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Should the Nets Build Around Devin Harris?

Mar 19, 2010 Devin Harris, Opinion

Devin Harris has proven a lot over the past two months. After an inconsistent first-half that had me questioning whether or not his breakout 2008-09 campaign was a fluke, he’s seemingly gotten the wheels back on track, averaging 20.3 points and 9.1 assists in February, and 20.9 points and 6 assists (and 45 percent shooting) in March. However, I still have major, major doubts that Devo is the kind of player this organization needs to be building around for the future. Because regardless of his talent level, he just cannot be counted on to play enough to be a building block.

I’m in no way suggesting that Harris is milking his latest injury, but there becomes a point where a player transcends bad luck with injuries and just becomes injury prone. This past week, I believe Harris passed that mark. With his team challenging the 72-73 Philadelphia 76ers for the worst record ever, Harris missed the past two games with an upper respiratory infection.  There’s no question that the Nets would have had a better chance of pulling out one of those games if Harris suited up. I think the idea that some fans were perpetuating earlier this season that the Nets are a better team without Harris should be put to rest after Tuesday and Wednesday night’s losses to the Hawks and Sixers. In those two games, the Nets looked lost on defense and listless on offense. Outside of the occasional drive from Terrence Williams, no one was attacking the basket, and the team’s outside shooters, Courtney Lee and Jarvis Hayes, looked like they were struggling because there was nobody on the court who could pull defenders into the basket area.

What is frustrating as a fan is that Wednesday’s game, especially, against the Sixers looked like a great chance to secure win number eight, and the Nets came up lame in large part because their star player missed his 18^th game of the season.  If this was an isolated incident for Harris, it would be easier to overlook, but it’s not. He missed 13 games last year, including a number of games down the stretch when the team still had an outside shot to make the playoffs, and he missed 18 games the year before when he was traded from Dallas to New Jersey.  What’s most concerning is the kinds of injuries have ranged from wrists to hamstrings to elbows to bacterial infections. If there’s a body part, inside or out, Harris will probably find a way to injure it.

Yes, there are other point guards who have a penchant for getting injured. Chris Paul has only played in 38 of his team’s games this season, and Dwyane Wade was only able to suit for about 50 games each in the 05-06 and 06-07 seasons, but both have also demonstrated some durability in recent seasons (Wade played in 79 games last season and has only missed 4 this season. Paul played in 78 and 80 games the past two seasons before this year). Also, both are such transcendent players that their respective teams are willing to wait out their injuries to build around them. Harris is still too inconsistent to earn that benefit of the doubt.

It’s worth bringing all of this up now because as the nation fixes its eyes to March Madness over the next few weeks, there are going to be more and more basketball fans who will become enthralled with University of Kentucky PG John Wall, who despite the recent surge of Evan Turner love, is the prospective no. 1 pick in the draft. And a guy who knows point guards, Magic Johnson, recently said if the Nets got the pick and took Wall, he’s the guy you hand the keys to the car to, not Devin Harris. Given the events of this past week, I’m finding it harder to argue with that logic. Harris is a talented player, and you certainly don’t want to lose him for a song – if he becomes trade bait this summer he has to bring back another building block for a move to be considered, not more expiring contracts. But Harris is also unreliable, and you cannot build around the unreliable.

Devin Harris Out Tonight

Mar 17, 2010 Chris Douglas-Roberts, Devin Harris, Terrence Williams

In case you missed it, Devin Harris is expected not to play tonight, according to the beat guys.

Meanwhile, over in Twitter-land, Chris Douglas-Roberts is making a case for Terrence Williams to become a starter.

Nets on the Net: 3/17/10 Edition

Mar 17, 2010 Devin Harris, Keyon Dooling, Nets on the Net, Nets vs. 72-73 Sixers, Rod Thorn, Terrence Williams

In his game recap from last night, Julian Garcia talks extensively with Dale Schlueter, coach of the 72-73 Philadelphia 76ers.

Dave D’Alessandro captures my sentiments perfectly about the end to last night’s game: Terrence Williams waited until there was 13.9 seconds left in the game to show that he had had enough. Of course, the Hawks were asking for it: They were up 23 and pressing in the backcourt with 34 seconds left, which is a good way for winners to announce that they don’t care much about basketball decorum.

