Every Sunday, we’ll be updating the Nets’ off-season with bits and pieces of information, gossip, etc. to help take the edge off missing the playoffs, relying on the Nets’ beat reporters and others who have slipped interesting stuff into larger stories and blogs.

Hova Time?

Some time early Tuesday evening, as fans of the Pistons and either the Celtics or Cavs are thinking of only one thing—the Eastern Conference Finals—fans of 14 other teams will be glued to their screens to see who gets those three top picks in the 2008 NBA Draft.

We’ve already discussed how it all works The Nets chances of getting one of those top three are indeed limited—1.1% to get the overall #1; 2.4% to get either #1 or #2; and 3.97% to get one of the top three.

One thing that remains a mystery is who will represent the Nets both in Conference Room 3A, where the ping pong balls actually rise and fall, and on the stage in the NBA TV studio. One good guess: Jay-Z is likely to be one of them. And why not? It’s hard to argue with the luck of a man who went from the Marcy Homes in Brooklyn to rap star, clothing magnate, NBA team owner and most importantly, husband of Beyonce’ Knowles!

The Nets, of course, have had the best luck of any NBA team since the new lottery rules were initiated in 1994, going from #7 to #1 in 2000 and picking Kenyon Martin. That night, owners Finn Wentworth and Lewis Katz were in the conference room and on stage. Hard to forget Katz’s boyish enthusiasm.

No matter how the ping pong balls fall, the lottery means the true beginning of the off-season. At that point, teams will begin serious jockeying. Every team will know its assets and by then, its on-court strengths and weaknesses. GM’s will try to move up in the draft, offering picks and/or players.

Last year, there were no trades at all in May (teams can start dealing once they stop playing) and the first trade didn’t take place til June 14, two weeks before the draft. In that fairly insignificant deal, Minnesota acquired Juwan Howard from Houston for Mike James and Justin Reed. Between then and the end of the month, 26 players changed hands, most of them draft picks and most on Draft Night. The biggest deal on Draft Night was Boston acquiring Ray Allen and draft rights to Glen Davis from Seattle in exchange for Wally Szczerbiak, Delonte West and draft rights to Jeff Green. That deal was followed by the Kevin Garnett blockbuster a week later.

Should the Nets get one of those top three picks to go along with Dallas’ pick at #21 (which won’t change) and their own second round pick at #40 (which also won’t change), they’ll be even more likely to make a deal involving a pick.

‘Melo or Marcus?

We have to agree with Peter Vecsey’s analysis of the ‘Melo trade rumors. Why would the Nuggets give up on Carmelo Anthony who turns 24 this week? Denver obviously has problems, with an inflated payroll (thanks to Kiki Vandeweghe’s giving more than $150 million in guaranteed contracts to Kenyon Martin and Nene), the need to re-sign key players like J.R. Smith to contracts that don’t make the situation worse, and questions about how to handle Allen Iverson’s player option, up next month. Iverson has hinted he would be willing to sign the kind of contract Vince Carter signed with the Nets: take a multi-million dollar cut in the first year of a new deal in return for long-term security.

The most likely scenario in Denver is a Marcus Camby trade. Camby, although 34 years old, is still one of the top defensive centers in the league. His contract (also a product of the Kiki era) is ideally suited for a trade. Unlike almost all other NBA contracts, Camby’s salary drops over the next two years. After making $11,250,000 this season, he will make the same next, then $10,900,000 in 2009-10. Contracts that expire in 2010 will also be at a premium. The question is will Camby still be playing at a premium two years from now. Camby did have career highs this season in games played, minutes, rebounds, blocks and assists. Would the Nets be interested? They have been in the past.

Where are those European sponsors?

Brett Yormark made a big deal about flying off to Europe to bring home sponsorships for the Nets’ new arena in Brooklyn. After all, the Nets got Barclays Bank to sign up for $400 million ($20 million a year over 20 years) last year and as Yormark said, Europeans “love” the architecture of Frank Gehry.

Yet, when the Nets announced their sponsorship deals, none were European. None in fact were new to the team. All have some history with the Nets. Maybe the team will wait til the Nets make their European tour in October to unveil them.

Speaking of Europe, the Nets will be represented at the pre-draft camp for European players, the Reebok Eurocamp 2008, which runs June 6-10 in Treviso, Italy, not far from Venice. Most of the top young European players will be on hand, depending on their teams’ playoff schedules.

NetsDaily Sleeper Draft Pick of the Week

Courtney Lee of Western Kentucky. A 6’5” swingman with a lot of skills and a mature personality, Lee is someone the Nets have scouted, sending chief scout Gregg Polinsky to Mobile, Alabama, in March to watch him play in the Sunbelt Tournament. Some draftniks are starting to take notice as well. Draft Express called him “the most natural player of the bunch” at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, run by David Thorpe, who is both a trainer and ESPN columnist.

