Nets Are Scorching

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As the NBA season draws nearer, the New Jersey Nets — they of the $18ish million in cap space — are linked to nearly a dozen different players at every position (except point guard, where they’re stacked with three players fresh off Euro trips). They likely won’t end up with more than two or three of the guys they’re linked with, if that.

The top guys on New Jersey’s radar — Nene and Tyson Chandler — are the two best players on the market (save maybe Marc Gasol, who the Nets aren’t getting). This seems odd organically, since Nene and Tyson Chandler are both centers, and the Nets a) already have Brook Lopez, and b) are beginning a quest into MeloSagaLand in the hopes of acquiring Dwight Howard. But the Nets nonetheless hope to pair one of these two with Brook, leading to the inevitable question about Brook’s ability to potentially play the 4.

It does seem odd that the question boils down to “can Brook Lopez play power forward?” in this era of positional revolution and game theory re-imagination. The question in this framework approaches the issue from an oddly individualized lens; it’s not whether Brook can play power forward or not, but whether Brook plus another big man can combine to form a reputable frontcourt in tandem.

While there are certain fundamental differences between what’s considered a “power forward” and a “center” — height, athletic ability, and the ability to space the floor tend to set the boundaries — it’s the ability to fill roles across the floor that maximize a team’s overall potential, rather than fill positions.

When you put together what’s normally considered “power forward” work on offense — operating out of the post, shooting with range up to 18-20 feet, running the pick-and-roll, making yourself available for dunks and alley-oops — those are all things Brook Lopez can do. In that sense, he can function as an “offensive power forward” or “offensive center,” if you’re into that sort of box. The only issue is that his skills on the offensive end don’t translate to the other side of the floor, as the players he’d normally have to face at that spot take advantage of his lack of quickness and tentative nature on defense.

Nene and Brook are similar (albeit unequal) players. Both have range — Brook shot 39% from 16-23 feet last season on 3.6 attempts per game, while Nene shot 47% on 1.3 attempts per game. Both operate well out of the pick-and-roll and in post-up situations, Nene ranking in the top 25 in both sets^[1]. Both finish well at the rim. Brook is a more natural high-volume scorer, while Nene tends to function as an ancillary of the offense. Their positive similarities on offense aren’t an issue, since they’re both able to operate inside and outside, and they’d likely pose matchup nightmares for opposing defenses every night.

Unfortunately, their weaknesses also mirror one another. Neither is a particularly adept rebounder; their combined rebound rate last season (24.4%) isn’t much better than Kris Humphries’s rebound rate alone (22.2%). Their abilities on the defensive side of the ball leave much to be desired; Lopez’s slow-footedness often results in passivity in the pick-and-roll and a tendency to leave spot-up shooters open, and while Nene is an upgrade over Lopez, he’s still often a split-second slow on spot-ups and over-commits to players in the paint. Using these two as your defensive anchors is a recipe for disaster, even though they’d likely score a combined 40 efficient points per game.

That’s why I’m of the opinion that Tyson Chandler is a better fit next to Brook than Nene.^[2] Chandler’s defensive presence is a game-changer that Nene (nor Brook) can offer. Taking their collective abilities, a Chandler-Lopez frontcourt would be both potent offensively — with Brook taking most of the intentional touches in the post and Chandler getting the garbage points, and defensively — with Chandler guarding the superior offensive player, allowing Brook to roam more freely.

The offensive difference between a Brook/Chandler frontcourt and a Brook/Nene frontcourt is impossible to forecast with 100% accuracy, but it’s safe to say that in either instance Brook would carry a major portion of the offensive load, minimizing the offensive impact of the other player. It’s on defense where Brook’s counterpart really has to shine, and between Nene/Brook and Chandler/Brook, there’s a significant enough difference to swing my preference.

With all that said, it’s more important than anything else that the Nets do not overspend on either player, either with their money or their time. With the long-term future of the franchise at bay (as it seems to be nearly every offseason), the Nets can’t feel the pressure of “needing to make a splash.” Nene and Chandler are both 29 years old, and a max contract either in length (five years) or cash (starting at $16.3 million this season) for either of these guys is ludicrous. If that’s the price other teams are offering, let them burn their franchises.

After reading ESPN’s John Hollinger’s individual profiles on the Nets (Insider), Hollinger makes one thing glaringly clear — the Nets, as individual defenders, leave a lot to be desired.

I decided to go to Synergy and take a look at video to see if Hollinger perhaps missed the boat and had been mistaken and the Nets were actually a stellar defensive unit.

SPOILER ALERT!! He was right. But, I still would like you to see for yourself, so to quote Warner Wolf, “Let’s go to the videotape!”

Deron Williams

Hollinger:

“Has ability to defend well, but plus-minus numbers are consistently terrible…” “…he hasn’t been terribly engaged on that end (defensive) the past two years and the numbers back it up.”