Dave D. also talks to the players about the importance of 10: “I want to get three wins more than anything,” Courtney Lee said. “We don’t talk about it, but I think it’s on everybody’s mind. You can see there’s a sense of urgency about it, because it comes up a lot. And it’s going to come up a lot more if we don’t get some wins soon.”

Rod Thorn is watching lots of college basketball: “I have watched more games than I normally would,” Thorn said. “I watched all the tournament games last week until the power went out.”

Would Knicks forward Al Harrington be interested in coming to the Nets?

Keyon Dooling wants another chance with the Nets after this season.

Devin Harris talks about Avery Johnson coaching and John Wall at PG over at Hoops World.

Nets on the Net: 3/16/10 Edition

Mar 16, 2010 Devin Harris, Jay-Z, Mikhail Prokhorov, Nets on the Net, Terrence Williams

Terrence Williams (more on him later) has some sage-like advice for himself in the latest from Dave D’Alessandro: “I learned you have to keep your mouth shut,” he said. “Honestly, that’s it. Because you get further with silence than you do speaking out or acting out. The lesson taught to me was to pay attention to other guys, and learn from them. I really wasn’t ready for that.”

Fred Kerber with some more TWill money quotes:  “I want to get every rebound and every assist in the game. But one, I don’t play the whole game and two, I don’t think Brook [Lopez] would let me get every rebound,” Williams said. “Points will come . . . but assists and rebounds, that’s what I have to do.”

The Nets need three more wins to avoid infamy, but they’ll likely enter tonight’s game with Atlanta without Devin Harris.

NetsDaily continues its breakdown of all things Mikhail Prokhorov.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a little profile on Jay-Z’s business success.

Nets on the Net: 3/10/10 Edition

Mar 10, 2010 Barclays Arena, Brooklyn, Devin Harris, Free Agents, LeBron James, Nets on the Net

Sebastian provides some of his expert insight of some mistakes the Nets made against the Grizzlies on Monday, over at his NBA Playbook site.

In a roundtable at SI.com, NBA writers discuss which downtrodden Eastern Conference team that would buy stock in if they had the opportunity, and naturally, the Nets are brought up.

Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com talks Brooklyn.

David Biderman of the Wall Street Journal kicks the Nets when they’re down, but then offers some support: By now you’ve realized that the New Jersey Nets aren’t just a sad-sack basketball team, they’re profoundly horrible. But even with a 7-56 record, there are several recent sports teams that were even worse.

Just how talented is Dallas? As Al Iannazzone notes, even without Jason Terry, Erick Dampier, Brendan Haywood and Tim Thomas expected to play tonight, they still have Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Caron Butler and Shawn Marion to lean on.

And that Jason Kidd fella is still a very productive PG, as Julian Garcia writes.

Brooklyn Paper with more on the designers of the Barclays Arena.

People are apparently buying Knicks season tickets at the fastest pace ever because they believe they’re going to sign LeBron James.

Some More Thoughts On The Nets “Big Three”

Mar 9, 2010 Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Devin Harris

While watching last night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, I couldn’t help thinking about Mark’s terrific post on the Nets new “Big Three.“  As I watched the game, I saw two thirds of this new big three play very well.  Courtney Lee scored 30 points on 13-20 shooting and Devin Harris put in 28 points on 9-18 shooting.  However the big man in this triangle of players, Brook Lopez, battled foul trouble in the first half and really seemed to struggle the entire game.  Lopez scored 10 points on 3-10 shooting and was only able to pull down 7 rebounds (including a whopping 0 in the first half).

Now I am not going to get on Brook Lopez for one bad game.  He has been the Nets’ most consistent performer all year and bad games are bound to happen.  But what this bad game from Brook Lopez goes to show is how dependent this current roster is on the Nets’ new “Big Three.”  For the Nets to get a win, they need Courtney Lee, Devin Harris, and Brook Lopez to all play well because there simply isn’t enough production coming from the rest of the roster.  Look at last night’s game for example, if Brook puts up his average and scores 19 points, the Nets win.  Instead, he scores 10 points and there is nobody there to pick up the slack.  When good teams have their stars struggle, they usually can get someone else to help out in terms of scoring.  Let’s use the Grizzlies as an example as their best player, Zach Randolph, ended up not playing.  They needed some extra scoring to come from somewhere, and Mike Conley ended up picking up the slack scoring 21 (he averages 10).