Meanwhile, as we noted this week, draftniks in increasing numbers like LSU’s 6′11″ (and growing?) forward Anthony Randolph as the Nets pick (if they’re still at #10 by 8:30 p.m. Tuesday night). Video of Randolph hasn’t been that easy to find, but we did locate a link to a page featuring high school workout two years ago. He is more of a small forward, maybe even a point forward, than he is a post threat.

Final Note

Lawrence Frank was highly visible last Thursday, having lunch with season ticket holders at the Nets training facility in East Rutherford, then heading over to New York to serve as one of the headliners at the opening of their Barclays Center showroom. A quick look at the Getty Images file on the opening didn’t reveal any Nets players, which struck us as a bit odd. Carter is still on crutches, Nenad Krstic and Boki Nachbar are at home in Europe, but that still leaves more than 10 others. What’s Keith Van Horn doing?

With the Draft Lottery next Tuesday, we decided to take our first look at who the mock drafts think the Nets will take should they retain the #10 pick once the ping pong balls settle. The likelihood of the Nets staying at #10 is around 95%.

Surprisingly, there is a growing consensus among the mocks that Anthony Randolph, a 6′11″ forward, will be the Nets’ choice. Seven of the 21 mocks updated in the past 10 days put Randolph in the 10th spot, including those of ESPN, Inside Hoops and Hoopshype. DeAndre Jordan, Texas A&M’s seven-footer, is next with four, while Marreese Speights of Florida, Roy Hibbert of Georgetown and Robin Lopez of Stanford are listed on three. In general, the mocks’ authors for the most part think the Nets will go for a big man.

We were aided by DC Sports Report which has a regularly updated list 60 mocks, set up by major sports websites as well as bloggers. Some mocks go all the way the second round, some through the first and a couple just the lottery.

Here’s the list:

NBA Mock - Kevin Love, Roy Hibbert

Hoopsworld - Robin Lopez, Joe Alexander, Davon Jefferson

Betus - Anthony Randolph

ESPN - Anthony Randolph

Chad Ford’s Top 100 - DeAndre Jordan, Robin Lopez, Shan Foster

Inside Hoops - Anthony Randolph, Robin Lopez

mynbadraft - Anthony Randolph, Nicolas Batum

World Wide Athletics - DeAndre Jordan, Marreese Speights

College Hoops Update - Eric Gordon, J.J. Hickson

NBAdraft - Nicolas Batum, Kostas Koufos, Richard Hendrix

draftguru - Russell Westbrook, Roy Hibbert, Serge Ibaka

Fantasy World - Darrell Arthur

nepatriot draft - Robin Lopez, Jason Thompson

basketdraft - DeAndre Jordan, Mario Chalmers, Richard Roby

ownmyownteam - DeAndre Jordan, Roy Hibbert.

veganfishtacos - Danilo Gallinari, Alexis Ajinca.

collegehoops net - Anthony Randolph, Ty Lawson, Richard Hendrix

draftexpress - D.j. Augustin, Marreese Speights, D.J. White

the draft reivew - D.J Augustin, Joe Alexander, Ryan Anderson

nba-draft.com - Anthony Randolph, Chase Budinger

Hoopshype - Anthony Randolph, Marreese Speights

Every Sunday, we’ll be updating the Nets’ off-season with bits and pieces of information, gossip, etc. to help take the edge off missing the playoffs, relying on the Nets’ beat reporters and others who have slipped interesting stuff into larger stories and blogs.

Watch what they do, not what they say

There’s been a lot of attention paid to Rod Thorn and Kiki Vandeweghe’s recent comments to the media. Thorn said he would be “comfortable” if Richard Jefferson, Nenad Krstic, Devin Harris and Vince Carter were still Nets come October. Vandeweghe went even further, saying “we’d like to keep everybody”.

Is that what Nets’ fans want to hear after a 34-48 season and no playoffs for the first time in seven years? Hardly. But should anyone be surprised at their comments, considering the alternative–”we’re going to blow it up and no one is safe”–would have done little but drive down the value of the team’s biggest assets?

So rather than read what the Nets’ brass has been saying, pay closer attention to what they’ve been doing since February. Every move the team—that is, Thorn and Vandeweghe—has made in the past three and a half months has been driven by one goal: to give the team more flexibility this off-season: to get younger, to get more picks, to increase cap space, to open up roster spots. Some of what they did was evident at the time, some is only becoming evident now…and there may be other things out there we don’t yet know about.

