Funny how a drum of ping pong balls can determine a franchise’s destiny for a generation.

There’s really no point in projecting whether we can get LeBron or not. One expert will say we have a really good chance, another expert will say we have an unclear chance on the same criteria as the other guy. If we win the lottery, absolutely nothing else could happen and we would still be big winners. But that’s a big if.

@BigThom
Happens all the time.

@Big Tom
You see how when we had the number one pick and got to the Finals in back to back years what it did for us. By the way how many teams in NBA history made it to back to back Finals and lost both times?

This obsession with acquiring LeBron is unhealthy. 29 teams will somehow play without him on their team. The Nets sure could use him but they could also use other players also.

This notion that if we don’t get the #1 overall pick, somehow we are doomed, is ridiculous.

We should be able to put a decent team together with a good draft pick and some quality free agents. Maybe throw in a trade with our surplus draft picks.

I’m excited with the Nets future, with Wall and LeBron or without them.

Lets go Nets.

John Wall is 100% the key to getting Lebron. Lebron goes to Kentucky games and sits courtside on his off days. If we get the top pick (John Wall), combined with Jay-Z, a new rich owner, Newark-Brooklyn, and a young core of Wall, Brook, Lee, Harris, TWill and CDR – and the only NBA team with a better chance at Lebron is Cleveland.

Totally off topic though – last night the Knicks had a ceremony to celebrate their 1970 NBA championship team. Quoting Howard Beck (NY Knicks beat writer) from the Times – “As the ceremony unfolded, only one current Knick came out to watch – David Lee, who sat against the scorer’s table near midcourt.”

Forget about Lee’s numbers, forget about his strengths as a rebounder, forget about his improved jumper, his athleticism, his ability to fill our biggest position of need this summer…..that says more about his character and his potential value to this team than anything else can. This guy is a high character veteran – a guy picked 30th in the draft who has worked hard to become an All-Star, a near max type player. While the rest of the Knicks hung out in the locker room listening to their Ipods, Lee sat at midcourt to watch tributes of a winning team. Aside from Lebron, Lee should be our other target this offseason. Veteran leadership has been severely lacking – a guy like David Lee will instantly bring that leadership, high character and a bona fide All-Star presence next to Brook in the front court. The Nets MUST target him, forget about Bosh, forget about Boozer, go after Lee. The intangibles matter as much as the tangibles when trying to build a winning team.

@Ryan243;

  I agree 100% with your opinion of David Lee. We will have to overpay him but we will probably have to overpay any 2nd tier FA. We need hard working players, talent will only get you so far. Lee can play PF for my team any day.

Unless David Lee loves the Knicks so much, where he will play for less money, the Knicks will have to pay thru the nose to keep him. The Nets should stick it to the Knicks and make them pay thru the nose. Less Knick money to pursue other FA’s is a plus for the Nets.

The Nets are still the only team with enough ammo to get Lebron.
Young players, cap space, and draft picks will get Lebron to NJ.
The Nets could get him in a sign and trade or give him a shorter deal without the sign and trade.
No other team has as many pieces as the Nets

@djheavyduty
It is interesting to note that even after all those draft choices were flipped at the deadline, the Nets still have more than anyone else over the next three years: 10 – five firsts and five seconds. Not only that, but only one of those first round picks is protected, the Warrior pick in 2012, and 1 through 7 protection qualifies as light protection.

What you want in rebuilding is flexibility and the Nets still have that. What they don’t yet have are an owner, a GM or coach yet determined for next year.

There is almost no chance he resigns with the Knicks. For the Knicks to actually realize their available cap space – they are going to have to renounce rights to all free agents on their team. This means they will lose Lee’s bird rights and will not have the right to match any offer.

The Knicks have been very clear in their plans – they are going to go after Lebron, Bosh and maybe Joe Johnson in that order. So their cap space is going to be tied up for at least the first week of free agency while they try and make offers to these guys.

How this plays to the Nets advantage – make an offer to David Lee on Day 1 of free agency. At that point, very few teams are going to look to counter offer him, and there is a chance to steal him away for less money than if you wait 2 or 3 weeks. Seems counterintuitive because typically the longer you wait, the more contract dollars drop. This year is the reverse though, as plenty of teams have sold their fan base on freeing up cap space for this summer to make a big splash in free agency. Once they are rebuffed by the first tier, they are going to have to overpay 2nd tier and 3rd tier and 4th tier free agents. This works very well for the Nets.

Considering the relationship between Jay-Z and Lebron, the Nets should know exactly what he is going to do on midnight July 1st. This is a big benefit for the Nets – as they are not going to be guided by false hope and waste a couple weeks tying up cap space for the hope of landing Lebron – which is exactly what will happen to the other big cap teams.

