As the Nets get set to end another losing season tonight, the always excellent Al Iannazzone notices some major differences between how last year’s 12-win campaign ended and this year’s 24-win season:

First of all, the team didn’t have a clean-up day last year. The players left Miami after the finale and went their separate ways after one of the most dysfunctional and frustrating seasons in NBA history. Many of them didn’t fly back to New Jersey. They couldn’t wait to get rid of last season.

This season, everyone is flying back from Chicago, doing their exit interviews Thursday with general manager Billy King and coach Avery Johnson, and then heading out.

It’s been a frustrating year, but it hasn’t been dysfunctional, and these things are certain: the Nets have direction, unlike last year, and many of their players want to stick around.

I think even the most optimistic Nets fans might have lost sight of these facts due to the level of basketball being played the past few weeks, but I’m happy Al, a beat writer who along with Fred Kerber probably knows this team better than anyone, wrote this column. He’s right. Things are different. Though I also think the Nets front office should be very discerning about who they bring back this summer. It’s one thing to want to play for the Nets. It’s another to actually be a key part of a winning team. I’m not so sure guys like Stephen Graham, Sasha Vujacic, Dan Gadzuric and Brandan Wright (among the Nets’ expirings) are those players to build around.

You wanted it? Well, maybe you didn’t. Still, you got it. Below is a visual, interactive timeline (thanks TimeToast) detailing most (but surely not all) stories from the beginning in August of this summer all the way up to Prokhorov’s Proclamation.

Whether or not this is actually over, I think we can all agree that this has been a long four months.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: I’ve received word that this doesn’t work in Google Chrome. For you guys, the list is below, after the jump:

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Lots of chatter overnight about a new mix in teams involved in talks that could potentially land Carmelo Anthony, Chauncy Billups and Richard Hamilton with the Nets at the end of the day. There are LOTS of people reporting this right now, so let me try and take some inventory and hopefully nobody gets lost in the process.

Nets beat writer Al Iannazzone was the first one on top of this story late last night after the Nets were embarrassed by the Washington Wizards. In a nutshell, here’s what Al believes could be going down:

In the complicated scenario that’s being discussed, the Nets would send Derrick Favors, Devin Harris and at least two first-round picks to Denver and Troy Murphy’s expiring contract to the Pistons. In return, the Nets would get Anthony and Chauncey Billups from the Nuggets and likely Richard Hamilton from the Pistons, who are looking to shed salary. Hamilton has two years and $25 million remaining on his contract.

There are many more players involved, including Anthony Morrow going to Denver and Johan Petro to Detroit — to make the salaries match. But this is one of multiple things the Nets are discussing in an effort to land Anthony.

Fred Kerber believes Detroit Pistons rookie Terrico White could also end up with the Nets, while the Daily News Frank Isola, who I believe just yesterday conceded that LeBron James was not coming to the Knicks (just kidding, Frank), thinks there could be potentially 12 players involved in this deal before it’s all said and done. Dan Feldman of True Hoop blog Piston Powered also offers some terrific potential breakdowns to demonstrate exactly how many players need to move where.

Adding more girth to this story, Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski is not reporting on the impetus behind this proposed mega-deal:

Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose, also represents Hamilton, and sources said he pushed Nets general manager Billy King to bring the Pistons into trade talks with New Jersey and the Denver Nuggets. Anthony has wanted the Nets to upgrade their roster upon his arrival for him to sign a three-year, $64 million contract extension.

“Leon is driving this one,” one front-office executive told Yahoo! Sports on Friday night.

And the end game in all this? Woj reports whoever ends up acquiring ‘Melo is a front-runner to get Chris Paul in due time (probably before the start of the 2012 season when the Nets start in Brooklyn).

Nothing is imminent here, so don’t get your hopes up about seeing something go down this weekend, but the fact that so many people are on this story is a very big indicator of its legitimacy. I also give credence to it because Iannazzone was the first guy out of the gate with it, not Chris Broussard, Chris Sheridan or anyone else who’s not around the Nets the way Al is. Plus, once Woj gets involved, you know something is up.

As for the deal itself, while I’ve been very critical of some of the other proposed trades out there, this is one iteration I could support. If the Nets are going to give up so much to get Anthony, it has to come at the cost of dramatically changing the face of their roster. Draining all of your first round picks and assets like Derrick Favors and Devin Harris just to drop Anthony alongside Brook Lopez and a bunch of bench players would be a disaster and I couldn’t imagine a scenario where Anthony would even agree to come here to play for that team. But if you bring Billups and Hamilton into the mix, with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge promise of Paul in another year or so, then that idea is a winner.