Let’s take a look at what we know the Nets have done:

—Trade Jason Collins for Stromile Swift. Both players needed a change of scenery. The two big men are mirror images of one another: Collins the outgoing, cerebral, gravity-challenged team guy; Swift the quiet, BBIQ-deficient, sky walking highlight reel. The Nets didn’t save much, if any, money on the deal, with both players making about $6.2 million next season. What they did is leave open the possibility of picking up some salary cap relief. Swift has a player option, exercisable before June 30. It is unlikely he’ll opt out…unless some team (including the Nets?) offered him a multi-year deal with a reduced salary in the first year. There was no such flexibility with Collins. His contract is fully guaranteed.

—Trade Jason Kidd, Antoine Wright, and Malik Allen for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager, Keith Van Horn, two first round picks, $3 million in cash and, don’t forget, two trade exceptions.

Aside from the obvious benefits on the court, we can now see some less obvious ones off the court, and—again, they were all tuned towards this off-season and beyond.

1. Stabilize one of the key positions on the roster: point guard. Harris has a very manageable, five-year deal, starting at $7 million next season, escalating to $9.9 million in 2012-13, when he will be…29!

2. Put the Nets comfortably under the luxury tax threshold for the first time in three years. We don’t have the internal Nets’ numbers (although we would graciously accept any leaked us) so we’re going with what’s publicly available regarding the team’s salary situation. Here’s what we think it is: Even if you count Van Horn’s partially guaranteed salary ($3.75 million) and Krstic’s qualifying offer ($2.9 million), the Nets’ payroll amounts to $50.5 million for 11 players, about $20 million under next season’s projected tax threshold. The Nets will NOT keep Van Horn and all but his partial guarantee—unlikely to be more than $500,000—will disappear either in a trade or with his release. Even if you assume that Krstic will sign a contract with a $5 million starting salary and Nachbar and Diop put their signatures on contracts starting at $4 million, the total is still only $57 million and change for 12 players. Three draft picks would add another $4 million. That would still leave the Nets $9 million or so under the tax threshold. All of that assumes little or no change in the roster and that the Nets will be picking players at #10, #21, and #40, and that all three picks would sign contracts. (The Nets could get lucky in the lottery, combine picks to move up and/or take a Euro with one of the picks and stash him overseas.)

3. By staying below the threshold, the Nets brass can feel more comfortable in offering their MLE and LLE. The MLE should be around $5.5 million this season, which can be divided, and the LLE should be nearly $2 million. The Nets have used most of their MLE every year since Thorn joined the team but haven’t used their LLE since signing Ron Mercer in 2004. Dave D’Alessandro reported this week that the Nets have the “green light” from Bruce Ratner to use their exceptions. Remember teams that stay under the threshold save in two ways: they don’t pay the dollar-for-dollar luxury tax and after the season, they share in the tax pool, picking up about $2 to $3 million.

4. Speaking of exceptions, the Nets have a $3.3 million trade exceptions which doesn’t expire til next season’s trade deadline. Originally, the Nets said they had two…Thorn told the media in February there were two–“for Antoine we get one and for Keith”. Then the league office ruled there was one. Since exceptions can’t be combined, the ruling favors the Nets. One large exception is much better than two smaller ones. Thorn and Vandeweghe deliberately constructed the Kidd-Harris trade so that the team would get exceptions. Al Iannazzone had recently reported the Nets had two TE’s, each worth “at least $3 million”. Then on May 15, he wrote there was one and it’s worth $3.3 million. TE’s can’t be combined with a player, but they can be traded with a draft pick or draft rights in return for a player. They can also be used to pick up a player off waivers. (The rules permit a little wiggle room in deals. $100,000 can be added to the value of the TE to help make deals work.)

5. As discussed before, Van Horn’s contract was constructed as an expiring contract with limited salary protection. The contract, reportedly for $3.75 million next season, can be combined with other players or cash. Not to belabor the point, but you don’t do this kind of thing unless you want the freedom to make a deal.

—Market the draft picks. It’s becoming increasingly clear the Nets think of the picks not just as potential rookies, but as trade assets. Here’s what Vandeweghe had to say in comments that Al Iannazzone put up on his blog: “I guarantee you we’ll have calls,” Vandeweghe said. “Having two picks in the first round, I think you have some very good players potentially in this draft. You never know until a couple of years down the road, but I do like this draft. Our picks will be valuable. You’ll definitely get calls on them (emphasis added).

“There are a lot of things you can do. You view your draft picks as assets. You view them different ways, along with cap space, along with good young players, on good contracts - these are all assets you use to improve your team whether you use them in trades or to pick one of the good young players that are going to come into the league. Those are decisions that will be made as we get closer to the draft. There’s still a lot of time.”

