Nets on the Net: 3/7/10 Edition
Mar 7, 2010 Chris Douglas-Roberts, Courtney Lee, LeBron James, Mikhail Prokhorov, Nets on the Net, Rafer Alston
Over at the 2010 MIT Sloan Sports Conference, where I’m beginning to think I’m the only TrueHooper not in attendance (see some of Sebastian’s coverage at NBA Playbook Here), Mikhail Prokhorov was mentioned as the “next generation” of sports owner.
Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy on yesterday’s superstar, Courtney Lee, as told to Colin Stephenson of the Star-Ledger: “He’s a very good player,’’ Lee’s old coach with Orlando, Stan Van Gundy, said of the 6-5 second-year guard. “His rookie year, he basically took open shots, moved the ball, played very good defense, didn’t make mistakes. And I think early in the year (with the Nets, after coming to New Jersey in the Vince Carter trade), trying to get back to the way he was in college and trying to be more aggressive was a little bit more of a challenge.
In Al Iannazzone’s recap, Courtney Lee says he sees yesterday’s game as a turning point for the team: “It feels good,” said Courtney Lee, one of the Nets stars with 25 points in his first game back after missing the prior three with a sprained ankle. “We’re starting to play together. We’re starting to understand and make the right reads out there. I feel finishing the season we’ll be a pretty good team.”
Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni is none too happy about last night: “It is as bad as it gets,” Mike D’Antoni said. “We just have to come back Monday and try to do better. I don’t have a lot to say; we just have to pull it together and find a little bit of a combination that works a little bit.”
Adam Jacobi at SB Nation, says last night’s game means two things:
- The world has gone completely crazycakes
- The Knicks are falling apart faster than 4-year-old’s alibi in the case of the missing cake frosting
Just thought I’d mention that this New York Post report refers to the Nets as “impotent.” Does this mean the players should have just been taking viagra all season?
Brian Windhorst of the Plain Dealer mocks Chris Douglas-Roberts for his recent cryptic comments about whether or not he would help recruit LeBron James to the Nets: That’s what the Nets get, apparently, for upsetting a player making the minimum salary who is averaging 10 points per game.
Old friend Rafer Alston, who hasn’t played any better since going to Miami, was indefinitely suspended by the team and is mulling retirement.
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.
Nets on the Net: 1/7/10 Edition
Jan 7, 2010 Brook Lopez, Brooklyn, Chris Quinn, Devin Harris, Jarvis Hayes, Keyon Dooling, LeBron James, Nets on the Net, Rafer Alston
Chris Quinn, welcome to the New Jersey Mess: “Hopefully, I can bring a positive attitude and some positive thoughts and maybe help swing it in the right direction to some extent,” said the 6-foot-2, fourth-season guard from Notre Dame who was inactive all season with Miami after spraining an ankle in training camp and never cracking the rotation.
Nets react to the Gilbert Arenas suspension (per Al Iannazzone): “It’s unfortunate,” said Jarvis Hayes, who played with Arenas in Washington. “I’m at a loss for words. It’s a serious matter. Commissioner Stern did what he thought he had to do to gain control of the situation I guess.”
Keyon Dooling defends the perception of the NBA in light of the Arenas situation: “I think our league is a great league,” Dooling said. “However, there are slip-ups. Sometimes one bad apple can have an effect on the whole bunch. Me personally, I would like some of our positive things to get the same attention as our negativity, because people do so many great things.”
In news that has my 1993-self marking out, the arcade classic NBA Jam is making its return with a rumored Wii-exclusive. One blog takes a gander at who the twosomes will be. Can you guess the Nets twosome?
Quick, someone let Brook Lopez tell Brook Lopez about The Onion.
A little late to post, but NBA.com looks at the impending summertime showdown for free agents between the Knicks and Nets.
Speaking of free agents, Hawks free agent to-be Joe Johnson cares about the record of the team he signs with next summer.
In former Nets news, John Hollinger argues against the Heat picking up Rafer Alston.
