Nets Keep Sinking

That was horrible! I get the feeling they have decided to tank for a better lottery draft position.

Wow…CDR and Yi led our team in scoring. Nice one Vince, Harris, and Lopez.

We extremely need a coaching change. I have been supporting Frank but this is absurd. NO EFFORT. I would rather get a better postion in the draft than to risk harris, carter, or brook getting injured.

lmao good thing i stayed home tonight what a joke

the frank is fired party is that much closer!!!

houlihans? tgi fridays? red robin?

i got 1st round!

i watched the 1st quarter, and thats all.

May have been the last of the nets for me.

Good Game. We get a better draft pick. The PROBLEM is, that we didn’t tank the game on purpose. We just came out flat and were blown away by a team not much better than us.
This is a coaching problem. This is a motivation problem. This is an LFrank problem. He has got to go. As soon as the season is over, he must be fired. I don’t hate him, and I am not angry with him. It is just obvious that he can no longer
be our coach. But who will replace him? AND don’t suggest Mark Jackson: He has never coached at any level. So, our options for a new coach, your thoughts?

They haven’t resorted to tanking, but you can tell that there is absolutely NO chemistry out there on the floor. Everyone’s just going through the motions. There’s no ball movement and passing, which I blame partly for this crappy dribble drive offense. Nets weren’t making ANY of their inside shots and got frustrated and started hoisting away. Meanwhile we got diced up on defense from every angle, leaving shot makers alone to drain an easy one. You can see what everyone’s feeling on the bench, everyone in their own little world, no one talking to one another. Now granted every team has an off night, but ours was yesterday! I know the NBA is a business, but it’s still a game, and the coach holds the most central position in preparing and motivating his team to utilize the best of their abilities. This has been a sad disappointing season, and if not being prepared, not executing, no energy, and losing badly through this losing streak doesn’t get LF fired? Consider rooting for another team bc an LF team isn’t going anywhere near the post season.

@ Paul
I think Eddie Jordan should be considered, he’s worked with the Nets before and I think he’d be excellent in reigning in his players bc he did it with 3 stars in AJ, CB, and agent 0. But one thing’s for sure, for this team to truly move on, the coach needs to go.

Let the ROOKIES play and develop a rhythm. At least they played with energy. Our vets seem indifferent.

I have honestly being holding back but I finally have to say it fire frank. How about former net assistant Eddie Jordan or current nets analyst mike fratello. My ultimate choice for this young team would be a quasi-father figure like hubie brown but i don’t think he wants to coach anymore. How about lastly Tom Thibodeau I don’t know about the last one being a defensive coach for this team but the other ones are decent suggestions who have coached before.
Feedback please

Paul Erstein you’re right about Jackson not having and coaching experience but I think he’d do a good job. IDK, dats my opinion tho. But theres plenty better options out there.
Eddie Jordan and Mo Cheeks are two I’d bet would do a better job than Frank.

Fire Frank!!!

It’s offical the season and (hopefully) LFrank are DONE.

I don’t think Fratello is going back to a coaching career.

I really like the Eddie Jordan idea.

I’m not at ALL a huge fan of the Mo Cheeks idea.

Why does no one mention Van Gundy? How about Gundy has head coach and Mark Jackson as the assistant coach. Patrick Ewing as the third head coach and assistant to Brook.

Here is my starting lineup for the rest of the season

Devin Harris-PG
Maurice Ager-SG
Chris Douglas Roberts-SF
Ryan Anderson-PF
Brook Lopez-C

when we trade carter we need to acquire and sg that can give us at least 15-18 points per game and a quality bench player, no i didnt forget about cdr im hoping next yr or the yr after is his breakout yr but this offseason is crucial. our pg and center spots are practically perfect, boon/yi/williams/anderson rotation gotta be fgured out anderson wont be ready to start next year but can give u a solid 20 min, hopefully boon with a good summer can play like he was playing early this season(before injury)…ut williams in the vince deal lmfao or let him go yi? i think u keep him cause he’s bringing in revenue but uuntill he proves otherwise he should average 10-15 a game. O and most importantly, let devin know that things have changed. lopez is the focus of the offence and dribble drive will not be used on ever possession but 1/3 of the time. im still undecided about weher frank should be fired…we met expectations with harris and lopez having brakout years..

i was honestly expecting frank to get fired this morning after last night’s pathetic effort and game. the nets have now lost to all the bad teams of the league—blown out by some. it’s ridiculous.

after tonight’s game, the announcement that frank is gone better come tomorrow.

