lopez is playing center, he currently has a PER of 20.7, while opposing centers have a PER of 13.1 while Brook is on the floor, creating a PER differntial of + 7.6 (which is very good). I like looking at this metric because in addition to giving you an idea of how a guy stacks up at a certain position, it also provides some insight about his defensive abilities against other player’s at that position.
And for those of you who have not bought in to the advance statistics thing for the NBA yet, a quick refresher: PER is the overall rating of a player’s per-48 minute statistical production including scoring, shooting percentages, rebounding, assists, turnovers and other metrics. A PER of 15.0 is considered the mean, with anything above 15 being above average, and below 15 is obviously below average. You’ll find that Sebastian and I throw PER around a lot on this site, so if you never knew what we were talking about, there you go.
So in many cases in the early-part of this Nets season, the PER differential for some players is just alarmingly awful. After the jump, let’s break this down into two groups, players playing out of position and players getting big minutes who in a perfect world, would be riding the bench or inactive. Read the rest of this entry »
Video Breakdown: Game 7 vs. Boston
Nov 10, 2009 Bobby Simmons, Brook Lopez, Josh Boone, Nets vs. Celtics, Rafer Alston, Skip To My Lou, Terrence Williams, Video Breakdown, Videos, Xs and Os
The Video Breakdowns took a little break because I was unable to get my hands on game video for the past couple games, but I was able to get video from the Boston game, so I thought I would hit you with a breakdown. I gave it a few days, because I was high on the Nets’ performance right after the game, and I wanted to see if I would have felt the same way watching it with a clear head.
Do I? Yes and No. I still think the Nets played the best they could given the circumstances on defense, but their play on the offensive end was well, offensive. The Celtics forced a lot of turnovers yes, but the Nets contributed to it a ton. If the Nets gave up the ball less on offense, I think they could have won this game (gasp!).
P.S. Brook, isn’t in this too much because I already looked at his performance in depth yesterday.
Examining The Nets Options At PF
Nov 6, 2009 Advanced Statistics, Analysis, Bobby Simmons, Eduardo Najera, Josh Boone, Opinion, Sean Williams, Yi
Going into this season, one of my biggest fears was Yi not working out. Then, I was worried because if he didn’t work out there wasn’t a whole lot of depth behind him. For that reason, I was pretty relieved when I saw Yi playing well; knocking his shots down, playing better defense, and being more aggressive. With the way the Nets season has been going so far, it only makes sense that he gets hurt. Lawrence Frank now has to piece together a PF rotation, and as you guys probably know, I don’t really like the look of that. The night of Yi’s injury, Bobby Simmons got most of the PF minutes (ew), but during the Nuggets game, Najera got most of the minutes and played pretty well. Here are all of the active options at PF the Nets have on the roster, and what we can expect from them:
Bobby Simmons -
The Skinny
It is safe to say that the Bobby Simmons experiment has been a complete failure, but for some reason Lawrence Frank insists on playing him. Bobby Simmons has logged a total PER of -2.85 (I don’t think this has ever happened before during the course of a season) through four games, and even he finally made a basket in the 5th game of the season. Simmons’ true shooting percentage is a whopping 15.1%. With all that being said, Simmons has been doing a solid jobs on the boards. His defensive rebounding rate (the percentage of defensive rebounds he grabs during his time on the court) is at 23.4 when the league average is at 14.2. This stat is probably the reason Lawrence Frank justifies playing him.
Bobby’s Style
As a 4, Bobby Simmons has relied completely on the outside game, which makes sense when you think about it because his true position is the 3. According to HoopData.com, Simmons has only attempted 2 shots at the rim (making one). The rest of them have been from 16 feet and out, going 1-10 on long twos and 0-7 on threes. So when Bobby is on the floor at the 4, the goal is to use him to stretch out defenses, but that won’t happen until he starts making shots.
Josh Boone -
The Skinny
Josh Boone has played center most of his career in New Jersey, but now Boone is finally getting a chance to play at the PF spot. It seems like it could work, Boone will probably be bigger than most of the 4s he goes up against, so when Boone and Lopez share the court, this could lead to some mismatches. There is one problem though, the Nets need one of these guys to back-up Brook.
Josh’s Style
Boone’s style is the complete opposite of what Bobby Simmons’ style is supposed to be. Boone is a inside presence, who has attempted 17 of his 20 shots inside of 10 feet. He has shown a nice tough from the outside too this year (although it really isn’t showing in his foul shots), going 2-3 on shots from 10-23 feet. As for his foul shots, he looks more comfortable at the line, and though it doesn’t show with the stats, he seems to improving at the line, which could go a long way in making him a productive player.
Sean Williams -
The Skinny
In the 3 games that Williams has played in this year, he has averaged 8.7 minutes, and he has put up solid numbers in those minutes. He is tied for the team lead (with Brook) in True Shooting % with 61.0%. He is still loose with the basketball, logging a Turnover Rate (percentage of possessions that end up with a turnover) of 32.79%, almost three times the league average. He still crashes the boards hard (which is something that he has always done when on the court), coming up with a total rebounding rate of 14.9, 5 points higher than the NBA average.
Sean’s Style
Sean Williams’ style is straight out of the Chris Anderson mold. He really gets the crowd going with his big blocks and big dunks. He has shown to be a spark plug when he got on the court this year, which is different from past years. He will probably be going in when the Nets’ offense starts to stall.
Eduardo Najera -
The Skinny
Najera has played in three games this year, and besides the Washington game where he was just overmatched by a more athletic Blatche, he has played the best out of all of the PF options the Nets have. The biggest reason Najera has played so well is because he has kept his turnovers down. Najera’s Turnover Rate was 4.23, which is about 1/3 of league average. Add that to the fact that he always crashes the boards hard, and that he has a nice little touch, you shouldn’t be surprised that he has played pretty well.