My Take: After Hollinger suggested Williams isn’t engaged on the defensive end, I decided to look for video evidence. Most of the issues I see involve Deron guarding pick and rolls. Now this changes depending on the Nets strategy for defending such plays, but Deron has a habit of either running directly into the screen or simply going under. We can’t say for certain if this is because of strategy or Williams’s lack of urgency to fight over the top of the screen, but as you’ll see in the video, there are times it seems D-Will isn’t exerting maximum effort to contain the dribbler.

Going under screens is usually in an effort to keep the ballhandler from driving, but in some cases Deron opts to go under and still gives up the drive. Now obviously Williams is our main offensive contributor and a lot of his energy is expended on that end, but we should watch him a little closer this year defensively.

Video: Read more…

via Marc Stein’s twitter account:

As for teams in the hunt, the top two teams at this moment are:

• The Nets, whose primary trade chip is a 7’2″ jump shooter with poor defensive and rebounding skills, and
• The Lakers, whose primary trade chip is a 7’1″ knee injury waiting to happen, and that’s suspended for the first five games of the season for throwing at elbow at a guy that may literally be half his weight.

Now, I know I rag on Brook often (most recently two sentences ago), but I do wonder if the narrative of Brook outstripped the reality somewhere along the way. In the summer of 2011, Brook fought a nasty bit of mononucleosis, never really recovered, and still didn’t miss as much as a quarter all season. Despite seeing his field goal percentage sink into the low 40%’s in the middle of the season, he still finished the year with 49.9% shooting on over 20 points per game. Only one other center matched those numbers, and the Nets are trying to trade for him now.

As for Brook’s rebounding, his rebound rate shrunk from 15.8% his rookie season to 13.5% his sophomore campaign to 10% last year. That’s an anomaly, not a rule. With Humphries and mononucleosis gone, his rebound rate should be closer to the first two numbers than the third.

As far as this past summer? Oh, you know, just working out with Hakeem Olajuwon.

Brook is still one of the most talented offensive centers in the league, a premier low-post scorer in a league that has few of them. Is he a top-20 player in the NBA? Absolutely not. But let’s not act like he’s worthless, or a throw-in trade chip that’s a major step below some of the other talent the Magic could acquire.

Turkey-based website Katal Basket is reporting that Besiktas has reached an agreement with Nets center Brook Lopez, and will officially announce the signing in the next couple of days.

Brook Lopez only had twelve games with Deron Williams last season, so the opportunity to build a stronger rapport between the two — even overseas — is a welcome one. I imagine Deron and Brook wouldn’t have much trouble dominating the TBL, and the winning experience would certainly help the two after last year’s nightmare. Still, because of the NBA lockout and each player’s expiring contract, there’s a good chance this might be the last time they work together.

Besiktas had most recently pursued Lamar Odom, Carlos Boozer, and Marcin Gortat, but Lopez’s short rookie NBA contract makes him a viable candidate for Besiktas to sign for insurance purposes over the other three players.

More to come as this story develops.

These days in late November, it’s a little hard for some of the NBA’s finest fans to cope with the fact that we aren’t seeing those logoed uniforms zipping up and down the hardwood on TV and in the Prudential Center. Does it suck that the league hasn’t been cooperating to put out a brand-spanking-new season as we’d normally expect?

Short answer: yeah. It sucks. But a lot of things suck harder.

It’s hard to really be heartbroken to the point of devastation when gas is hard to buy, rent and mortgages are literally keeping people from take care of other responsibilities, and the cold weather is only going to make us as bitter as the air. Still, we can be thankful for what we have, and while the New Jersey Nets aren’t actually active, we can be thankful that they still exist in some form. Here are some good reasons to ponder thankfulness. Glasses up!