Put your own house in order

If there is one theme running through the off-season so far, it’s the need for internal improvement, that is better development of younger players. Thorn and Vandeweghe have harped on it. Over the last two years, through the draft and trades, the Nets have gotten a lot younger. When Darrell Armstrong and Van Horn move on–and barring the pick up of some aging veterans–the Nets are likely to become one of the NBA’s youngest teams. Other than the 39-year-old Armstrong and the 32-year-old Van Horn, there is only one 30-something player on the team, Vince Carter who is 31. Six players on the current roster are 25 or younger: Harris, Krstic, Josh Boone, Ager and both Marcus Williams and Sean Williams. Add two or three picks–and perhaps a “fallen angel” or two, as Vandeweghe describes younger players looking for second chance, and it becomes readily apparent why development of younger players must be a team priority. (That age imbalance and the need to develop players you already have also suggests the Nets may not use all three of their picks.)

Thorn and Vandeweghe have tried to parcel out the blame for what they see as a team deficiency, noting it’s the responsibility of players as well as coaches. But with contracts of three assistant coaches up for renewal, expect some changes. On any NBA staff, the job of player development falls squarely in the assistants’ portfolio.

Diop Out?

At the time of the Kidd-Harris trade, the addition of Diop was viewed first as just another expiring contract for the Nets to take advantage of, then as the sleeper in the deal. We’ve since learned that the Nets “insisted” on Diop being included, as Mark Cuban told Dallas beat reporters. That’s a clear indication the Nets view him as something more than just an expiring contract. Since then, Thorn and Vandeweghe have repeatedly praised Diop and stated their hope something can be worked out so he remains a Net.

Now, in an interview with the Nets’ own website, Diop says he might want to return to the Mavs. It’s not that he doesn’t like it here…he’s “cool” with the players and the coach. He just liked Dallas.

The decision is likely to revolve around money. The Nets, as noted above, have some but other than Paul Allen of the Blazers and Stan Kroenke of the Nuggets, no owner has as much money to throw around as Cuban. The Mavs’ problem is that the collective bargaining agreement makes signing Diop more problematic for the Mavs than it does for the Nets. The Nets can spend as much as they like to keep Diop. Cuban can only use the MLE to bring Diop back, but if he did, it would hamstring him on other moves. Dallas is so far over the luxury tax, it’s barely visible from the Garden. If Cuban uses all or most of the MLE to sign Diop, he’ll have little money to rehab the Mavs roster in other ways this coming season. He’ll need to do something.

Moreover, Cuban wrote in his blog last week that he had made the trade in large part to save money down the road: “In doing a deal for JKidd, we created a situation where Devin, Mo Ager, Hass and what we would have paid Ghana would no longer be on our cap” (emphasis added). That sounds like someone relieved that he didn’t have to make a decision on how much to pay Diop. (In that same blog, he hints that the Mavs could be rebuilding in 2009-10, after Kidd’s contract goes away and the Mavs set aside cap space for the big 2010 free agent signing. That’s good for the Nets who hold his 2010 first round pick, not good for Kidd who wants an extension.)

Don’t expect the Mavs to be the Nets’ only competition for the 26-year-old Diop. Heat beat writer Chris Perkins thinks Diop would be a great addition to Miami, and many bloggers around the NBA think Diop should be near the top of their team’s wishlists.

Isn’t he Love-ly?

Over the next three weeks, the NBA draft picture will begin to clear considerably. On May 20, the ping pong balls will finally descend in Secaucus and the draft order will be set. Five days later, the top prospects will gather in Orlando for the NBA’s two-day pre-draft camp. Some like Kevin Love will only show up to be measured, from top-to-bottom, and side-to-side. Others will participate in drills and scrimmages, a veritable hoops meat market. Stars will be born, others will fall. True heights and weights will replace those on college roster sheets. Then, starting on May 28, players will begin showing up at NBA practice facilities for individual workouts. Vandeweghe, who will run the workouts, says he expects the Nets to bring in 30+ players for the Nets’ three picks. And Friday, we had our first report of who will be dropping by East Rutherford. Kevin Love of UCLA, who could be available at #10, has been contacted by the Nets and is likely to be among the earliest to show off his talents.

What goes on at the Nets’ individual workouts? Here’s how Daily News writer Filip Bondy described it in book, “Tip Off”:

“At these auditions, team officials would measure the players’ jumping ability from a standstill position and with a step; measure their lateral quickness; test their ball handling skills; put them through a variety of shooting drills; and, finally match them with other players in one-on-one and two-on-two (and this year, three-on-three) situations.”

With the lottery only a week away, most of the mock drafts are in a holding pattern, with little change…the same players are being touted as Net prospects: DeAndre Jordan of Texas A&M, Marreese Speights of Florida, Love, Robin Lopez of Stanford; Darrell Arthur of Kansas, etc. The only new addition to the mix is Texas point guard D.J. Augustin. Mock authors admit it’s early and team needs aren’t being considered.

