Nets May Pursue J.R. Smith

i would love to have him and he is A NEW JERSEY PRODUCT he probably come here for less just to be at home GO GET HIM

He’d be good but not worth the headache if we are content with being a lottery team.

Here are some of the unrestricted free agent guards/swingmen that the Nets have to choose from and some they may pursue: Mickael Pietrus, Devin Brown, Matt Barnes, Quinton Ross, Roger Mason, Kareem Rush, Keyon Dooling, Chris Duhon, Jannero Pargo, Maurice Evans, Juan Dixon and Jarvis Hayes. CLICK ON FREE AGENCY 2008

Not a huge fan of JR Smith with Carter still on this team. I still think its best that we look ahead to the 2010 offseason and if signing JR Smith jeaporides that then I am not for it.

If we managed to trade Carter to the Cavaliers for Wally plus two first rounders (I know its not going to happen) then I would be interested.

Sean Watkins,

that would be the worst trade in the world.were do you think those picks would be with a team with Lebron and Vince. and all you get in return is Zerbiak.

You’d get immediate cap relief the next season as a team that wouldn’t mind cutting the odd contract. JR Smith is a lateral move and is a chucker.

I would hope that if we traded Vince to get a good young player back in return but I’d settle with the two picks.

Yea, but not to the Cavs. That would inevitably defeat the purpose of all this cap cutting 2010 talk

I hope we sign Pietrus and Dooling or Pargo. But yeah, I like this kid too.

Dooling and Pargo is a hell no.

Kareem Rush

And again, the Nets don’t need to trade Carter for salary cap relief purposes. The capspace goal was archived with the RJ deal. Even if Carter stays, the Nets wil be more than $20 mill. under the cap in 2010.

Here’s what Kiki said in the Boston Globe yesterday when he was asked if they’re gonna deal Carter:
-————————————————————————————
The Nets traded perennial All-Star Jason Kidd to Dallas last season, and have now dealt Jefferson. Is Carter next?

“I wouldn’t say that,” Vandeweghe said. “There have been some offers for Vince . . . We like Vince a lot. Where are you going to find a guy that can give you 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists per game? Those guys don’t come along often.”

And again, the Nets don’t need to trade Carter for salary cap relief purposes. The capspace goal was archived with the RJ deal. Even if Carter stays, the Nets wil stay more than $20 mill. under the cap in 2010.

Here’s what Kiki said in the Boston Globe yesterday when he was asked if they’re gonna deal Carter:
-————————————————————————————
The Nets traded perennial All-Star Jason Kidd to Dallas last season, and have now dealt Jefferson. Is Carter next?

“I wouldn’t say that,” Vandeweghe said. “There have been some offers for Vince . . . We like Vince a lot. Where are you going to find a guy that can give you 24 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists per game? Those guys don’t come along often.”

Sorry for the the repeated post.
From that list JULIAN posted, I also like Evans, Duhon and Hayes. But I’d rather sign the players I mentioned in one of my previous posts. Karrem Rush would be a nice addition too.

stop the bull**** about trading Carter to Cavs, that’s the terrible, and ignorant idea in the universe.

Smith is a risk on and off the court, but that could make him a bargain. Also, Karl doesn’t like him. He is undisciplined and immature, although he seems to have gotten better last year…after some reckless driving cost him his best friend’s life.

The MLE doesn’t sound like it will satisfy Smith…and unless the Nuggets are faking, they can match that. The trick is to get Smith to want to come here. If he does, then Denver might not want him back and a sign-and-trade becomes the option.

They seem to have given up on Diop but they will acquire a post defender. Sounds like they have something in mind.

I really wish there was some way RJ could have stayed, but at least now he’s on a pretty good team who could vie for the playoffs.

Ill give up any two of KVH, Stromile, Marcus, Ager, Hassel,CDR,Anderson and the TE.

Harris
Smith
BronBron
Yi(with 10 more lbs at this point)
Lopez

Thats a nice eclectic mix of talent. Hopefully Sean and Boone as defensive/rebounding minded bigs off the bench.

But realistically, I think we are going to end up w/ a stop gap type. A Ross, Barnes, Evans ect.