• Jay-Z and Mikhail Prokhorov kept the team from being seriously considered for league contraction.
  It’s not that the NBA had gotten that far into thinking about the lockout back in 2008 and 2009, but ideas were already being thrown around about what franchises were more dissolvable than others. The Nets weren’t exactly setting the league on fire, which made Jay’s co-sign and Prokhorov’s bailout of the franchise virtually bulletproof. We don’t know how this lockout is going to turn out, but just be thankful this star power kept the team from being thrown about like a neglected rag doll.
• Deron Williams is actually optimistic about the Nets.
  It’s not news that Deron isn’t always bright and sunny-like (as we learned from his Utah days). That’s not to say Deron is an unhappy guy, but we just know that he’s fairly stoic about expressing his options (then again, Utah and New Jersey aren’t ideal settings when you think of signing a long-term contract). That he’s been talking upwards about the future of the team is a good sign. Let’s just appreciate this before he makes any other sudden movements.
• The lockout is keeping us from being reminded of the New Jersey’s mediocre talent.
  Jordan Farmar has been my personal disappointment for the past three years. Travis Outlaw is another chief offender (though I feel he was overvalued and misused in the process). I’m not exactly salivating over Brook Lopez these days, either. In a sense, the blessing of the lockout is that fans of the Nets can just focus on getting the team back out and not put too much attention on the fact that the team is crowded with relative disappointments up and down the roster.
• Kris Humphries’ offseason foray into celebrity marriage makes the Nets a little more interesting.
  Honestly, I’ve always felt that Kris was a worthy NBA player that seemed to not get the best fits early on in his career. I was happy when he finally arrived in New Jersey and started getting minutes and playing like I felt he was capable. Though he was under the radar, he’s always been talented. Now he’s famous, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll blossom even further as a player in the process, or whether he’ll wither in the face of the media keeping a post-Kardashian eye on his mug.
• Hope.
  Regardless of Prokhorov’s stature as a playboy and savvy billionaire, the Nets’ hope is based on their aura as a business and less so about their current roster. It’s because of their impending move to Brooklyn in New York City that they have the appeal of an up-and-coming Fortune 500 business. I’ll take whatever I can get, regardless of the cache.

Worried that NBA fans could potentially subject themselves to 82 more games involving the New Jersey Nets, Derek Fisher and Billy Hunter moved to decertify the NBA Players Association in an effort to ensure that the no fan will ever have to watch the team play again.

Fisher noted that this was a grand victory for the union: “we may lose one season, we may lose more, but as long as we keep the Prudential Center free of basketball — is that what they call what they do there? Basketball? — we’ll do anything we have to.” Hunter went on to say that “not only will removing the New Jersey Nets from our collective consciousness clear our minds, we also expect New Jersey’s quality of life to rise dramatically in all sectors.”

“Our one goal: to ensure no basketball will be played in New Jersey ever again,” Hunter added to raucous applause from the media.

This comes as a stark contrast to the union’s earlier position, that regardless of how terrible and frightening Nets games have been in the past two seasons, they must sacrifice for the health of the other 29 teams in the NBA in order to give them a chance at not becoming the Nets.

But that weight became too much for the union to bear.

“Why subject you to this any longer?” Fisher said with increasing force, pointing to a screened montage of the 137 shots Johan Petro attempted from outside 16 feet in 2011. “It is our duty to protect our fans from this. It’s not right. It’s not humane!”

Later, as a still image of the Nets starting lineup on April 10th flashed on the screen, reading “Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Stephen Graham, Dan Gadzuric, Brook Lopez,” Fisher shook his head sadly, dropped the mic, and walked offstage.

This appears to be the only system issue that the NBA and union agree on completely. David Stern released a statement through deputy commissioner and Dobby the elf impersonator Adam Silver, reading: “while we originally would have preferred to subject our fans to 82 tortuous games of Travis Outlaw again, we understand the union’s position that no man, woman, child, or animal should be subject to such suffering.”

“Maybe I’ll learn to paint,” Outlaw said to reporters outside of his Starkville, Mississippi home. “I’m just glad I can take a year off from doing nothing. Do you know how hard it is going out there, pretending to practice your shot, but never actually following through every single day?”

Stephen Graham confirmed he was unsure how hard it was.

This comes as a blow to the seven New Jersey Nets fans still in existence, who hung on to that last chance that they might one day waste four hours watching the Nets lose another excruciatingly painful Nets-Bobcats matchup.

“What am I supposed to do now? Watch the Giants and Jets? College football? College basketball? Catch up on reading? Start a new television show? Focus on my future?” said a Nets fan, known only as Waffles-Kid.

Other Nets players expressed a combination of relief and indifference. Upon hearing the news via telephone, Jordan Farmar cut off the reporter with a laugh and said, “I just won an MVP over here! I’m finally the MVP no one in America recognized. I can shoot whenever I want, I get all the credit when we win, I just won an MVP, and I’m playing in front of more fans than I ever saw in Newark. You really think the Euroleague Week 3 MVP is going to sully his reputation in America? Come on!”

Farmar then refused to answer any further questions unless the reporter began his statement with “MVP Farmar…”

A short time later, a jubilated Deron Williams went to Twitter, merely tweeting “HAHAHAHAHA” over 140 characters in 17 straight tweets, following it with “I’M FREE I’M FREE” a few minutes later. He did not answer a phone call seeking comment, though Williams changed his outgoing message to: “You’ve reached Deron Free Man Williams. If you’re Billy King, don’t even try.”

King was unavailable for comment, though sources in his offices noted that he was upset, mainly due to his inability to trade Brook Lopez for Samuel Dalembert and sign him to another 6-year, $65 million contract.

His sentiments aren’t shared by coach Avery Johnson, though. Johnson, with a 24-58 record after one season in New Jersey, is a long-standing supporter of the lockout, happy at any opportunity he has to avoid the Nets franchise.