(We played the ESPN Draft Lottery again this weekend and didn’t get lucky. Of the 25 times we hit the lottery button: the Nets selected 10th and took Jordan 15 times; they selected 10th and took Speights of Florida seven times and selected 10th and took Love twice. Of the 50 times we’ve tried it so far, the Nets have picked 10th 48 times, 11th once and 2nd once…just about what you’d expect.)

NetsDaily Draft Sleeper Pick of the Week

Greek Salad…one for the first round, one for the second…Kosta Koufos and Pat Calathes. Although both players are Americans and played at American universities–Koufos one year at Ohio State, Calathes four years at St. Joseph’s, both are eligible to play for the Greek National Team in international competition because of their Greek heritage.

In fact, Koufos did play for Greece…at the FIBA U18 European Championships in 2007, where he dominated. Koufos has a history of being underrated and overlooked. In high school, he averaged better than 25 points a game his last two years, being named the top player in Ohio. Then, he had the unenviable task of replacing Greg Oden in Columbus. Still, he had a solid year, going for 14 and 7 and winning MVP of the NIT, just eight months after winning MVP of the U18 European Championships.

Calathes was MVP of the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in April, showing his game may be better suited in the pros than at St. Joe’s. A 6′10″ point forward, Calathes was praised for his basketball IQ and leadership. Every year, an unheralded player emerges at Portsmouth and this year it was Calathes.

Big Week for Brooklyn

Thursday will be a big day on the Nets’ road to Brooklyn. Ratner, Jay-Z, Brett Yormark, architect Frank Gehry and no doubt a few players will be on hand for the unveiling of the Nets’ showroom on the 38th floor of the New York Times building, 50% owned by Ratner. Some 200 corporate executives will be feted as the team begins marketing Gehry’s 190 custom-designed luxury suites in the Barclay’s Center. At the same time, the Nets are expected to announce the names of new sponsors for the Center, many of them recruited by Yormark on his recent European trip.

Emergency Room

Carter has begun his rehab at the Nets’ practice facility. He remains on track to return for training camp. In August, Carter will be available to beat reporters during his Basketball Academy. Harris intends to spend time in Chicago rehabbing his ankles. How much time he will spend in New Jersey is unknown.

Final note

A knowledgeable poster reported last week that the Nets almost traded Kidd to Dallas in the summer of 2003, but Thorn “balked” at the last minute. In that deal, Kidd would have been sent south in return for Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison. Nash was in his contract year at the time.

Crain’s New York Business [subscription required]

Next week, the Nets will debut a prototype of their Frank Gehry-designed, $300,000-a-year Barclays Center corporate suites at a splashy party in their New York Times Building showroom.

To entice 185 of New York’s top CEOs to attend—and buy—the organization delivered a series of gifts over the past month, including a Tiffany key chain with a key, one of which will open a door to a free suite for the team’s inaugural season. The arena is set to open in Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards in 2010, if developer Bruce Ratner can clear all the legal hurdles in its path.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and rap star Jay-Z, a part-owner of the team, will be on hand for the May 15 event.

Already, 20% of the 130 luxury boxes have been sold to “friends and family,” says Nets Sports Entertainment CEO Brett Yormark.

So, why the full-court press? Mr.Yormark says corporate suites in the area will balloon to 950 from 350 as all the new stadiums come online, including ones for the Yankees, the Mets, and the Giants and Jets. “I can’t take anything for granted,” says the marketer, who will soon announce the advertisers buying rights to brand bars, corridors and other parts, of the arena.

Everyone knows that the Hawks are young and athletic…the Lakers and Sixers too. The Nuggets may not be as young, but they have a cast of great athletes.

Still, if you consult the CBS Sportsline Dunk-o-Meter, you might be surprised at who else you find there in the list of the NBA’s top dunkers in 2007-08.

Of the top 100 dunkers, six are Nets, more than any other team. Richard Jefferson placed #23 with 95 dunks, followed by Josh Boone at #36 with 72, Vince Carter at #38 with 71, Sean Williams at #48 with 61, Stromile Swift at #64 with 48 and DeSagana Diop at #95 with 30.

The Lakers, Sixers and Nuggets had five each in the top 100. Representing the Lakers, in order, were Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Rony Turiaf. For the Sixers, it was Andre Igoudala, Samuel Dalembert, Thaddeus Young, Jason Smith and Reggie Evans and for the Nuggets, Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby, Linas Kleiza and J.R. Smith. The Hawks had four: Josh Smith, Josh Childress, Marvin Williams and Al Horford. Dwight Howard led the league with 267. Amare Stoudemire finished second with 208.

As a team, the Nets finished sixth in team dunks with 384, behind the Nuggets, Sixers, Lakers, Magic and Suns. Who finished last? The defending NBA champ San Antonio Spurs, with a mere 94. The Spurs are also the league’s oldest team.