I can imagine RJ is very upset …just moving from NYC to Milwaukee is enough to upset most people and sure it would be different going to LA which I thought was a possibility in terms of trades.
Always thought YI would be good in NJ or Brooklyn , shame it could not happened without trading RJ
I wish him well and good luck
mo

Trading Richardson might be the reason for Milwaukee not to trade Redd to Cleveland, believing he is the missing piece of the puzzle. Or maybe not. Better if the lack of acquisition of support would then fuel Lebron to sign with NJ.

IMHO, Lebron will sign here if:
a. he has the support/depth
b. NJ acquires a bigman, a PF already of All-Star level. Someone like Elton Brand this year or another the next few years.
c. we are contenders but with a big hole in the wing position

I need to see the Nets do something that says they want to win NOW!

I don’t understand why they are so eager to trade Krstic. He didn’t rehab well but the guy is not even 25. He could be a 18/8 guy for the next 5 years. The only way it makes sense is if they think he is going back to Serbia or wherever. Also don’t understand why they are giving up on Boone and Sean Will so quickly. They have also given up on Marcus, at least that I can understand a little since he shows no passion or defense. But Boone and Sean Will both have a lot of upside and we are rebuilding anyway so why not give hem some PT? They gave up on Hassan Adams, just makes no sense to me.

Another head case – pass on this guy.

there is a good post about the nets on
http://sportsnynj.blogspot.com/

Pietrus should be #1 on the Nets list if you ask me, the guy from what i saw of him has great size, is willing to defend, and can knock down the open 3, imo he is a perfect perimeter compliment to Vince Carter. I’d start him at that three and boom, you already have a nice SF rotation with Pietrus and Simmons.

Glad to see that they aren’t going to trade Carter because that is also a sign that they still want to remain competitive now that they have that 20 mil freed up for some guy who isn’t coming here. They won’t keep Carter here and not make sensible moves to keep the Nets above water. I still say sign a SF/back up PG(Dooling or Duhon) or another shooter with the money available this summer, and use the KVH/Swift contracts and our assets(glut of bigs, marcus) to make a trade for another post player.

All in all, I don’t like the fact that Rod is banking on fantasy speculation, but I like the fact that he has already accomplished his goal of clearing cap room and can now focus on making the Nets a good team right now.

JAMES JONES IS AVAILABLE FROM THE BLAZERS i want RON artest

Kristic doesn’t play defense. We don’t need him.
If he ends up staying, fine! But I have no doubt that Thorn is trying to shop him.
If I’m the management there’s no way I’d trade Carter. VC and Yi, and the NETS, will be the hype in China for the next two years.

If Krstic isn’t hitting his jumper he’s absolutely useless. I’d cut my losses and let some other team overpay so we can take some of their assets in a S&T for damaged goods.

Here’s the bottom line: The Nets can’t do all three of the following:

1) Keep VC

2) Sign LBJ to a max deal in 2010

3) Acquire new players or retain current players for salaries worth over a total of about $6 million in 2010, including Boone ($3M qualifying offer in 2010), Marcus (also $3M), a 2008 mid-level FA ($6M in 2010), Krstic, Diop, Boki, etc…

So unless we trade VC (for expiring contracts) or give up on LBJ, all this talk about using our “assets” like the expiring contracts of Swift and KVH, including Diop or Krstic in a sign-and-trade, the mid-level exception, and retaining Boone or Marcus in 2010, is just that. Talk.

essrog,

Yes they can. Even if they keep VC, they’ll stay more than $20-22 mill. under the cap in 2010. And they can trade for players whose contracts end up in 2010, or sign FA this summer to 2 year deals. And re retaining Marcus in 2010, I’m not so sure he will be around by then. It’s not that complicated.

Btw, I wouln’t count on retaining Diop this summer. He’s a clear goner. The Mavs may offer him the full MLE, and it seems that Miami has also interest in him. I don’t think he’s gonna stay.

Regarding Boki, Iannazzone says he thinks the Nets could offer him a 2-year deal, with a 3rd year option, so his deal could come off the books in 2010. The rest of our young players have small contracts. Boone should be re-signed in the 2010 summer though. But I don’t that should a big problem.