We can also front load a contract to Lee with first year immediately paid up front – as further enticement and yet another benefit to keep teams from trying to counteroffer.

Yeah no Wall, no LeBron. Period.

I would be very happy with our team if entering next season, we have preserved cap space, retained future draft picks and add 3 top 31 picks in this years draft and David Lee.

Chances are we will either add a good young wing or guard with our first pick, 2 quality rotation players with our next 2 picks and cement our front line with David Lee and Brook Lopez for the future.

And in 2011 make a run at Carmelo (or even Lebron).

I agree with Ryan243’s above post also regarding Lee. I think we can get him, and he’d be a great adition alongside BLo. Plus we can stick it to the Knicks.

I don’t think we need Wall. Whether or not we get the #1 pick isn’t important. We’re guaranteed to be in the top 4. I say use it as a chip in a trade. DHarris at full health, combined with BLo, David Lee, C. Lee and, say, Rudy Gay, Joe Johnson or another marquee SF thru a trade gives us a great shot to compete in the postseason, while maintaining our youth, which will serve us well in later years. Wishful thinking maybe, but that’s what we as Netsfans have done for decades!

Also – I fully expect Lebron, Bosh, etc to really make a show of being recruited by all these teams, which will further drag out the process – even if they fully intend on resigning with their current teams.

Let’s see..

1. Win Lottery, draft Wall
2. Sign LBJ
3. Sign D.Lee
4. Trade Harris and pieces (CDR, Cash, Future pick) to Memphis for a resigned R.Gay

Wall / #2
R.Gay / C.Lee
LBJ / T.Williams
D.Lee / Yi
Lopez / DAL #1

Title contender for the next 6 years

This whole obsession with Lebron is ridiculous, I imagine it’s an incredibly small chance he ends up leaving Cleveland. Teams shouldn’t even be considering the possibility when they’re mapping out their long-term goals/plans, they should be focusing on more realistic routes.

Also yeah it seems like too much is being made of John Walls impact on this franchise when the chance we actually land him is pretty small, because of the ridiculous lottery system.

@Gina; “because of the ridiculous lottery system”

 The lottery system is a fair one, otherwise teams would be dumping/tanking so much the league would become a joke.

Sure the Nets deserve the #1 overall pick but you have to keep the integrity of the league first and foremost.

Some people even think the Nets are tanking this season, by design, to try to get the best shot at the #1.

1. picks are great if you make the right pick. Look At Oden and Durant for example.

I don’t believe lebron would leave cleveland to play with wall it just doesn’t sound right and if they win a championship this year he’s definitely not coming here. This lebron talk is just hype I’m tired of it.

I believe the Nets have a shot at LeBron and Wall but I’m not betting the “ranch” or my “heart” on it.

Proky will be paying his people millions of dollars to come up with all the different scenarios that can be played out, in the months ahead.

To have just one master plan is moronic.

I believe Cleveland made a mistake in trading for Jamison, a very good player but one who is getting up there in age, has never been a significant difference maker, and who is tied up long term to big bucks. The Cavs were a minor offseason move away from being able to recruit a true star to play alongside Lebron, as it stands now, the team is pretty much locked into its current nucleous for the next few seasons. It seems like a big risk to me, because if Cleveland falters in the playoffs, Lebron may feel like he has to go elsewhere to garner the number of rings he feels he needs in order to go down as best of all time.

if i was lebron i would love to go to the nets. if he comes and turns the team around everyone would say that he’s better than kobe and he can prove if he’s the best player in the nba.
to b the best you have to take on the most difficult challenges and beat them.

Another example of how a draft can work out.

In the 1984 draft, the Portland Trailblazers drafted Sam Bowie with the second overall pick. The first pick was Akeem Olajuwon. The third pick was Michael Jordan.

Of course Akeem was a great player but Jordan of course was greater. Sam Bowie was also a great player but injuries did him in.

In other words, you can never know what will happen.

Signing Joe Johnson would be a big mistake. Whoever signs him will be regretting it for the last 3 years of his deal. And I bet that ends up being the Knicks. You can’t remake your franchise or your culture thru free agency. Rarely do free agent signings pan out. Smart drafting and a few good trades are what builds a team.

While Lee is not the glamorous signing – he fits our biggest area of need and is still a young player who has continually gotten better each year. Adding him to our core is an opportunity to smartly improve thru free agency. And if we get Lebron great. If not we are still moving in right direction without sacrificing our future.

Funny thing is thats a lesson knicks management, ownership, fans and the NY media have failed repeatedly to learn. Even with 2 max free agents they will struggle to fill a starting five let alone a bench. And with no picks till 2013 they never will. That is precisely the type of management the Nets need to avoid.