(And for those who want to know, Jason Collins and Jamaal Magloire had seven each, same as Devin Harris).

Every Sunday, we’ll be updating the Nets’ off-season with bits and pieces of information, gossip, etc. to help take the edge off missing the playoffs, relying on the Nets’ beat reporters and others who have slipped interesting data into larger stories and blogs.

What’s with this RJ-to-Toronto “idea”?

Dave D’Alessandro is usually not in the business of proposing trades. He’s not Sam Smith. But he did so this weekend, suggesting that the Nets might be interested in sending Richard Jefferson to Toronto for Andrea Bargnani, Jorge Garbajosa and Joey Graham. He even talked to RJ about it. Beyond promising he would “kill” the Nets four times a year if they traded him inside the division, RJ did note that Raptor GM Bryan Colangelo has watched him since he played high school ball in Phoenix. HoopsWorld’s Wendell Maxey also suggested Jefferson would be a good fit in Toronto. Hmm. Our suspicions grow.

So what’s going on here? Is this a rumor or is Dave D just trying to fill his column with tasty tidbits for discussion on the nj.com board? The trade would essentially be a trade of a 27-year-old established NBA scorer for a 22-year-old prospect whose reputation is scarred because of unrealized high expectations. Garbajosa is coming off a serious ankle injury and has to be considered a big risk. Graham, taken with a pick acquired from the Nets in the Vince Carter deal, is as much a bust as Antoine Wright, taken just before him. Both are expiring contracts.

Bargnani is certainly interesting and he certainly would qualify under Kiki Vandeweghe’s definition of “fallen angel”, a young player with potential who has fallen out of favor. Dave D even suggested Kiki might be a good mentor for Bargnani! But the Nets would have to believe the Italian League star is the next Dirk Nowitzki. Of course, it would also add to the Nets’ cap space down the road in case you-know-who entertained the notion of playing in you-know-where on a team partially owned by his best friend. It would make the team younger…and send a not-so-subtle message to Nenad Krstic. It already may have…

Throw in the Raptors’ first round pick in 2009 and we’d consider it.

Barclays Center FAQ

The big news this week, of course, had nothing to do with draft picks or free agency or Jason Kidd’s failing in Dallas. Instead, it had to do with where the Nets will be playing their home games once they leave the IZOD Center. There were rumors of talks between those supporting a move to Newark and Bruce Ratner, the Nets’ owner. Ratner quickly squelched those and revved up his public relations machine to insist there is no change in plans…it’s Brooklyn or bust.

So in the interest of trying to establish where things stand, we’ve put together some Frequently Asked Questions.

Q. Where do things stand?

A. On the ground, workers continue to demolish properties Bruce Ratner owns or controls, leaving those the State would have to buy. At the same time, prep work is underway for the movement of LIRR rail yards. The yards have to be moved east first. Then, a platform has to be built atop the old yards. Preliminary work, like building supports, has begun. Ratner owns or controls 85% of the property he needs for the entire project. He is still trying to buy out others even while the critics’ lawsuits are underway. But until the state gets court approval to condemn properties, he won’t be able to put steel in the sky on the arena.

In court, Ratner has yet to lose, but the critics keep filing suits and appeals. Right now, they are pressing ahead on two key appeals, one to the New York State Court of Appeals on the project’s environmental review procedure and one to the US Supreme Court on the use of eminent domain (condemnation) for the benefit of a private landowner. Neither is seen by legal scholars as having much of a chance. Both should be decided by mid-summer, but if the US Supreme Court agrees to a full hearing on the critics’ case, a decision wouldn’t be handed down til early next year and even the prospect of a loss in the highest court would chill investment in the overall project.

In bank offices, Ratner needs financing, but mostly for the non-arena pieces of the project whose ultimate cost will probably exceed $6 billion. The arena will benefit from a lot of sweetheart arrangements that help Ratner, which is not untypical. The Prudential Center was the beneficiary of an even better deal from the City of Newark. Critics charge that the public benefits to be derived from the overall project, like the thousands of affordable and low-rent apartments, are being delayed and may even be cancelled, leaving giant holes in the ground. Ratner denies that vigorously and says the whole project with its 50+ story “Miss Brooklyn” office tower, its 6,000+ apartments, signature hotel, and arena will all get done by 2018. His investment banker, Goldman Sachs, says they expect a financing package will get done by the third quarter and Ratner has just received commitments, mainly from European banks, for $1.3 billion worth of construction elsewhere.

In City Hall and the State House, Ratner retains the support of key players, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson, as well as the Republican leader of the State Senate and the Democratic leader of the State Assembly. Bloomberg believes projects like Atlantic Yards, with its potential for making Brooklyn a new downtown, are necessary if New York is going to compete with other world financial centers. Paterson said this week he expects the Nets will move to Brooklyn. The Nets will need all the support they can get. They are going back to the state and city for more subsidies, maybe as much as $100+ million, according to the CEO of Forest City.