VC must be bummed to be in the twilight of his career and be leading a team of youngsters knowing the team doesn’t have a chance to be competitive for the next couple of years. He’s a stand up guy, a class act, the Nets should trade him out West to a contender for a younger player or two/ picks and complete the rebuilding process. I’m sure VC is not in the plans for Brooklyn so why delay the inevitable?

With a couple more trade pieces I think we can make a run for the playoffs next year.

I think VC will carry the team to the playoffs next year. He will surprise a lot of people. I think his game has matured a lot especially after Kidd was traded.

I don’t think he will ask to be traded, but instead take on the responsibility as the team leader to lead this team into the playoffs.

johnny,

I agree with all you said about VC, but if you think he’s not in the plans for Brooklyn, why did they sign him to such a long deal? Yeah, I know, when they signed him to the extension we were a winning team, but I think it’s obvious they knew that they would be targeting the 2010 FA market anyway.

And if they complete the rebuilding process now, there’s no way we will be an attractive destination for the 2010 FAs because we will suck for the next two years. That’s why I think Kiki said he wants more vets and complete the right mix. They

In the draft, they took players who are gonna help us right away instead of taking projects and players with upside (McGee, Jordan, Randolph, Greene…). That should tell you something.

The Nets already cleared the cap space needed for the pipe dream of Lebron James by trading Richard Jefferson for Yi and Bobby Simmons. Simmons will be off the books in 2010 and with that comes $20 mil in cap space.

So right now, the “assets” we have should be used to make the team as constructed a competitive, exciting young team and i believe it can be done w/o killing ourselves for 2010, when neither James, Bosh, or Wade will come here.

And to those of you worried about Marcus in 2010…unless for some odd reason that a guy who’ll be playing for some garbage Euroleague team, getting his skinned scorched by hot coins thrown by rowdy Europeans, counts against our cap, i don’t think we’ll have to worry about Mr. Williams by then!

Andres and Mr. Dollar Bills:

$20 million may seem like a lot of cap space, but by 2010 a max contract for a FA of LBJs tenure will start at $19 million. That doesn’t leave a lot of room.

If it excites you to speculate about which high-quality FAs we can lure who are willing to sign with a bad team for one or two years, be my guest. But recent history shows those guys end up being the caliber of Scott Padgett and Billy Thomas, not Pietrus and JR Smith.

My point is: if the Nets want to hold on to VC and still have enough room to sign LBJ, then they have to assume that LBJ will be excited about coming to a team whose only bigs coming into 2010 will be Yi, Lopez, and Sean. All three could easily bust and the Nets front office would look like idiots. Nope, they have to rid themselves of VCs contract in order gather more young assets and increase the odds that one or more of them will pan out. If they go acquiring 2+ year contracts right now it will back them into a corner because every other team will know they have to trade VC in order to get far enough back under the cap. Of course there are other ways it could go, but that’s the situation right now.

I say we do a sign and trade for smith. We trade marcus n van horns contract for j.r. I like marcus but obiously the organization doesnt. Denver is looking for a pg of the future and we need a wing.

I say we do a sign and trade for j.r. smith. We trade marcus n van horns contract for j.r. I like marcus but obiously the organization doesnt. Denver is looking for a pg of the future and we need a wing.

essrog,

Honestly, i’d prefer these idiots running the Nets front office to conduct business as if they want to construct a winning team TODAY and NOT do everything in order to make a pitch at Lebron James, but as we can see, Thorn either knows that Lebron is coming here or he’s smoking crack. I agree totally, if Lebron is the sole reason they are doing this, then Carter should have been shipped out for Wally World last week…but he wasn’t, and that was either due to some moron balking at Carter being traded because the season tix holders would have told Ratner to go blank himself where the sun doesn’t shine or Thorn has a plan to actually construct a team around Carter and Harris that can compete against the better teams in the NBA. At this point, we don’t know until a move is made soon.

and if Lebron DOES come here by some grace of god, the tampering charges will come fast, hard, and swift and you can quote me on that. I’d rather the Nets not even be involved in this kind of stupidity.