I blame Vince Carter 9 points what I joke isnt he supposed to be an all star you guys complained he wasnt this year. The guy just cant cut it he doesnt want to make the playoffs he wants to pick up his pay check and relax and get a month off from everyone else. Vince keep smiling just keep smiling…

@randy
i would argue with you but after the performance vince just gavem you seem like an old wise man
hopefully he lays better next game though next game is irrelevant asis the rest of the nets game

i dont think their gonna fire frank——yet

I’ve been pro Frank for years and but there needs to be a change now. Although I didn’t think they would make the playoffs but there really is NO excuse for this crappy,almost last in the league, highschool defense. Frank was supposed to be a defensive coach. Say whaaaat?!
I still have high hopes for Yi, the guy has skills, he just hit the wall. The Nets wanted Eddie Jordan before they offered Frank the job, maybe it’s time to revisited that.

you can not pin this on VC. he has played his heart out all year while being a constant coach/mentor to the younger guys. even tonight he was playing hard when he was getting PT early in the game.

I do think frank is gone – but not until after the season. It makes no sense to fire him at this point. There are only a handful of games left – and if anything more games like this will give us a better draft pick. Watching tonight, I honestly don’t thnk that DH is healed and probably should not be playing. I left at halftime so if he played better in the 2nd half I chose to watch Jack Bauer instead.

I’m just rooting for the draft lottery now – as I really don’t think this team will win another game for the rest of the year – and i hope they don’t. I want the draft pick. We need a powerful 4 (aka Blake Griffin) and if we keep losing our odds increase.

I’m not sure what all you guys are ravin’ about with nearly drooling at the idea of Lopez being the focal point of our offense.

80% of the time when the kid gets the ball he can’t score. He either gets stuffed out of his mind or there’s a jumpball. A bunch of times he throws up a wild layup or misses the easy layup. He is a decent rebounder, but he is NOT a good post player, YET. Every game or so against horrible defensive teams like the Knicks, Brook will score 20 points and grab 10 boards. But for most of the season, Brook has been a 10 or 11 point, 8 or 9 rebound-per-game player. He’s not a superstar yet, folks…

Get Ewing in here next season to help the kid out. Until then, find some good shooters for Harris to kick out to. Simmons and Hayes are awful. Yi is awful. Brook is awful in the post, and Harris takes too many wild shots. VC is also guilty of taking too many wild shots.

Lawrence Frank before the game:

“Alright everyone…Just go out there, run around, drive if you feel like, shoot if you feel like…I don’t really care.”

The opposing team defense embarasses us every game out there…they just completely swarm us and it’s an absolute struggle just to make a few consistent dribbles or an easy bounce pass. Every shot is low-percentage.

The team is bad. And when your team is bad, you don’t need a bad 5-3" coach who has never touched a basketball in his life.

Bring in the big boys from New York:

JEFF VAN GUNDY – head coach
MARK JACKSON – assistant coach
PATRICK EWING – assistant coach/Brook’s assistant

YES just showed final schedule. Aside from NY, Philly and Charlotte – there are no winnable games left on the schedule for this team.

And if anyone caught that DH interview – clearly he is not the guy to get all p*ssed off and start throwing stuff around the locker room. The young guys are too young (Brook) and Sean is not playing so he can not flip out on guys. This team desperately needs a tough no nonsense type of guy who will keep this team in check. I think Brook could develop into that type of player – but if not – this team will continue to underwhelm without that type of “voice” in the locker room.

I am sorry if I offended you but this can be good hopefully we get a good draft pick and trade that for a decent player. Trade Yi and Vince for a great player that can work well with Devin Harris and Lopez. And get a new coach but we need a new leader Devin Harris can help us. And why do we have Mo Agur if we dont use him we should get a new player so we have some space to get someone Frank will play.

let’s just start a thread about who are we picking in draft. btw I like van gundy too but eddie jordan sounds better, and van gundy and m jackson? that will be chaos!!

