Nets Are Scorching

Last week, I was lucky enough to speak with Oz Davis of BallinEurope.com and I put up audio of that interview.

My goal, however, was to provide the readers of NAS with video content, which brings us to the (tentatively named) Nets Are Scorching TV.

The idea for this channel is to bring on smart guests and let them speak and educate us all on the game of basketball and/or the Nets. NASTV will hopefully grow and evolve into something bigger, but for now, this first episode is very much a pilot episode. In the future, I hope to work more production into the episodes and possibly expand the content into more than just interviews.

That’s my short little intro for what will hopefully be a longtime feature of this blog.

Now, the first episode. For our inaugural episode, we were lucky enough to be joined by Coach Anthony Macri of the Pro Training Center and Hoopsworld.com.

Coach Macri is a professional basketball trainer and has trained NBA players such as Joakim Noah and Luol Deng.

Coach Macri also does a bit of writing and his work is found on Hoopsworld.com in a weekly chat (Monday’s) and a weekly column. He can also be found on twitter, @coachmacri.

The interview is split into two parts:

Part One deals with how Coach broke into the business, as well as the process that goes into athletes working with the coaches at the Pro Training Center.

Part Two talks about what it means to be a “beast” in the NBA, specifically what Brook Lopez needs to do to get better as a player. In part two, I reference a column Coach Macri wrote about how to develop a center, which is found here.

Enjoy!

Many games in the NBA are decided by a small margin – less than three possessions can change the outcome of a game. In games like this, each possession becomes hyper-critical; therefore maximizing those possessions is something winning teams do.

A great way to maximize a possession is to grab an offense rebound, keeping the possession alive, thus allowing your team another potential chance at scoring.

A couple of factors dictate offensive rebounding. Typically, teams need to make a concerted effort to get to the offensive glass in order to be in position for missed shots, but a lot of that has to do with a coach’s philosophy and/or the opponent they are playing. Coaches that are more defensive-minded may prefer to send fewer people to the boards on shot attempts, conceding the rebound, but instead opting to have more players back in preparation to play transition defense.

Offensive-minded coaches don’t mind aggressively crashing the boards in hopes of getting offensive rebounds and more opportunities, submarining their transition defense in the process.

A great example of this is the NCAA Division III team Grinnell College. Grinnell is typically one of the highest scoring teams in the nation and they put a large emphasis on offensive rebounding, drilling it everyday. In fact, they don’t teach normal boxing out principles (getting inside position, driving your man out), instead they teach their players to start on the outside and push their man closer to the basket, putting themselves in better offensive rebounding position in the process.

Read more…

Nets are Scorching’s editor emeritus/video wizard/playbook master Sebastian Pruiti is still doing some work on the Nets around the internet. Today on Basketball Prospectus, Sebastian takes a look at Brook Lopez, and whether or not he’ll return to form next year.

Here’s a snippet:

If Avery Johnson can get Lopez to change his mentality and attack the rim more, especially when in the pick-and-roll, I can see his productivity picking up. We already mentioned that Lopez is very good when attacking the rim, scoring 125 points on 112 possessions where he rolled to the rim, but that will also draw more fouls and put himself in position to grab more offensive rebounds.

One thing Sebastian doesn’t mention in the article is that mononucleosis slowed down Brook immensely in the beginning of the year, and it’s arguably all season. With a full summer to recover his body, I’d hope that he can come in to training camp (whenever that is) stronger than ever.

David West made one bold move this week.

Recently sidelined by a gut-wrenching knee injury toward the end of the NBA’s regular season, West missed all of the Hornets’ surprisingly promising first-round mini-run against the Lakers and figures not to be 100 percent recovered until some time in November. West has a one-year, $7.5 million player option remaining on his contract. Given his condition and that of the CBA negotiations, it would have seemed wise for him to exercise that option and take that money.

Nope. He’s opting out.

There’s no doubt that West has played at a level worth more than $7.5 million annually over the last several years, so he and his agent must be somewhat confident that they can finagle a more lucrative deal out of some team lacking production at the power-forward position. It appears the Nets are near (or at) the top of that duo’s list of targets.

The Nets, looking to improve in any conceivable way, could definitely benefit from West’s contributions. He’s a solid scorer (devastating in the pick-and-pop, at least with Chris Paul running that show) and defender, two qualities the Nets are lacking in. All signs indicate he’s a good locker-room guy, so there wouldn’t be any prudent character issues to worry about. Feasibly, he could give the Nets another handful of wins on his own. And having another quality player like West in the rotation could sweeten the deal for the Nets’ home-run target, Dwight Howard.

Still, as Devin pointed out earlier today, he’s not a great rebounder, so pairing him with another not-great rebounder in Brook Lopez could have disastrous implications. But that’s not really the main concern. More relevant: it just doesn’t seem like a great investment to put a lot of money into a player who will turn 31 before next season is supposed to begin and is recovering from reconstructive knee surgery.

He might be able to keep up production for the length of his contract (after all, as John Hollinger professes, the two best indicators of career length are size and shooting ability: two areas in which West is gifted); he might start feeling the toll of the surgery next year. That uncertainty seems like a reason to stay away, especially since West won’t make the Nets a serious championship contender on his own.