Is there someone on the Nets roster who can do what Mike Conley did last night (pick up the scoring load when the main guys aren’t able to)?  I don’t think so.  Terrence Williams has been playing very well as of late, but he isn’t a scorer at this point in his career.  Keyon Dooling and Jarvis Hayes are guys who can knock down jumpers, but they aren’t going to go out and get 20 points for you.  Chris Douglas-Roberts has the potential to do it, but he is so wildly inconsistent you can’t depend on him.  Then there is Josh Boone and Trenton Hassell.  These are two guys who are going to work their butt of for your team, but they couldn’t score 10 points alone in a gym.

If the Nets are going to avoid infamy and get that coveted 10th win, the Nets are going to need to find someone who can provide a 4th scoring option, a guy who can help pick up the slack when either Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee or Devin Harris struggle.  Who is that going to be?  Well, when Kris Humphries arrived from Dallas, he was putting up great numbers, but now he is struggling.  My candidate is Terrence Williams, because as teams start to play him for the pass, lanes are going to open up.  If nobody steps up, the Nets probably won’t get to 10 wins unless Courtney Lee, Brook Lopez, and Devin Harris start combining for 80 points a game or something like that.

Is There a New Big Three in Town?

Mar 8, 2010 Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Devin Harris

The Nets haven’t had a legitimate “Big Three” since the days of Kidd-Carter-Jefferson, and even then, I don’t know how “big” those three players ever were since they never took the Nets any further than the second round of the playoffs.

Coming into this season, while no one ever proclaimd Devin Harris, Brook Lopez and Courtney Lee as the new “Big Three,” they were, arguably, the team’s three best options on the offensive end. Unfortunately, Lee struggled mightily shooting-wise and Harris had been erratic. It’s not until recently that the three have started to produce actual results together offensively, and it’s no surprise that the Nets are playing better as a team as a result.

In their last seven games together (starting 2/16 and excluding the last three games before Saturday when Lee was out with an injured ankled), Lee-Harris-Lopez combined to average 61.2 points per game, which, for you math majors out there, breaks down to about 20 points per player – not too shabby for the worst offensive team in basketball. Meanwhile, the Nets as a team have put together a 3-4 record in that stretch, which includes a win on the road against a tough defensive team in Charlotte, a stunning upset of the Celtics in Boston, and a great come-from-behind victory against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. You could accuse me of cherry-picking these seven games, but considering the Nets are still on pace to have the worst record in NBA history, any stretch where the team is winning 43 percent of their games, is something to take note of.

It makes sense that the Nets are most successful offensively with those three players clicking, because each one brings a unique ability to the team. Lopez is clearly the post presence, Harris is best when he’s breaking down defenders and driving to the hoop, and Lee excels as a three-point shooter, or a mid-range jump shooter in transition. When Lopez and Harris are excelling at their games, it opens up more opportunities for Lee and vice versa. It just makes sense that these three should work so well together. And unlike the period earlier this season where Yi Jianlian was scoring in bunches in what some thought was at the expense of other players, Lee, Lopez and Harris are all getting their opportunities as of late, with each player carrying the offense during certain stretches.

Nets on the Net: 3/6/10 Edition

Mar 6, 2010 Brett Yormark, Brook Lopez, Brooklyn, Devin Harris, Mikhail Prokhorov, Nets on the Net, Newark

Colin Stephenson on last night: The Nets held Dwight Howard to 11 points and Vince Carter to 13. And still, they were never really in the game.

Julian Garcia notes that the Nets have all but ensured their worst home record in the franchise’s history: A 97-87 loss to Vince Carter and the Magic Friday night dropped the Nets’ home record to 3-28, meaning they will have to win their remaining 10 home games to avoid setting a record for fewest wins there in one season. The Nets went 13-28 at the Meadowlands in 1989-90 to set the current mark. They also still have shot at the all-time franchise record for fewest home wins at any venue – 10, set in 1976-77 at the Nassau Coliseum.

Devin Harris tells Al Iannazzone that the Nets are still trying out there: “We want to finish strong,” Devin Harris said after the Nets’ 11th consecutive home loss. “We have our minds set on trying to compete each and every game and trying to win every game. All of the other stuff is out of our control anyway so there’s no need for us to really worry about it.”