The drawback? Man, that team is going to be old. Hamilton and Billups have definitely lost a step since their 2004 championship season and the Nets will be left with Miami Heat-esque depth if one of those guys goes down for the long haul. However, I’m on the record in saying if they have to do a trade for Anthony, this is the trade they HAVE to do, not that putrid three-way involving Cleveland that was being brandied about last week.

The Record’s Al Iannazzone has had some interesting correspondences lately, including one with Nets billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov. In an e-mail to Iannazzone, Prokhorov reiterated his goal to be a championship contender and believe with time, that dream will come true:

“The great thing about sports is you can have an underdog that with time becomes a winner. We no longer have a losing mentality, and that is a huge step for the Nets.

“My dream is for kids in Russia and China and Brazil to have pictures of our players up on their walls. … Maybe being an outsider lets me bring something fresh to the team and the league.”

As I’ll get to later today, while I respect Prokhorov’s lofty goals, I’m starting to question this team’s current core of being capable of being built around. There are a number of players on this team who are playing like they hardly belong in the league and those who do have actual talent are dealing with the dubious honor of being the best players on some very very awful teams. I don’t really have solutions, but if this team is going to win in 5 years, I suspect there will be very few holdovers, if any, from this current roster.

With the start of the season barely 24 hours away, I thought it would be a good time to reach out to the people who follow the Nets to get their projections for the team. Yes, it’s Nets Are Scorching’s annual over/under social mixer, bringing beat writers, bloggers and everyone in between together.

Rules are simple – I conjured up 10 random questions about this season and participants have responded with either “over” or “under” as their projection.

We have a special list of participants this year, including returning champion Al Iannazzone of The Record, and two new Nets beat writers, Conor Orr of the Star-Ledger and Stefan Bondy of the Daily News. Meanwhile, joining us from the general NBA blogosphere is Kelly Dwyer of Yahoo’s Ball Don’t Lie and Zach Lowe of new Sports Illustrated blog, The Point Forward. Just to show that the NAS team isn’t afraid to give their own opinions, Dennis Velasco, Devin Kharpertian and Justin DeFeo have joined in with the projections.

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As we get ready to start some real basketball, the focus turns directly to Brook Lopez, who Avery Johnson has praised continually this off-season. Al Iannazzone talks to Avery about the plan for Brook and how the Nets are going to (hopefully) get him the 4th quarter touches he never seemed to get last season:

Johnson couldn’t stand seeing film of Lopez being pushed off the low block last season. He has Lopez in the gym early some days for extra lifting and strength exercises. Johnson wants Lopez to stand his ground, power over people and dunk more and also make his presence felt on defense.

“He can be a special player,” Johnson said. “He can be a special center. Not many centers have the whole package. But he’s going to have set himself apart in the fourth quarter of games. When we can throw him the ball in the fourth quarter and he can keep his position and score against single and double coverage and make the right passes when necessary and block shots at the end of games and rebound, that’s when he’ll really start to elevate himself.”

There was nothing more frustrating last season than watching Brook Lopez have a monster first half and then disappear in the second. While some of that is obviously on Brook, the team, who clearly lacked any kind of cohesive coaching under Kiki Vandeweghe, seemed to move away from what was working without a legitimate reason. If Avery finds a way to correct this, it’s going to give the Nets an additional 5 or 6 wins without even trying in my humble estimation.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for the record, and his writing about the Nets can be found all over the internet (In the ‘Zzone & The Nets Insider).  Al Iannazzone has been writing about the NBA since 1996 for the North Jersey Herald News and The Record. He covered the New Jersey Nets for the Herald News from 1996-2000. From 2001-04, Al was The Record’s New York Knicks’ beat writer, but also covered the Nets in their playoff runs those years, which included two trips to the NBA Finals. In 2004, Al returned to the Nets’ beat for The Record and has been covering them since. He also has been YESNetwork.com’s Nets’ Insider since the start of the 2004-05 season and has contributed to the YES Network’s pregame show the past two years. Al resides in New Jersey with his wife, Donna, and their son, Anthony..  Mr. Iannazzone has allowed me to ask him a few Nets’ related questions, and here is the interview.

NAS:  Looking back on it, was the Richard Jefferson trade a complete failure?

The trade doesn’t look good today, but it’s too early to fully judge it. We have to see if Yi Jianlian becomes a player or whether he and Bobby Simmons can get the Nets something via trade or because Simmons’ contract expires earlier then Jefferson’s. There were many reasons the trade was made. It was about getting salary-cap flexibility, but more than that. The Nets wanted to change their locker room up, and it’s no secret anymore that Jefferson and Lawrence Frank had more than their share of philosophical differences. Jefferson also was close – and still is – to Devin Harris. Jefferson could have influenced Harris negatively. So the Nets wanted to try to prevent that possibility.