1. i 100% agree with what randy is saying he doesnt REALLY wanna be in the playoffs he doesnt have an edge at all, i think he just wants that paycheck. TRADE HIM.
2.The sad party about this game is we coulda lost by 45-50 if guys like villanueva and bell hit shots they usually hit, they were both off tonight. But yea probably the most e,barressing loss ive witnessed in anysport in my life. they just had no effort idk wat to say anymore

part*

At least this time and management has the foresight to tank it. Remember last year we played tough until the end and just barely finished ahead of Chicago who one spot behind us got the # 1 pick. If we win the majority of games left we get the 13th or 14th pick in the draft. If we tank it it will be 8 thru 10…huge difference! Go Frank! Run us into the ground! Let’s get a top 10 pick, a real coach, a trade, a free agent, and be a real playoff team next year, not one that just makes an appearance.!

2009 draft here we come.. I hope we lose all our next games so we can move up in the draft

yes Net Income please start a thread at the very top of the web page that is always at the top – that only focuses on the draft. That is clearly what we need to think/focus on from April 1 until the night of the draft.

Thanks Derek and Alex I am glad we finally have people that relize that our intelligents are being insulted every year. We want our team to do well but Vince knows he cant win the championship and just wants the season to end as fast as possible. We dont need to take his lieing and stealing of our time and money anymore. We have to speak out and show Vince we caught on to him.

You know I don’t think the NETS want a high draft pick because. 1) because of all the money there losing 2) Because they probably don’t want to pay them…

I think I speak for more then 90% of the fans when I say we’ll just accept a coaching change at this point…

RJ was the point differential, praying for next year

Nothing worse than seeing this team lose in the worst stadium with the worst PA announcer. God, it’s such a snooze in there.

I have seen a lot of NBA games this year…Nets and non-Nets.

This had to be probably the worst game of the 2008-09 NBA season. Terrible.

It is time to Fire Frank and hire a new coach…here are some options:

- Eddie Jordan like many have mentioned
- Jeff Van Gundy
- Tom Thibodeau
- Mike Fratello
- Brian Hill
- P.J. Carlesimo
- Mark Jackson
- Flip Saunders

My personal recommendations are the first 3 guys I have listed. I think Eddie Jordan is the perfect fit for the nucleus of players we have. JVG and Thibodeau bring the defensive schemes that this team SEVERELY lacks.

Overall…the loss is not as upsetting as the effort…give the fans SOMETHING to cheer for…anything. Just terrible!

P.S. Randy…I know you hate VC. If you take VC out of this team…the Nets wouldn’t even breathe near 15 wins…let alone 30. If you surround trash around VC then what you get is 30-44.

VC is not the one to blame.

@ Sharj – I agree… VC is not the problem…

Vince Carter sucks. Great Leadership.

Lawrence…way to get the team up for this one.

What a disgrace!

Sharj I take what you say into thought but there is no monivation on the team from the leader. Vince hasn’t dont anything since coming to the nets it just seems like to me he wants the paycheck he doesnt want playoffs. I know how good Vince Carter can be and in the last 2 years have you seen out of Vince Carter what you want to. I dont see him playing with heart it just seems like he smiles. Look at when other teams get a dunk or get fouled they go crazy because of the love for the game. Vince gets a fouled called on him and he smiles and laughs…. I mean come on is that the way your gonna act? Vince isnt getting us anywhere and I am not saying dump Vince I am saying trade him for someone that can help us reach high.

The only bright spot was CDR. Too bad he has to share the floor with d-leaguers like Boone, Swill and Yi.

I think he has a chance to turn into a Kevin Martin type, even his jumper is improving.

I like coach Frank but he is in a world of trouble. I didn’t like what he did with the rotation. also how he handle the young players not name lopez or harris.