@ryan234
I think Lebron’s interest in Wall is more about building is marketing business – he will not become a billionaire on salary alone. He wants a stable of young potentially hot basketball “brand names” on his label just like Jay-Z collects young hip-hop talent to build his label. Playing with Wall is not the issue, recruiting him for “team Lebron marketing” is the issue.

I agree 100% your comments on building a team and that this requires intangibles as much as tangibles if you want to win it all.

I am also starting to warm to the idea of Lee – as much for his ability to steal some fan base and attention from the Knicks as for his character and skills set. Still think we must get a “mean nasty put you on the floor send you into the stands every rebound is mine” power forward to play serious minutes.

@djheavyduty
Agree – only we have all the pieces. We can offer not only an immediate upside but the realistic prospect of long term success because of our rich owner, good young players (Brook) and picks. That is why I think we are getting a Lebron or Melo type player in 2010 or 2011(unless they win a championship and feel compelled to stay with their current team).

@Gina
I have enjoyed reading your posts – very well thought out comments. However, obsessing about Lebron is as good as it gets when we are 5-alot.

I also think we need a stud. You almost have to have a stud to win the title and we should be focused on greatness and titles not just getting better. That noted I think we have a few options for getting the necessary stud: Free Agents (Lebron or Melo being most likely), Draft (could be that Turner or Wall is this stud in 2-3 years), development (add the right pieces and Brook could be this guy in a couple of years – he is that good) or steal a stud (CP3 from a broke NO, etc.). The worst thing would be if we settle for better/good and go after a never ending always changing line of over the hill or second tier players = Dallas.

@Mike, the Oden pick was kind of just a dumb move when you consider teams new about his knee issues prior to the draft. That’s not really bad luck, just a dumb decision. But I disagree that teams would be tanking left and right, there’s too much money to be made by slipping into the play-offs, and it’s too easy to slip into the play-offs when half the teams in the league get in, for it to be worth it for a team with a legit play-off shot to tank for a gamble. The only teams that would be tanking are the ones who are likely still going to be tanking in the current system, the ones with little to no shot of making the play-offs but are trying to move from like the 11th-12th pick to top ten, or 7-9 to 4-5, which isn’t going to change lottery or not. And more than likely if multiple teams are bad enough for the #1 pick they’re each going to be tanking lottery pick or not.

Not to mention is the leagues credibility any less in question when a borderline play-off team, or a legit contender who suffers an unlucky injury to a star, can end up with the #1 pick?

Really, at least in my opinion, tanking is more a product of the ridiculous length of the NBA season, a league with as long a play-off schedule as the NBA has shouldn’t have 80 some games. Whether they tank or not it’s a joke when multiple teams have no shot of making the play-offs 40-50 games in and still have nearly half a season left. It’s also a joke when you have multiple sub .500 teams slipping into the play-offs, but that’s obviously a separate issue. If the leagues concerned enough with credibility to institute the lottery system you’d think they’d be trying to change those things too.

@ryan, the only reason I would consider signing Johnson is because this team has desperately needed a shooter for years. But you’re probably right if he signs a max deal, which even in the current system it’s questionable he’d be worth that and the CBA ends up lowering players salaries significantly it’s going to be an albatross contract.

The more I have thought of this offseason the more I think if Lebron is not doable my top target would be David Lee. I would then look to bring back Josh Boone for 3-4 years for about 1.5-2.5 million per year. He is a quality big man off the bench who can start when needed. Many will argue with this but the fact of a deep bench with quality big men can never be underestimated. And with teams chasing big name free agents this is a perfect summer to steal quality bench players for very attractive deals. I would also offer Joe Alexander a 1 or 2 year deal for vet minimum of about 1 million per. Looking to solidify your bench while other teams are looking to sign max guys and end up overpaying is smart business for the future.

The big issue a lot of teams are going to have is filling out a bench. Assuming that Lebron is staying put in Cleveland – why not use this summer to look to build depth on the bench in advance of Carmelo and CP3 becoming free agents in 2011.

We have some talented younger players, and will be getting 3 more come June. Focus on building depth on the bench – and it makes us that much more attractive in 2011. May not be sexy, but at least means we are moving in the right direction.

It’s hard to see the colon in that headline….

I agree, this obsession with Lebron is beyond ridiculous. Frankly I’m getting sick of hearing him mentioned constantly. The chances of him coming here are next to none, even if we get John Wall, the fact that he wants Wall to be apart of his company has nothing to do with what James will do with his basketball career and I’m sick of seeing sports writers trying to spin that as such because they have nothing else to talk about that’s worth a damn. James is on a team that is built to win now and will have capspace next season to add another solid player with Shaq coming off of the books. I’m sure he’s prepared to leave that to come running to a franchise that is in absolute disarray. Pffffft!!!!!!

David Lee. Rudy Gay. Those are realistic names to talk about.