Video Clip of the new Atlantic Terminal Pavilion opening, which will eventually tie-in to the Nets new arena in Brooklyn (hat tip NetsDaily).
Chris Quinn Filling Rafer’s Spot?
Jan 5, 2010 Chris Quinn, Rafer Alston, Roster, Rumors
Yeah, so this is starting to get more and more interesting. From Adrian’s twitter:
Miami has agreed to send Chris Quinn to Nets for future 2nd and cash to free roster spot and will sign Rafer Alston, sources say.
From Al Iannazzone:
The Nets are going to buy out Rafer Alston’s $5.25 million contract for roughly $4 million and in a separate move are going to acquire Chris Quinn, Miami’s second round pick in 2012 and cash for a trade exception, league sources said.
When Alston clears waivers the Heat are expected to be the frontrunners for his services.
So Chris Quinn is a good shooter who can play some point. Will the Nets keep him? No clue, Adrian’s tweet makes it sound like the Heat are sending money to free up Quinn’s spot, but Al seems to think we are keeping Quinn. Either way, the Nets add another pick, and you can’t complain about that.
Rafer Alston’s Contract Getting Bought Out
Jan 5, 2010 Rafer Alston, Roster, Rumors
From Adrian Wojnarowski’s twitterpage:
Rafer Alston has agreed to a contract buyout with Nets, and Heat and Cavs lead list of possible suitors for free agent, sources tell Y!
Remember that post Mark did this morning, and how a lot of those rumors had to do with a roster spot getting open? Well here is that spot kids, look for more action to be coming in the near future.
I am assuming this to be true as Wojnarowski is usually spot on with everything. The Rafer experiment didn’t really work out, and I can see Rod and Kiki buying him out because they couldn’t get anything on the trade market.
Update #1: It is being reported by Adrian as official.
Update #2: Dave D chimes in with a quote from Rafer’s agent –
“We’ve reached an agreement in principle regarding a buyout for Rafer,” agent Dan Fegan said in a phone conversation.
Nets Are Peddling – But Who’s Buying?
Jan 5, 2010 Rafer Alston, Tony Battie, Trade Ideas
In the past week, a number of sources have reported that the Nets have been testing the trade market by offering some of their expiring contracts. First, there was the Nate Robinson/Darko Milicic for Rafer Alston/Tony Battie trade proposal, tweeted by Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski this past weekend. Then yesterday, in an ESPN chat, Chris Sheridan suggested that the Nets were “peddling” guys like Battie, Bobby Simmons, Josh Boone and Eduardo Najera. Sheridan speculated a possible match with the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for PF Boris Diaw, but he never says such a trade was ever floated by either team. Beat writer Al Iannazzone also speculated that Alston’s name will likely be connected in more trade talk considering how his playing time has been dramatically reduced despite coach Kiki Vandeweghe saying the erratic PG “deserved to play.”
Earlier this morning, Yahoo’s Marc Spears talked about a couple of trades that have seemingly fallen apart: Eduardo Najera to Dallas for Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams – which would have given the Nets a monopoly on player’s named some variation of Sean Williams, though the player from Dallas would have been bought out. To try and open a roster spot for these players, the Nets were looking to send Josh Boone to Denver for Joey Graham.
None of this news is surprising. The Nets are a last place team with a young core and most of the players mentioned in these trade scenarios could provide a playoff-bound team with a veteran piece on a short-term contract. However, depending on what these players may bring back in a trade – and considering that most of these players, especially Alston and Simmons, are experiencing miserable seasons – they may ultimately be more valuable to keep. Because once those contracts expire this summer, it equals salary cap flexibility for the Nets in one of the best free agent markets in recent memory.
Of the rumors being floated, the Robinson/Darko trade made the most sense for the Nets, since both are young players with expiring contracts who could essentially audition for supporting roles on the team next season, or be cast away come the summer for greener free agent pastures. Boris Diaw, on the other hand, makes no sense. While he was once a nice component of those exciting Phoenix Suns “7 Seconds or Less” teams, he’s also owed $9 million in each of the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons and is not enough of a difference maker to warrant sacrificing valuable cap space for. Kris Humphries has a player option worth $3.2 million is not guaranteed money next year, and the Nets would have been dumping Najera, who’s owed money by the Nets for two more seasons due to the absurd contract he was offered before 2008-09.