Frank is terrible and should be fired. He’s a classy guy so I don’t like to bash him, but he is not someone that can motivate his team. He is in over his head. I think the Nets have underachieved just about every year he has been coach. I thought this year was the exception but they have really fallen off now. Vince is no superstar. I can’t believe how some people still consider him to be a superstar. Its not that he is terrible or bad attitude, you just never know what you are going to get from him from game to game. Because the head coach commands no respect, the players look to Vince to set the tone, like they used to look to Kidd to set the tone. But Vince brings no edge, he cares to a point, but is not dedicated to what it takes to win consistently. The Nets have no defensive intensity, because Vince has no defensive intensity and the coach does not have the leadership to instill that intensity in them. The Nets, my friends, are a train wreck.

Yes, sharj. lol

Just be patient guys.

With a core of Yisational, Boone, Swat, Simmons and Hayes, this team is going DEEP into the playoffs next season.

Just watch.

@chris2

I don’t think they can trade VC unless they give him up for a whole bunch of bench players. I don’t think they will fired Frank because Thorn just loves the guy for some reason. I can’t find one though. Maybe 33 wins at the end of the season, I don’t know how is that overachieve.

went to the game…i left after the 3rd like most did. they gave up. fans weren’t too bad. team didn’t want to play and rj embarrased them. they’re all to blame… from top to bottom.. glad i only paid for parking…

If I had my choice of a head coach I would love to reach out to “Rudy Tomjanovich” I always been a fan of his coaching.

its sad that we have gotten WORSE as the year has gone on.

we have a lot to do this summer and with the economy, ratner’s losses and brooklyn STILL in question i doubt we make any big improvements.

which leads to the question, why renew season tickets? next year will be a repeat of this year with frank and the crew unless big changes happen. VC needs to go. if the rockets will do vc-for-tmac we should be so happy. we need guys who will attack the rim, guys who are athletic, have attitude and are tough.

im actually surprised we didnt have MORE performances like this all year which i guess was a plus. we started out well and boy have we hit rock bottom.

but really, getting a better draft pick is the best for this franchise since we cannot make the playoffs. or we can fight for “pride” and take a risk of what happened last year with the bulls getting #1.

its just sad that we show no fire or heart or passion or emotion when playing at home against a bucks team or against a crap team like the wolves. well i guess those teams are saying they should be beating a crap team like us…and they did

PLAY CDR…more.

frank has never been a motivator. frank is a teacher. he is an X’s and O’s guy and is very intelligent. im sure he would be a very solid college coach, but he has to learn how to improve himself if he wants to really excell and get a team to be a title contending team in the nba. he just does not inspire you. even at lunch meetings ive had with him. he has his catch phrases and he knows what he is talking about, but it doesnt motivate anyone. he needs to hang out with obama or something

I think Yi played the 3 tonight and at the end of the game Opie went big. Swat, Anderson and Yi up front. In the final minutes Yi drove hard to the hoop and drew a foul, contested a shot underneath and I think drew another foul at the rim or had a tip in. Bottom line was he was doing things that will make him better and he showed confidence. I was very encouraged. As a Nets fan this is about as low as its been in a few years but hopefully Opie saw something at the end of the game. It was great to see Swat. Even if the Nets don’t want him, why not play him to just increase his trade value.

saw someone post this on another site.. interesting take..

Posted by Jackhoops on 03/30/09 at 11:00PM

Dismal! Last few weeks, even though they were losing, the Nets hustled and played well as a team against some of the best in the NBA. Then Harris returned – and the teamwork and the hustle fell apart. No surprise. His dribble-dribble-drive (and often lose the ball) style takes the air and the spirit out of the team offense and it carries over to defense. He had three – THREE – assists tonight and he again effectively marginalized Carter. And Harris’ defense is terrible.
Harris is fast and sometimes a capable shooter, but at the moment he does not do the job as an effective point guard and makes nobody better on the team. Perhaps that is why he was let go to the Nets. Sure, we need a burly rebounder most of all, but the point guard issue must be addressed. I would hope that Harris can improve, but if not, let him go!

@ xcalibur

guys who attack the rim and are tough – and tmac is the best person you could come up with? do you realize this guy is basically set to retire?

The Rockets were looking to pull one on us before the deadline, T-mac’s been playing pretty much the last couple of years with missing cartilage in his knee. Thanks to some misdiagnosis’ poor treatment from their medical/training staff, and because of T-mac’s tendency to rush back, he is seriously contemplating retirement.