Eduardo’s Style
Eduardo is a bulldog who can compliment that style with a nice outside touch if he is on. Najera has taken 9 shots inside 10 feet and 7 outside of 16. This balance gives defenses multiple looks, that forces defenses to have to guess what Najera is going to do. That indecision can lead to some baskets for him.
So What’s Going To Happen
This is just an opinion, but I think Lawrence Frank is going to ride Najera’s good play until Yi gets back. The rest of the rotation gets tricky. While CDR is out with the flu, that means Bobby Simmons will get more minutes at the 3, and that means (thankfully) less minutes for him at the 4. And while I like the idea of Boone and Lopez on the court at the same time, Lopez is going to need to rest at some point, and Boone is the only back-up option there. So what does that mean? At least tonight, the rotation at the 4 should be Najera starting with Sean Williams backing him up. Boone will get minutes at the 4 too, but his main job will be backing up Brook. Simmons main responsibility tonight will be backing up Terrence Williams who will probably be starting at the 3. Taking all the situations into consideration, that is the best we can hope for, because I don’t know about you guys, but if I see Bobby Simmons at the 4 anymore, I am going to poke my eyes out.
Nets on the Net: 10/16/09 Edition
Oct 16, 2009 Bobby Simmons, Brook Lopez, Brooklyn, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Jarvis Hayes, Nets on the Net
The Star-Ledger recaps a Wall Street Journal story that talks about how Bruce Ratner’s abilities to sell bonds in time for a Dec. 31 groundbreaking of the Barclays Arena is a “toss-up.”
Lawrence Frank says Terrence Williams at PG is only during practice right now. Didn’t look that way Tuesday night.
Expect tonight to be about some experimentation with the bench.
Sam Smith at Bulls.com lists Brook Lopez as a potential “Bust Out” this season and Yi Jianlian as a “Bust.”
Atlantic Yards Report is recapping a radio interview Newark Mayor Cory Booker gave on WBGO radio. Booker is as adamant as ever about getting the Nets in Newark.
No Land Grab wonders where was the New York Times coverage of the Atlantic Yards hearings on Wednesday.
Jarvis Hayes and Bobby Simmons question their role with the team, while Rod Thorn tells Dave D’Alessandro that he’s not in a position to make any trades as of right now.
Oddsmakers in Vegas give the Nets 66-1 odds of winning the Atlantic Division. So you’re saying there’s a chance …
True confessions on Twitter. Chris Douglas-Roberts tells a story on Twitter about a stalking incident and a delusional fan from last season.
Rory at Slippery When Nets talks about backcourt depth, and how quickly depth can disappear.
MTA Straphangers head Gene Russianhoff outlines his opposition of the MTA’s sale of the Atlantic Yards property to Bruce Ratner.
Nets on the Net: 10/9/09 Edition
Oct 9, 2009 Barclays Arena, Bobby Simmons, Mikhail Prokhorov, Nets on the Net, Yi
Fred Kerber of the Post talks about Bobby Simmons and his versatility at the forward spot.
Is his mailbag today, ESPN’s Bill Simmons talks Mikhail Prokhorov. Here’s one comment that makes me giddy (take THAT Daily News): “This completely changes the landscape of the LeBron Sweepstakes. Before, the Clippers and Zombie Sonics were the best basketball situations for him (no way for both); the Lakers were out; the Bulls seemed far-fetched; and the Knicks are such a mess that adding LeBron would have been like reliving Gretzky and the Kings all over again. But Russian Mark Cuban’s deep pockets coupled with Brooklyn and a decent young Nets roster? Intriguing!”
Curbed imagines the Atlantic Yards as a big green pile off the BQE.
NewsOK catches up with old friend Nenad Krstic as he tries to recapture his production from his New Jersey years with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
NBA Fanhouse picks Yi Jianlian as their player to watch for the upcoming season. Fanhouse also has their team preview up.
Tonight is one of the unaired preseason games…you can listen to it though over at Sixers.com
Three Ball, Corner Pocket
Sep 30, 2009 Bobby Simmons, Jarvis Hayes, Playbook
While trying to determine where the Nets will get their points this coming season, a key to their offensive success will likely come from the corners of the field.
While the Nets were an above-average three-point shooting team last season – they shot .376 from beyond the arc, good for 9th overall in the league – the Nets were nearly in a league of their own last season when it came to corner three-pointers.
Of the 18 teams who attempted more than 400 corners 3s last season, the Nets were the second most accurate from that floor spot with a .449 percentage, a few hundredths of a percent behind the Boston Celtics, who shot .451 from the corner. However, the Nets made 58 more corner threes than the Celtics last year (246 to 188) and also utilized them for a higher percentage of their total offense. Of the 98 points a game the Nets averaged last season, 9 points a game were the result of corner treys, good for 9.2 percent of the Nets total offense. Comparatively, 6.8 percent of the Celtics total offense came from the corner.
Here’s a breakdown of the Nets shooting tendencies via NBA Hotspots. Look at all that red in the corners:
When looking at some other teams that relied heavily on the corner three, about 9.4 percent of the Orlando Magic’s offense came from that spot, but they collectively only shot .392 from their. The Portland Trailblazers also produced 9.4 percent of their total offense from the corner, but they too, shot significantly less than the Nets, connecting on .403 from that spot. The Nets, despite being an average-to-below-average offensive team in almost every other area, seemed to be one of the league’s elite in this one particular spot on the floor.
Here’s a listing of all the teams that attempted more than 400 corner threes:
