So Apparently I Can Tell The Future
Feb 17, 2010 Analysis, Coaching, Kiki, Opinion, Terrence Williams
I am being dead serious. Need proof? Well, there is a post that I did 16 days ago entitled “The Nets Are Learning How To Win.” I was pretty confident that the Nets were ready to turn the corner after coming off a close loss against the 76ers. Turns out the post was a little premature because after the Sixers’ game the Nets went on to lose 6 more games. 5 of these losses were close losses where the team just didn’t play well late.
But that doesn’t mean my post was wrong. The Nets were learning out how to win, but in true Nets fashion, it took a little longer than it should have. The result? A win 15 days later. I thought it would be fun to look at my old post and match it up to the game today to prove that the Nets are learning how to win (everything in block quotes was created 15 days ago):
Nets on the Net: 2/16/10 Edition
Feb 16, 2010 Coaching, Kiki, Mikhail Prokhorov, Nets on the Net, Rod Thorn
A Dave D’Alessandro report makes it sound pretty convincing that Rod Thorn will keep his job in the Mikhail Prokhorov regime.
Al Iannazzone examines how the Nets can get six more wins to avoid all-time infamy: The breakdown is: they have 30 games and 17 are at home; nine are against West teams, four of which are at home; 13 are against teams below .500 at the break and six are at home.
Kkii Vandeweghe throws cold water on the idea that the Nets will make a trade before this week’s trade deadline.
Mike DeCourcy of the Sporting News advises John Calipari to steer clear of the Nets.
Fox Sports includes the Nets as part of their all-star break round-up, “six teams with questions” down the stretch.
The Nets Are Learning How To Win
Feb 1, 2010 Analysis, Kiki, Opinion, Terrence Williams, Yi
I know that “learning to win” is funny to say now that the season is halfway done (especially when we are talking about a 4 win team), but after the Nets past road trip, the Nets were at an all-time low. I mean, look what Mark had to say after the loss at Utah:
As it stands, and I hesitate to say it, but THIS might finally be rock bottom for the 2009-10 Nets. Because if it gets any worse that it’s been the past two games against Utah and the Golden State Warriors, the league should really consider contracting the organization, throwing Bruce Ratner in jail for fraud and blacklisting Rod Thorn and Kiki Vandeweghe from ever having a role with an NBA roster again.
And you know what? I agreed with him, as did just about every single Nets fan. In the past three games though, the INets have been able to keep games close winning 1 and losing 2 by a combined 6 points. With all of the Nets losses this season, none of them have really been close. So what has changed for the Nets? I think that the Nets are now finally playing the type of basketball that will get them wins moving forward (or at least keep the games close).
Yi Jianlian & Free Throw Rate
Jan 13, 2010 Advanced Statistics, Clifford Robinson, Del Harris, Kiki, NAS At Practice, Yi
I wrote something on this a little while back for the Daily Dime, but that was only three games in, so wanted to revisit it today (10 games since his return). Free Throw Rate measures how many foul shot attempts a player gets compared to the number of shots he takes. His Free Throw Rate at the time of my Daily Dime piece was .44, today it sits at .46. This is good for 34th in the league and is a tremendous upgrade from his Free Throw Rate of last year (.25).
So why is Free Throw Rate so important that I am talking about this again? Well getting to the line is important when you are looking for consistency in a player. In past years, Yi would put together a nice string of games, but then drop off, and it all had to do with his shooting. He was a feast or famine player when it came to his jumper and if his shot wasn’t going down, he wasn’t being a productive player.
Getting to the foul line resolves this issue. I mean, look at Yi’s last game against San Antonio. He was just 4-17 from the field in San Antonio, but he was able to score 16 points because he got himself to the line 10 times (hitting 8 of them). Yi is a good enough foul shooter that when he gets to the line he is basically getting free points. Not only does that help you in terms of production, but getting to the foul line also helps shooters get out of funks. If you are in a shooting skid, and go to the foul line, that is where you work the kinks out. You get 10 seconds and of no defense to take a shoot, get your stroke down, and most importantly you get to see the shot go in. Yi was in a big time shooting funk last year, and in my opinion, he didn’t get to the line often enough last year to break out of it. This year is a totally different story. He has attempted 74 foul shots so far this year in 14 games compared to the 123 he took all of last year.
So where did this come from, a lot of people (including myself) has speculated Yi’s new toughness was a result of his injuries this year, and when he came back, he was just a hungrier player. This may be true, but what nobody really has talked about was Kiki and Del’s effect on Yi’s attacking ways. It’s impossible to teach toughness though right? That’s what I thought too, but then I saw Yi working with Kiki, Del Harris, and Clifford Robinson yesterday:
Free Throw Rate measures how many foul shot attempts a player gets compared to the number of shots he takes.