But I’m here to post the big news in case some of you haven’t heard, Mike Fratello just announced he’s looking to coach again, and is just waiting for a team to give him a call! Any coincidence that he broadcasts Nets game and just made this statement after 2 embarrassing losses? From watching Net’s telecasts, the Czar doesn’t ever seem surprised and does a wonderful job of dissecting a play when he’s not talking about whatever with Marv. He did some serious damage in the West with a weak team in the Grizzlies so it bodes well with what he can do with more talent at his disposal. Also, he loves running post up plays ala Gasol.

Chris 2 – without repeating what you said at 11:01 pm – let me just say that you were just about 100 percent on the money with your comments…

I’m not sure if I would call Frank classy, but every other point you brought up was correct.

NateDD -

I had not heard the news about Fratello if that is true, I would make him my # 2 choice behind Jeff Van Gundy – who the Nets should have called 5 years ago when Kidd was still here and we had a real chance of winning an NBA Title!!!

In my opinion Vince did all he could with this team and stepped up time and time again. No blame on him from me.

One good thing about all of this should be the exit of Frank. Mark Jackson for new coach!

The day the Nets, in their current financial state, fire Frank, eat the balance of his contract, and hire a high-cost, high-profile coach like Van Gundy, is the day pigs fly. We’re stuck with Yi and Frank. Proud franchise, striving for the best! Why do we care so much again? This team has one hand tied behind its back. Spend money, show commitment to winning, and I’ll be impressed.

Kiki, are the lights on??? Could the Nets have done anything worse/less impressive than what they’ve done the last two days? Are we being played for fools? Is this product acceptable to you?

It’s funny how people are blaming Frank yet again. Frank can’t go out there and give these guys hearts. They’re a bunch of players getting paid millions, who were in the playoff race until these latest games. If that can’t get them motivated, I don’t know what can. It’s their responsibility to play with passion and heart.

Quit always looking for a scapegoat. These PLAYERS played horribly.

The Nets played better overall when Devin was out with injury. I am not knocking Devin’s skills, but as a point guard who engages others and contributes to a TEAM effort, Devin’s just not that player. His unilateral decisions with the ball have contributed to losses.

Aside: During the post-game media interviews, I would like Devin or Vince to explain their individual responsibility for the loss. It seems cowardly that they respond as “we” and speak for the team instead.

I think Yi plays better when he comes off the bench! he’s scored double digits since coming off the bench. :P

screw this season, this is some kind of joke, get a high draft pick and sign marvin williams

@ Randy

“I blame Vince Carter”

No… really? What a surprise!
Of course you will. As you always do. I mean, you even blamed him when he dropped 36 pts (w/ great shooting %) and 8rbs on the TWolves! How in the world wouldnt you blame him for last night game!

Lol, you even needed to make up your “facrst” to bash on VC after that game in Minnesota… how wast that? Oh yeah, you said he scored nearly 30 pts (when he scored 36) taking nearly 30 shots (when he took 23, and made 60% of them)… I think thats being “wise” or “rational”, huh?

I dont think no one could really convince you Carter wasnt behind Kennedys assassination.

Im not saying you dont have the right to criticize him when he plays bad… but your opinion would have more credibility to me if you criticed him fairly when he does bad (which certainly wasnt the case when they lost against the wolves) and if you gave him his due when he does well (which you obviously wont never do).

Anyways, its funny to see how some people who didnt show up when the team was exceeding expectations early in the season appear now to bash on VC when they (as should have been expected) drop.

But I guess thats what you call being a “true Nets fan”. From what some of you have being seeing, I think I could say these are the points of the perfect TRUE NETS FAN manual:

1) Hate on the guy who, as D’Alessandro said, saved “the franchise from the gutter in ’04” (whether you want to admit it or not).

2) Think that he costed us several championships, in fact, when we landed him the Nets were on their way to the Finals again, yeah. Had we kept JKidd and RJ, we would win the championship this year.

3) Keep kissing Kidds ass after he quit on us while bashing on a guy who, being a 32 HoFer w/ no ring didnt complain about sticking w/ a rebuilding team just to help them to enable to speed up their rebuilding process and help those kids to develop.