Sign M.Pietrus, K.Dooling, B.Nachbar, buy out M.Ager…

C-Boone/Lopez/Swift
PF-Yi/S.Williams/Anderson
SF-Pietrus/Nachbar/Hassell
SG-Carter/Simmons/Douglas-Roberts
PG-Harris/Dooling/M.Williams

We’re still missing a true post prescence, but then again, we haven’t had one in years. Hopefully Area 51 can develop defensively, as well as Brook. This team has SO many pieces, but I’m just not sure who we could really go for, without messing up the LeBron-stakes. God knows what Thorndeweghe will cook up, but I think we could at least compete in the East with the above team…thoughts?

my opinion, the Nets do not want VC to go anywhere and VC will not want to go anywhere

Yi and VC have great potential together…VC has the ability to make Yi a star in the NBA (look what he did for Mikki who is no Yi)…which is what the Nets need to have happen to make this work…and Yi will make VC a very rich man through the Chinese fan base

cjsakl17 I perfectly agree with that roster I only would let Nachbar goes away..

yeag cjsak17 its a pretty good roster…I would not sign Boki tho ( unless he is cheap) and that guy andresson could play both forward spots…and I hope we unload hassel

I still wonder why people think LeBron wants out of Cleveland so badly he’d come here. Maybe I missed the report or interview or press conference where he said he couldnt wait to leave and get away from the city where he is the man and close to home…maybe it’s just me though.

Mr. Dollar Bills:

If Thorn has received info that LeBron would sign in ‘10 if the Nets have max space and have a reasonably promising young supporting cast in place, then he’d be crazy not to plan for that. No option coming up in ’08 or ’09 compares to LBJ in ’10.

The fact that VC wasn’t traded for Wally last week doesn’t necessarily mean they want to keep him (for attendance or compete-now purposes), it just means they think they can do better and they don’t want to strengthen the Cavs in the process. What worries me is that, based on the Kidd heist, Thorn might think he can wait on a VC trade and still pull something off. I don’t know that he can get that lucky twice.

And I’m not worried about tampering. You’d have to have solid evidence to make it stick, and Thorn isn’t stupid.

Netsdaily recently expressed concern that the Nets were acting like the post-Jordan Bulls, that they may be clearing cap space under the futile delusion that a big star will sign with them — and if he doesn’t they’re screwed. That may be, but on the other hand consider the possible parallel with Shaq and the Lakers. Shaq’s preference was to go to the Lakers and somehow magically they had a ton of cap room the exact year he became available. How’d they do that? By trading still-in-their-prime Divac and AC Green, and letting Worthy retire a Laker at 32 rather than trade his expiring contract. Meanwhile they “built” around youngsters like Van Exel, Elden Campbell, and Eddie Jones. They were able to go from a 33-win team to a 53-win team in the three years before Shaq arrived even as they preserved future cap space by drafting and trading well for young cheap talent and ditching expensive guys in their prime.

I believe that’s the strategy the Nets are trying to copy, and it’s a good one, they just have to execute.

essrog,

i think that the nets would be able to sign lebron with the cap space they have, and be able to resign all their free agents in the process and still keep carter if they want to.

but they would probably be over the tax by a bit. but by then, the young guys would be better, and maybe the adfdition of lebron can make them champioship contender.

the only way for these guys to be better is if they have a player like vc ir kidd leading the charge and helping these youngster develop.

if they trade vc, it will be for a decent package. by trading deadline, you could have some desperate teams looking to upgrade.

@ essrog

There’s a big difference between the 1996 lakers and the 2010 nets.

The lakers were operating under a collective bargaining agreement that allowed them to outbid the magic for shaq’s services. The lakers outbid the magic by $121 million to $115 million – a $6 million difference.

The nets and other teams can’t outbid the cavs for lebron’s services under the current collective bargaining agreement. In fact, the exact opposite is true. The cavs can outbid the nets and other teams by about $29 million.

There’s no way in the world that lebron is going to walk away from an extra $29 million in guaranteed money. No free agent ever has.

The only similarity between the 1996 Lakers and the 2010 Nets is that both teams were/are engaging in tampering