Fred Kerber uses last night’s performance to poke a hole in the Nets new ad campaign: Meanwhile, back in the present on the Meadowlands court, there was nothing new. Basically, the Nets offered, “It’s The Same Old Stuff — Losing.”

Stan Van Gundy thinks Brook Lopez is an all-star.

Mikhail Prokhorov should be approved next month, according to reports.

Specially-priced season tickets will be offered to Newark residents next season.

The Village Voice has a feature on Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn, who are being forced to vacate as part of the Barclays Center deal.

Brett Yormark on CNBC yesterday:

Howard Beck of the New York Times on the Knicks and Nets combined futility: The question now is whether the suffering will prove worthwhile. If James lands in Midtown or Amar’e Stoudemire settles in New Jersey, all will be forgiven. Even if the superstars all decline the invitations, the Nets and Knicks will be flush with cash and flexibility to rebuild their rosters.

Nets on the Net: 3/4/10 Edition

Mar 4, 2010 Brooklyn, Devin Harris, Jay-Z, LeBron James, Nets on the Net, Newark

The Barclays Center web site now has a countdown clock to the groundbreaking on March 11.

The New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority is still in massive debt, but the Nets move to Newark could help them out, according to a Business Week report.

The always kind (to the Nets) Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus notes that with their expected assets this summer (draft picks, cap space), the Nets could very quickly resemble a 50-win team.

Michael Fensom of the Star-Ledger on last night’s game: Don’t be fooled by the Nets logo scrawled at halfcourt, this lame duck NBA arena belonged to James on this night. Fans jostled during pregame warm-ups near the Cavaliers’ end of the floor for a glimpse of No. 23. On the Nets’ end, Chris Quinn’s autograph didn’t seem as appealing to young fans.

In the New York Post recap, LeBron paid a compliment to the Nets again: “It’s a really good franchise, though. It’s not a franchise that’s lived long, but they’ve got a bright future. We’ll see what goes on in the future for this team. It’s really good, though.”

George Willis of the Post talks with sports marketing experts about LeBron’s financial potential if he came to the Knicks or Nets.

Howard Beck of the New York Times has some fan response to Lebron: Desperation was in the air Wednesday night. Two minutes into the game, a fan bellowed, “Please come, LeBron!” — a plea that was easily heard across the morgue-like arena. Another wore a Knicks jersey stitched with “King James” and the No. 23. He held a sign reading: “119 days left. Please help us!”

Mitch Lawrence heard differently: Unlike Knicks fans, Net fans last night didn’t plead for James to sign this summer with the worst team in the NBA. They booed him. They taunted him. For all that, they deserve a round of applause.

Nets on the Net: 3/1/10 Edition

Mar 1, 2010 Devin Harris, Draft, Nets on the Net, Nets vs. Wizards, Yi

Recapping last night’s loss, Al Iannazzone acknowledges the two sides to Yi’s game: It was a bittersweet night for Yi. He was aggressive and a force inside with 20 points and career-best 19 rebounds, but had his usual struggles defensively. He also missed two foul shots in the final 1:19. “I’ve got to hit them,” Yi said. “Could have been different, maybe.”

Newark native Randy Foye explains to Colin Stephenson and the Star-Ledger what most teams must think before they play the Nets: “That’s one thing that we were saying to ourselves before the game,’’ Foye said. “We said, ‘We cannot lose to this team. We know what they’re thinking; we know they think they can beat us, but we’re not going to lose to them.’’’

Julian Garcia has the understatement of the year as to how the Nets may finish out the season: Given their schizophrenic nature, the final six weeks of the season should be interesting.

In Fred Kerber’s recap, Devin Harris admits to a problem that’s been plaguing the Nets all season: “We need to work a little bit more on our zone offense,” Devin Harris said.

Over at the Daily Dime, Chris Sheridan talks with Tony Battie about his possibly buyout: “Honestly, I’m not sure,” Battie told ESPN.com. “I’m going to be professional about it, and whatever happens happens. That’s kind of where I’m going to leave it because I honestly feel that way.

The Bleacher Report writes that Ohio State SF Evan Turner is a better fit for the Nets.

For those who care about that sort of thing, I answered some questions about the Nets over at Truthaboutit, the Wizards TrueHoop blog.