What a great and grateful fan base. And you guys wonder why Ratner wants to get this team out of Jersey. Moving it to Brooklyn is the absolute best thing could happen to this franchise.

@ xcalibur

“VC needs to go. if the rockets will do vc-for-tmac we should be so happy. we need guys who will attack the rim, guys who are athletic, have attitude and are tough.”

Yeah, thats the perfect definition of TMac. A guy who played 35 games this season, averaging 15ppg on 38% shooting, and making $22 millons a year. Not to mention he would quit on a rebuilding team the same way he quit on the Magic (TMac himself admitted). You guys complain about VC and want TMac on this team. Cant wait to see him in a Nets uniform.

Amen to andres. I couldn’t have wrote that any better.
These Vc bashers need to give it a rest and recognize what he really is. They just need an escape goat.

Blame these season on Frank, and on Thorn for not firing him and letting Hill take over.

After watching the 1st qtr of this game, I’m thinking – is it Groundhog Day? Didn’t we just see the same “no effort” game on Sunday? No, this was worse. I guess we have officially given up. I have now joined all of you “fire Frank” people. I think Eddie Jordan would be great!

VC is one of those guys that never seems able to back up his talk. He talks about effort but instead of driving he settles for jumpshots.

KD’s game has plummeted since DH came back. I wonder if there is some tension going on there.

But, frankly, no pun intended, this kind of performance is what I expected at the start of the season. I thought this was a 15-67 team personnel-wise. And once teams figured out to shut down the lane on DH, this team has lost 2 of every 3 games it’s played.

I know it’s contrarian thinking and it’s no disrespect to DH but I don’t see this team going deep into the playoffs with him as PG, because his game depends on getting to the rim and he is too slight to do that 100 games in a row. We see how he gets beat up in the regular season and in the playoffs the fouls are just going to be harder. They should trade him this offseason while his value is high. There are going to be some decent PGs in the draft and KD has shown he can deliver good results. KD is a better defender.

L-O-L

the one game I attend in person this season.
what happened to their teamwork?
they just ran around throwing up halfhearted shots.
at least I got a nice Lopez T-shirt.

I’d rather keep Carter instead of trading him for that woman Tracy McGrady.

We need to get a real coach in here that knows how to motivate, install and execute an offensive system that maximizes the talents of his players, has a concept of how to get his team to play defense…hell we just need someone in here who knows what he’s doing!!! Because Frank has been lost for the past year

Its funny to see this though, when the Nets lose, Frank apologists solely want to blame the players, clearly ignoring the ineptitude of the coach, yet, when the Nets win and overachieve, all praise should go to Frank…GTHOH with that nonsense.

I hope next season we have a new offense, I think we should still utilize Harris’ scoring abilities but Frank has obviously given him too much leeway and whoever said he takes the air out of the team with the dribble drive is correct. The Nets need to get back to playing as a team, the formula that was used when we got to back to back finals…all of this stand around and watch this guy or that guy shoot has to stop and that starts with the removal of Lawrence Frank and his entire coaching staff. Get a legitimate big man coach over the summer to mentor Lopez, Yi, and Sean Williams(hopefully the Nets keep this kid, maybe a coaching change will also do him some good).

Lost in last night’s debacle, I saw a lot of positive things from Yi and CDR last night. Especially CDR, I love his style of play, the guy gets better with each outing and its a disgrace that he hasn’t played more. He should start from here on out imo, at least he gives a damn and is competitive. I like Yi coming off the bench, it seems that with less pressure and not having to go head up against opponent’s first team front lines is doing wonders for his confidence.

Like Andres said!

@ JT: I went to that awful game (and most of the rest of them), BUT I DIDN’T GET THE LOPEZ T-SHIRT!

wow the nets really suck. it’s like the players weren’t even trying. At the end of last year’s eason lawrence frank said that the nets would make the playoffs this year. Look at them now. I think he’s a terrible coach. I don’t think i’m gonna tune in to Yes network to watch the nets anymore this season. Rob thorn and Kiki got a lot of work to do this off season.

We were better w/o Harris..