There might be significant movement in the next CBA that would allow the Nets to offer a contract that isn’t as potentially as damaging as one in the current deal. If that’s the case, I could get behind inking West. But if he’s going to get a guaranteed five- or six-year deal in the $10 to $15 million range as would likely be the case if the contract were negotiated today, that’s a fiscal misstep by the team. And the LAST thing anyone concerned about the NBA needs is for a potential bust contract to be one of the first major deals negotiated under the new CBA, creating precedent for the same money issues the league and union are slogging through now.

Really, the situation with West is very similar to that with Kris Humphries. West is a better player, but he’s four-and-a-half years older and a much more real injury risk; he’d also likely demand more money. Both of these players are worth signing for the right price. But calculated restraint is really necessary in these negotiations. Breaking the bank for a 10- to 15-win boon without the possibility of a title isn’t what the Nets should be looking for under their five-year championship plan.

Set to Mos Def’s “Mathematics,” uncensored.

To improve in the future, the Nets will have to learn from the mistakes of the past. In this weekly series, Nets are Scorching writers Justin DeFeo and Devin Kharpertian take a look at how the Nets performed in different sets on both sides of the ball during the 2010-11 season.
Read more…

In addition to building their roster through free agency and trades, the Nets also have to consider bringing back some of their own guys this summer. The NAS takes a look at the team’s current crop of free agents and determines who stays and who goes.

You Got To Go: Kris Humphries had a solid season in 2010-2011, but two major terms come to mind every time I think about it. Those terms are “contract year” and “fluke rule.” While I’d love to believe that Humphries’ performance this season is a good indicator for his future success, that’s not really a solid case. Time and time again, we’ve seen players really put their noses to the grindstone when the money’s on the line, only to shrink to replacement-level production as soon as they have guaranteed money for the next several years. Bobby Simmons comes to mind. Rashard Lewis comes to mind. Gilbert Arenas comes to mind. Anyone who ever wore a Knicks uniform during Isiah Thomas’ reign comes to mind. Too many times have NBA teams been bitten in the butt by trusting players who were trying their hardest just to secure livelihood, the success of the team be damned.

Beyond just that, though, Humphries’ tunnel vision is very concerning. Once he puts the ball on the floor toward the basket, you can guarantee he will take a shot. It doesn’t matter if someone’s open. It doesn’t matter if he’s 20 feet from the basket. Once he sets his sights on taking a shot, he’s going to take a shot. Unfortunately, he’s not good enough to be able to get away with that decisiveness. Sure, the last thing you want is a player to hesitate, but good decision-making doesn’t have to manifest itself as “shoot whenever you want.” With better players on the floor in Deron Williams and Brook Lopez, Humphries needed to learn to take his shots only when truly necessary. Too many times did he brick 17-foot jumpers off the side of the rim with 10+ seconds left on the shot clock.

Moreover, there’s the question of whether he and Lopez and coexist on the floor from a rebounding perspective. I’m fairly convinced Humphries’ selfishness on the boards directly influenced Lopez’s rebounding decline, and the last thing anyone needs is another year of Lopez bashing because someones robbing his rebounds. One of them should go, and anyone who thinks that one should be Lopez should also go.

I Guess You Could Stay: During the 2010-2011 season, Humphries embodied a lot of the qualities that the Nets sorely lacked. He hustled, he gave it his all, he was tough, and he cared on defense. The effort was always there, if not always the talent. That is, in being a solid rotation player, he made up for what he lacked in natural ability with grit, effort, and toughness. And that’s always a good guy to have on your team. Meanwhile, statistically, he averaged a double-double and became a rebounding machine as the season went on. It’s not often you want to let go of someone with stats like that. Despite his occasional cluelessness, he was undoubtedly a producer.

More importantly, Humphries seems to want to play for the Nets. His playing for the Nets has gotten his name out there and scored him an engagement with Kim Kardashian. It’s always great to have players on a team that really want to be there, especially when the team is so bad that it seems farfetched that anyone at all would want to be there.

The Final Verdict: Hump’s got to go. His effort and production are enviable, but the collateral damage could prove to be too much. Lopez will continue to struggle at his side, there’s a chance he won’t come close to duplicating his numbers with a lesser sense of urgency and money lining his pockets, and he’s going to require a hefty paycheck.

Really, I’d be perfectly okay with bringing Humphries back at no more than $6 million a year. Not a dime more. That makes the risk worth it and doesn’t cripple the salary-cap situation for later acquisitions. The problem, though, is that he’s sure to get more than that. He has garnered a lot of attention around the league — both on and off the court — and now he’s a notable, if not proven, commodity around the league. Every team needs rebounding and effort, and other teams can afford a bigger deal right now. Unfortunately, the Nets aren’t one of those teams.

To improve in the future, the Nets will have to learn from the mistakes of the past. In this weekly series, Nets are Scorching writers Justin DeFeo and Devin Kharpertian take a look at how the Nets performed in different sets on both sides of the ball during the 2010-11 season.

Read more…

To improve in the future, the Nets will have to learn from the mistakes of the past. In this weekly series, Nets are Scorching writers Justin DeFeo and Devin Kharpertian take a look at how the Nets performed in different sets on both sides of the ball during the 2010-11 season.

Read more…