On the basketball court, Ratner is still saying the team will arrive in Brooklyn during 2010-2011 season, but that is a very tight schedule..and probably unlikely Assuming he does break ground on the arena this summer as planned, it would take more than two years to complete the arena, barring more delays. The Nets lease on the IZOD Center is already extended through 2012 and it’s unlikely the NJSEA will kick them out.

Q. What about Newark?

A. On its face, the Prudential Center looks like a good deal, but the problem is that
the Nets would have to share revenues with the Devils’ ownership. That isn’t going to erase the Nets’ $40 million annual loss. Yes, the Nets could be “partnered” with the Devils ownership and other New Jersey financiers, but that would no doubt require complicated financing arrangements since the Nets already have by far the highest debt-to-value ratio in the NBA and perhaps all of professional sports. This is not a good time for complicated financial arrangements.

Forest City Enterprises, Ratner’s parent company, has been eating most of the team’s losses and said again last month they would do the same for this year. They’d want some of that back in any sale. Still, Brett Yormark, the Nets’ CEO, said that the team’s other investors are on board for Brooklyn and a “capital call, a request for more money to staunch losses, will be “fully funded”, meaning the other investors are prepared to kick in new money as well. Why? Because the Brooklyn arena promises to be a big money maker. The most successful sports franchises own their own arenas. Look at Madison Square Garden and the Knicks. The Nets won’t own the arena outright, but will on completion sell it to the state for $1.00 and then get it back under a long term lease, lease payments being based on arena revenue. It’s a sweet deal.

As for a temporary move from the worst venue in the NBA (IZOD) to the newest arena in the NHL (Prudential), the Nets didn’t want to do it in the past. Now with rumors of a move hurting their Brooklyn plans, there’s NO WAY they would do it. And again, there are financial reasons. During the final years of their lease at the IZOD, the Nets agreed to pay the NJSEA a penalty if they moved from the IZOD to any location other one in Brooklyn or Queens (??). This year that penalty is $12 million. It declines every year until the end of the lease in 2012. In addition, the Nets have invested millions in upgrading the IZOD Center, installing things like the two LED Zippers, new courtside luxury boxes, new clubrooms for high rollers and corporations. All that would be wasted.

And note this: it is in the interest of Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek to denigrate the Brooklyn arena. If it is completed, it is likely to be the most iconic sports arena in the country. It would be the same distance from Manhattan as the Prudential Center. The Garden, the IZOD Center, Barclays Center and the Prudential Center would all be competing for the same sports and entertainment dollars. If he could get the Nets to move to the Prudential Center, he would be killing off two of those competing venues: Barclays Center and the IZOD Center. Without the Nets one wouldn’t exist and the other wouldn’t have single sports tenant, making it much more likely to be torn down. Moreover, keep in the back of your mind the possibility that the ownership of the Islanders might want to move west to Brooklyn—it’s been discussed– if they can’t get Nassau County to go along with their real estate project, not a good thing for the Devils.

Q. What could be the worst case scenario?

A. Ratner gives up and sells the team to the highest bidder…no matter where they’re located. If either of the key court decisions go against him or if the economy really goes in the tank and Forest City wants to stop throwing good money after bad, he could be forced to sell. Some might say, Great! But there is no guarantee the highest bidder would come from New York or New Jersey. A lot of cities would like to have an NBA team. As John Brennan in the Record noted recently, “Cities such as Las Vegas, Kansas City and Anaheim would be interested in the Nets”. He also argued the NBA could be “loath to lose one of its two New York-area franchises to a smaller market.” Yet, the league keeps approving the movement of teams to smaller markets, the Sonics’ move from thriving Seattle to Oklahoma City being the latest example. In that case, the move was predicated on Seattle’s decision not to help build a new arena.

Q. What’s next?

A. Ratner is on a public relations push. The Daily News op-ed was just the first wave. In the next few weeks to months, expect the following:

–The Nets will open a new Barclays Center showroom in Ratner’s New York Times building with a big splash. The showroom will offer corporate clients a chance to design their own luxury suites with Frank Gehry, the arena’s architect.

–At the same time, the Nets can be expected to announce a roster of international sponsors to go along with the Barclays Bank. Yormark is just back from Europe and says he has commitments. He will again say he is selling the arena as an iconic destination, not just a sports venue, in part to distinguish it from the Prudential Center.

–Ratner will unveil a new design for the Atlantic Yards. He has said Gehry is working on a new master plan. Expect it to be a bit more modest, but nowhere near enough to satisify the critics.

On the other side, the critics will continue to file lawsuits and appeals, but they know the big cases are already in the pipeline.