Say what you will of Kiki’s coaching style, but it is obvious that Kiki knows that being able to take shots and still get his shot off is a key to Yi’s success. He has been stressing it to him all year, and it is obviously working. Another fun stat, Yi’s And 1 rate (And 1s/Field Goals Attempted) is up from 1.6 last year to 2.5 this year.
“Change” The Theme Of Nets’ Practice Today
Dec 21, 2009 Chris Douglas-Roberts, Del Harris, Jarvis Hayes, Kiki, NAS At Practice, Rafer Alston, Yi
I was once again allowed to go to Nets practice today, and the theme of today’s practice was “change.” Before we get to the Kiki interview I got, I wanted to go over some things I noticed. First, it was a long practice, the media assembled around noon in the waiting room, we weren’t allowed in practice until 1. When everyone entered the practice, the team was still running through some things. I have only been to 3 practices this year, but I have to say the energy was different. Everyone on the court were going through in game situations, and they were going hard. The team looked like they were enjoying themselves as well. They were celebrating after every big play, and looking like a real team. Also, from what we saw, the team was doing everything together as one unit. When Lawrence Frank was coaching the team, he had everyone split up, but Kiki had everyone together.
The other thing that the media got to see, was Del Harris coaching the Nets up. The part that we got to see was the Nets working on their pick and roll defense and offense, as well as doubling the big man and how they handle getting double teamed. Coach Harris was stopping play every once in a while to correct something or to give the guys something to look for. It was awesome to watch. As for coach Kiki, he wasn’t just standing around, he was pulling guys aside and coaching them up individually.
After the practice, when the media gathered around Kiki, he went out of his way to tell everyone this is the team’s first real practice. “This is the first chance we’ve had to have a real practice.” Kiki also talked about the length of the practice, “I am not a proponent of long practices, but today we needed it.” So what did they talk about? Well Kiki went on to explain, “We tried to do a couple things a little bit differently,” he went on, “Obviously when you come in and the team is 0-18, you have to change some things, and we have.”
One thing that won’t change is Kiki urging his team to run. “I think we are a very good transition team when we get out and run. Devin is very good in the open court. Our guys are scorers and they can take it to the basket.” Meanwhile stopping the break seems to be a problem, and Kiki is looking to correct it. “Transition defense is something we need to work on. As you guys can see, it is going to take a little while.”
The rest of the interview was talking about the team’s injuries. Kiki opened up these talks by joking, “Everybody is still injured.” But he then got serious and talked about the three guys who are still battling back from injury.
Yi:
Will he play Wednesday? “We don’t know, he practiced today, obviously he hasn’t played in 6-7 weeks. It takes more than 1 or 2 practices to be ready. He wants to play very badly, we just have to make a judgment call to see if it is the right thing to do,” Kiki said. I personally saw Yi running through some conditioning drills, and I was very impressed. He was running full speed with no sign of injury besides the wrap on his knee. He also looked very good when going through the live stuff as well.
Jarvis Hayes:
Kiki talked about him briefly. “Jarvis practiced, got a good run in . We pulled him out a little bit early, as we should. It was great to see him back on the court.” Jarvis was pulled out before the media was allowed in, but Kiki is right, it is good to see him out on the court. Once Jarvis and Yi returns, the Nets have 2 shooters at their disposal.
CDR:
CDR put to rest any chance of him playing. He told reporters that he was doubtful for Wednesday, but he went out of his way to say that he wasn’t worried too much about the injury. He said that it was ok because it was just an ankle and not his knee. I would expect him back by Saturday, but ankle sprains are funny. Kiki said that we will know more when they re-evaluate after the game on Wednesday.
An interesting note here. The Nets were going starters for second unit, and Rafer and Devin were on the court with Courtney playing the three. That could be how this team approaches playing the Timberwolves without CDR. If Rafer and Devin are both playing at the same time, who is the backup point? Terrence Williams was taking PG responsibilities for the second unit.
The D Word
Dec 14, 2009 Devin Harris, Kiki, Opinion, Rafer Alston
After the Pacers game Friday, the Nets’ defacto leader Devin Harris mentioned the one word you don’t want to hear about your team. Divided. “We are a little divided as a team right now,” Devin said, he then added, “and looking at the product on the court, I tend to agree. I mean, you had CDR’s tweets about the team being soft, Terrence Williams’ tweets, and then Rafer yelling at his teammates on the bench in Indiana (still don’t know what that is about). It only makes sense that the defense is starting to suffer now that this stuff is coming out, you need to be able to trust your teammates on that end of the court, and they nobody on the Nets seems to trust anybody else.
Why is this division there? When Devin was asked, this is what he said:
“There are bunches. You see younger guys, older guys…You see guys in their comfort zone right now. We need guys to step out of their comfort zone and pull together.”