Ryan243,

Building a bench to entice FA’s in 2011 sounds nice in theory, and that would probably net us 10-11 wins next season, but what makes you think that guys like Anthony and Paul would want to play for a team coming off of three back to back losing seasons? Actually, 4?

I’m sorry people, but this whole ‘lets plan our roster moves based on other team’s players’ mentality that is widespread through the Nets’ community is an absolute sucker bet. People really believed that Chris Bosh could have been a Net until he shut that nonsense down, what makes you think Anthony or Paul want to come to what has become a national joke?

You build through the draft, and acquire talent when it comes available. But you don’t make plans based on uncertainty. That is what the Knicks have done, and I think at the end of the day that will come back to cost them dearly when the Rockets lay claim to their draft picks.

The media leaves out the most likely option once again.
James exercises his option in June and takes the 17.2 million for next year and stays in Cleveland to wait things out.

He doesn’t care if his eventual multi-year contract is smaller. He is about Championships, which produces mega bucks.

James will do this all over again for real in 2011, when he can better evaluate who the best team is for him. Cleveland might even trade him at the 2011 trade deadline if a 2nd championship is not likely.

Why do you think Cleveland took Jamison instead of Amare? They did it because if Amare left, they would be screwed. With Jamison, they knew he was under contract and would have a pretty good surrounding team for 2011 (and 2012). If Cleveland gets 2 Championships from James, they know that is the best to expect.

Yes, LeBron likes Wall only as a Marketing tool. They don’t have to play together. The media is using this fact falsely to hype Wall, when Turner is a better player as James will find out.

@jerry25

I wouldn’t mind seeing Lebron do that. The only problem is that in 2011, the collective bargaining agreement is sure to be more strict than the current one. If Lebron wants to stay in Cleveland, he is better off getting a deal now under the current cba as it probably pays better than what we are most likely to see.

OTOH, if he has no intention of staying in Cleveland, it doesn’t matter what the cba is as the team he goes to will have to have money under the salary cap so it won’t matter if there is a hard cap or not.

Get Kobe Bryant to Newark

I’ve never been more excited for a season to end! Can we fast-forward to June?

He also liked Steph Curry doesn’t mean he’s going to Golden State.

@Newark Nets

Shaq is also going to be a free agent. All we need is Horry and Fox to come out of retirement and we’ll be set!!!

@Mr. Dollar Bill

No big name free agent is coming to “these” NETS. But “these” NETS have less then 30 games before they become “his” NETS as in our soon to be out of Vancouver and in control Russian gazillionaire.

Great rental home in Newark, soon to be iconic Brooklyn home, chance to define a franchise and not just be the next “fill in the blank”, mega-rich basketball loving world class CEO owner, NYC buzz, global marketing opportunities, asset rich team (quality picks including possible #1, young talent = Brook, more cap space and favorable contracts), new maybe pick your own coach,etc. This is what free agents will have to think about – not the last four years record.

@jerry25, I imagine they went after Jamison because the Suns asking price for Amare was apparently ridiculously high and they didn’t want to give up depth or Hickson.

Also I agree the most likely scenario is him picking up his option, I doubt he actually intends on ever leaving Cleveland, he just doesn’t want to sign a multi-year deal with them unless they can prove they’re willing, and capable, of consistently surrounding him with talent, something they’ve struggled to do until recently. As long as it’s possible for him to leave they’re going to have to stay on top of their game in trades and drafting and be willing to spend the money to surround him, I imagine he’d worry that if he signed a long-term extension they’d become more complacent.

Jay,

It sounds nice. But I’ll believe it when I see it(meaning, the miraculous turn around).

Well, I pretty much guarantee that we aren’t getting the #1 pick so don’t worry folks. How do I know this? Come on guys, we are Nets fans… what goes our way lately? Until the lottery, I’ll just continue appreciating Kevin Durant and his magnificent display of basketball skills and IQ.

LeBron stories are getting really, really old and there’s still 5+ months until free agency. The infatuation everybody seems to have with him is eventually going to drive me insane!

@The Legend
Agreed…

When will this story about claiming that Lebron James leavign the Cavs come to an end already? I highly doubt that he intends to leave and will probably spend his whole career with the Cavs. Even if he was to come to the Nets, it would have been because of what he is being offered be it move or no move, not because they end up somewhere like Brooklyn. He couldn’t care less where they will be playing in the near future. Keep in mind that players like him have a history of putting themselves up for auction and then going for the highest bidder, which will make it impossible for teams that are being thrifty to get them.

draft lottery day is going to be the biggest day in franchise history

next year if we get lebron,wall and a good free agent we can do damage in the playoffs,maybe even to the finals we have a lot of young good tlent.

lopez baaby the best center in the nba or will be in the next few years.

the nets will go to the finals in the next ten years i promis everyone this.