“I’m so proud,” Johnson declared to the one guy in the country that could stand hearing his voice. “I’ve just been so sick of Brook Lopez’s inattentiveness to defense and obsession with reacquiring Ryan Anderson, so it comes as a nice surprise that he’s not allowed to text me for an additional year. The fact that the owners and players just couldn’t come together to save the season… well, it’s just wonderful.”

“I mean, you really need complete idiots to see how bad a lost season is for the NBA right now,” Johnson added. “And thank God, we’ve got them!”

It’s been a while since I checked in on the statuses of Nets currently under contract in ULOAUNBA (un-locked-out alternate universe NBA), so here’s a quick roundup.

Bojan Bogdanvoic: Bojan has heated up after a slow start, scoring in double figures in three of his last four games, including a season-high 19 on 7-13 shooting in just 22 minutes in a 73-70 victory over Bandirma.

MarShon Brooks: Start at :40 here. Hey, it’s not much, but it’s something. Like you, I just want to see that in an arena. Many rookies picked after #20 (and before) are sitting around uninvited to charity games, and Brooks is dropping slams in a game organized by veterans. Just sayin’.

Jordan Farmar: Farmar continues to rip up the Euro basketball circuit, most recently dropping an 18-6-5 on Sasha Vujacic’s Anadolu Efes in a 79-72 victory. Maccabi Electra Tel-Aviv has won nine straight games over its three leagues, and Farmar continues to act as the catalyst.

Sundiata Gaines: Gaines has played surprisingly solid basketball for Georgian team BC Armia. After a double-double (14 points, 12 assists, to go along with 5 rebounds) in a 100-62 rout, Gaines followed up with a 24-4-4 performance and another solid outing (13 points, 5 assists) in two additional victories. I would be 100% okay with Gaines as the backup point guard next season… or this season… or whenever.

Damion James: Along with just getting a twitter account (@KONJames10), DJ will play in a charity game this coming Sunday to benefit The John Lucas Foundation, which provides substance-abuse training and counseling for basketball players.

Avery Johnson: With no team to coach, Avery has taken to visiting high schoolers in Baton Rouge, preaching “effort and excellence.”

Brook Lopez: Brook seems to make it his mantra to stay out of the spotlight, which may aid the idea that he’s not a legitimately great player. His most high-profile picture this summer is a shot of a dog attacking his arm. Since he’s not a particularly public persona, all we know about his whereabouts in the past week are that he attended Stanford football’s 53-30 loss to Oregon on Saturday with twin brother Robin. Other than that… well, I just hope he’s working on defense.

Anthony Morrow: Starred in a charity event benefiting COMP (Children of Murdered Parents). No official stats from the game, and even so, you’d take them with more than a grain of salt, but judging by Morrow’s twitter feed, the event came shortly after a workout and was, by all accounts, a great success.

Travis Outlaw/Johan Petro: I’m far from a native French speaker, but I believe this French website speculates that writers in the US believe Johan Petro is an amnesty option for the Nets. Naturally, those voices are drowned out by the voice of reason, which clearly states that if you’re gifted the opportunity to take $28 million off the cap over four years for a guy that’s struggled with conditioning issues and put up a career-worst 8.8 PER in his first full season since 2009, you do it. With that said, I would not be surprised to see Outlaw have a resurgence wherever he ends up — after all, he can’t get any worse, right?

Deron Williams: The star has been shining. D-Will has followed up his impressive performances by continuing to excel, scoring over 20 points in each of his last three games, capped by a 28-point performance yesterday against Mersin. In five TBL games, Deron is averaging 21.4 points and 6.6 assists per game, shooting over 50% from both inside and outside the arc, and including games prior and concurrent to TBL is leading Besiktas to an 11-game winning streak.

Jordan Williams: As NetsDaily points out, Jordan will be cloned this week so that he can play in two charity games at the same time. No word on if his clone’s name is “Josh Boone.”

Today is day 137 of the NBA Lockout.

In last week’s editions of 3-on-3, we looked at different targets the Nets might pursue in free agency at the small forward and power forward positions. This time, we’re talking about who we’ve got now — and what they’ll do next year.

Joining Justin DeFeo and myself is perpetual riser/grinder Beckley Mason, founder of the phenomenal site HoopSpeak, and host of their weekly live online show HoopSpeak Live. You can follow Beckley on Twitter @BeckleyMason. If you don’t, the cool kids at the other lunch table will make fun of you.

 
1) Over/Under: Deron Williams will average 10 assists per game next season.

 Justin DeFeo: An optimistic over. In his 12 games with the Nets last season, D-Will averaged 12.8 APG and he was over 10 in his last four years in Utah. Perfectly able to balance his scoring and dishing, the Nets should provide just enough offense around him to make 10 assists a game possible. Adding another scorer in Marshon Brooks should only help the cause.
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