NAS:  How impressed were you with the rookies this year?

Mr. Iannazzone:  I was very impressed. I didn’t think any of them would turn out to be as good and productive as they were, starting with Lopez. I figured we’d see signs of him becoming a serviceable big man and then with work a good player. Well, he showed he can be a franchise center, which are few are far between in this league. He cares about getting better, so he will. He’s also very mature for being 21, even if he acts like a kid a lot. I like Anderson’s work ethic and nose for the ball. Like everyone else, I thought he would just knock down shots. But he was a better rebounder and hustle player than shot-maker this season. He mixes it up inside, which is a great trait. And Douglas-Roberts, the most heralded of the three, was just waiting for his opportunity to show what he can do. He’s one of the Nets’ most competitive players, which they love about him because you can’t teach that. Overall, it was a great draft by the Nets.

NAS:  I think we got a diamond in the rough with CDR.  Do you think CDR can be a starter for the Nets someday?

Mr. Iannazzone:  I think he can be, but not while Vince and Devin are here. You have to let the kid develop. He needs to improve in all areas, including his shot making. But he’s a tough kid and comes from a winning program. He also has a chip on his shoulder to prove not only he belongs in the NBA but can be a very good player in the league. It’s going to make him work harder.

NAS:  Would you conisder the Nets season a failure?

Mr. Iannazzone:  No, it wasn’t a failure, but it’s hard to call 34 wins a success. Part of the plan was developing the young guys and other than Yi, the Nets did that. The Nets were young, but still had some veterans in Carter, Harris, Keyon Dooling, Jarvis Hayes and Eduardo Najera who had been on winning teams. So they expected a lot of themselves. Overall, though, it was a better-than-expected season. But when you start the way the Nets did, the players became a possibility and they just couldn’t close it out. Better than expected season, not a successful season, but not a failure.

NAS:  What is your opinion on Vince Carter?  Is he staying or going?

Mr. Iannazzone:  I think he’s staying, in part because his contract is tough to move, and I think he should stay. I think Vince was great as a leader and a player. I would have liked to see him do more offensively from a scoring standpoint. But remember, it was about developing the young guys so he had to take a little of a backseat. Vince handled it well, better than expected. And I say this with complete confidence: if he’s not back, you’re not going to get equal value for him, and players like Harris, Lopez, Hayes, Simmons, Anderson will not get the open looks they got or score as easily. Carter makes players better, plain and simple.

NAS:  Does Lawrence Frank need to go?  If so, who would you like to see replace him?

Mr. Iannazzone:  I think Frank deserves to come back. He did a great job this year considering the mission statement. You can’t point to some of the things he did wrong – too much Yi, too much Hassell, the small lineup too often – but overall he got a lot out of these players. We’ll find out in a few days if he’ll be back. If not, you look at what’s out there, starting with Eddie Jordan. Other big coaches are available, too. So we’ll see what happens

NAS:  What do you think the Nets are going to do draft wise?

Mr. Iannazzone:  I think you have to wait and see what happens in the Lottery. If they move up to No. 1 they’ll take Blake Griffin. If not, they probably will try and trade up to get a Blake Griffin. If they stay in the 11, 12 range, they could go for a DeJuan Blair of Pitt, Tyreke Evans of Memphis, or Earl Clark or Terrence Williams of Louisville. But it’s way premature,

NAS:  Yi.  Do you think he will be on the team next year?  If so, is he just going to be riding the pine?

Mr. Iannazzone:  I think he’ll be on the team. I think the Nets will see if there’s interest but if a second team in two years tries to move Yi then it could raise red flags about him and and a team could try and fleece the Nets. It’s too early to say what he will be next year for the Nets if he’s back.

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The only thing that I disagree with him about is his opinions of the Yi-Richard Jefferson trade.  In my opinion it isn’t too early to say that the trade is a failure.  This is because Yi was expected to help out this year in replacing Jefferson’s production (I wasn’t expecting him to do it himself, I was hoping a combination of Yi/Brook/Harris increase in production).  Would replace Richard Jefferson’s numbers.  Now I know we do have an expiring contract that is easier to move with Simmons, but that wasn’t the main part of the deal it was Yi AND the contract.  Just my opinion though and Mr. Iannazzone brings up some valid points.

I wanted to thank Mr. Iannazzone for taking the time to answer some questions for me.  I really enjoyed reading his answers, and I agree with him (for the most part) on his opinions.