So what are the Nets options? Whereas the Nate/Darko trades sounds great on paper, common sense says the Nets are more likely to be offered a player of Diaw’s ilk – a salary dump that will clog their flexibility at exactly the wrong time. Humphries is mildly interesting, as he has above average PER 40 minutes numbers, but he’s known as a “shoot first” guy, with poor defense and has been turnover prone throughout his career. I don’t know how he’s that much of an upgrade in the frontcourt over Josh Boone. Plus it would cheat Rob Mahoney over at The Two Man Game of his weekly “Hump Day” post. But I guess if you want change for the sake of a change, he’s an option.
While Kiki may have a soft spot for guys like Alston and Battie – who probably deserve better than to be rarely used bench players on a 3-30 team in their contract years, this hopefully won’t lead the GM to make an ill-advised trade in an effort to make right by then. As I preached last week, the Nets need to stay true to their commitment headed into this season, even if the losses keep mounting. This rings especially true if changing directions brings the Nets a Boris Diaw type-player and contract.
Nets Tried Trading For Nate Robinson?
Jan 2, 2010 Rafer Alston, Rumors, Tony Battie, Trades
Apparently they did. Check out this tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski, a very credible source in my opinion:
Prior to Christmas, Knicks turned down a Nets offer of Rafer Alston and Tony Battie for Nate Robinson and Darko Milicic, league sources say.
That’s…well…interesting to say the least. Rod and Kiki have said a number of times that they weren’t going to take on any new salary for next year to make this year’s team better. A deal like this makes sense for both teams because all of the names involved are expiring contracts. If anything, this just confirms that Rafer doesn’t really have a place on this team anymore and they are looking to move him. I doubt that they can get a pick for him due to his poor play this year, but if they can get someone who they think will help this year, and won’t count against next year, I say they move him.
Missed Lay-Ups Are Really Hurting The Nets
Dec 30, 2009 Advanced Statistics, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Devin Harris, Josh Boone, Rafer Alston, Videos
According to HoopData.com, the Nets attempt 30.3 lay-ups per game, a number that ranks as 4th most in the NBA. You look at just that number and you think, wow, that is pretty good, and it is. However, when you couple that with the fact that the Nets are one of the worst teams in the league at converting these lay-ups, you are just left shaking your head at all of the missed opportunities.
The Nets are second worst (tied) team in the NBA when it comes to making lay-ups. Their field goal percentage on lay-ups, as tracked by Hoopdata, is 55.4%. The league average is 60.4 percent. Looking at the Nets’ number attempts again, if they would be at just the league average, they would be instantly 3 points better (I took their attempts and determined how many they would make at the league average – it was about 17.3 – 1.5 more – or 3 points more). We have talked about how the Nets aren’t really playing good defense anymore and how they just try to outscore teams. If they are going to do that successfully, they can’t leave points on the table, especially when they are coming from lay-ups.
When looking at the individual numbers, you start to see why the team has such a low FG% at the rim. The Nets only have 4 players on their roster shooting lay-ups at a percentage over the league average. Two of them are Eduardo Najera and Sean Williams, so really the Nets only have two regulars shooting lay-ups better than league average (Yi and Trenton Hassell).
I was shocked to see Brook Lopez (58%) and Terrence Williams (48%) with such low percentages, but I am willing to dismiss both of these because one, Brook Lopez has been doing this while facing double/triple teams early in the year, and I can see this number going up. As for Terrence, most of his missed lay-ups came early in the season when he was out of control taking a large number of attempts at the rim (a lot of floaters and fade-aways). His shot selection is much better now, so you can (or at least I can) expect to see his percentage to go up. So you take those guys out, there are 4 guys you can blame for this low FG% at the rim, and they are guys you can expect to keep this number low:
“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.”