–The State Court of Appeals case will be heard in July. The Supreme Court not long after that will decide whether to grant “cert” on the appeal of the eminent domain suit, meaning it will either certify the case for a full hearing or let the lower court ruling, which was a unanimous ruling against the critics, stand.

Q. Any one source where this is discussed objectively? It’s pretty confusing.

A. The best stuff lately has been by John Brennan in the Record. He seems unaffected by the Ratner PR machine or Jersey-centric ethic.

Q. What’s the bottom line?

A. By training camp, a lot of the uncertainty should be past. Financing will or will not be set. Court cases will likely to have come down. Shovels will be in the ground or not.

Oh, that Rod!

Think this quote from Rod Thorn in the Sunday Star-Ledger is just a bit sarcastic?

“Oh, I don’t want to say he did us a favor,’’ Thorn said, referring to Jason Kidd. ‘‘You know me: I was very — on a lot of levels — very upset at the time. But yes, it’s worked out well. Dallas said it worked out great for them, didn’t they? I read where (Mark) Cuban said he’d do the deal 100 times out of 100. And it’s worked out fine for us. So everyone seems happy.’’

Except maybe Avery Johnson.

Speaking of Kidd, the Dallas papers can’t get enough of the post-season post-mortem, with Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and ESPN Radio writing a tongue-in-cheek column accepting some responsibility for the trade; Jeff Caplan of the same paper and Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News handing out grades to all the players–of the four ex-Nets, Wright got the highest grades; columnist David Moore’s describing the new coach’s most important attribute of the Mavs’ next coach: dealing with Kidd. Some things never change.

One place where Kidd is a non-person…virtual Brooklyn. The Atlantic Yards website has pages and pages of material on Ratner’s plans for Brooklyn, what the Barclays Center will look like. Since February, all references and photographs of Kidd have been excised…in spite of Kidd’s promotion of the arena and visits to Ratner-promoted events in Brooklyn. Now, the topper: architectural renderings of the Barclays Center have been scrubbed. The giant image of Kidd that floated on the scoreboard above mid-court is gone, replaced by…

NetsDaily Draft Sleeper of the Week

Victor Claver of Spain. The Nets have scouted him…more than once. He surprised a lot of people by putting his name on the early entry list and he could still remove it. A combo forward who is listed at 6′10″ by FIBA, but 6′11″ by ESPN, Claver is not currently part of the conversation assessing athletic 19-year-old big men and is projected as an early second rounder. In fact, Chad Ford of ESPN projects him at #40…where the Nets pick. Still, compare his numbers last summer in the FIBA U19 Tournament in Serbia with those of DeAndre Jordan and Donte Greene, both of whom are seen as potential lottery picks. Claver averaged 17.6/8.6/2.4 for Spain. Jordan averaged 5.3/2.7/0.0 and Greene 4.3/1.5/0.4 for Team USA.

Mocking the Mocks

Most of the mock drafts haven’t been updated since the early entry deadline and we’re all hopeful the ping pong balls fall just the right way. Still, they’re always of interest, especially when your team has three picks, including one in the lottery. Jordan, the Texas A&M seven-footer is still the leading prospect. ESPN, ProBasketball News, About.com, and Draft Express all have him going to the Nets at #10. MSNBC says they’ll go for Russell Westbrook of UCLA while College Hoops reports it’s likely to be Anthony Russell of LSU. Both NBADraft.net and Draft Review project Nicholas Batum of France.

Other players the mocks have the Nets taking include Brandon Rush of Kansas, Ryan Anderson of Cal, Jason Thompson of Rider, Richard Hendricks of Alabama, Robin Lopez of Stanford, Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis, Donte Greene of Syracuse, Sonny Weems of Arkansas, Wayne Ellinton and Ty Lawson of North Carolina, Kosta Koufos of Ohio State and Omri Casspi of Israel who Kiki Vandeweghe would have watched in the Euroleague Final Four this weekend.

And yes, one more time, it’s very early.

Final Note

No more excuses for Lawrence Frank. He’s no longer the youngest coach in the NBA, a distinction he has held since taking over as head coach four plus years ago. Erik Spoelstra, who is the son of a former Nets executive, became Heat coach this week. He’s 69 days younger than Nets coach.

“It’s one of the things we certainly need to do better,” said Rod Thorn in his post-season talk with beat reporters. “You have to work at it constantly. You’ve got to let guys have some minutes in order to see.”

Sounds like a criticism of Lawrence Frank, doesn’t it? Not so fast.

“And I don’t want to mislead - you’ve got to have the right people. If you don’t have the right people, you can work and work and work (with them) and they’re still only going to be OK. It’s a combination of several things.”

Sounds like self-criticism, doesn’t it? After all, Who’s ultimately in charge of finding those “right people”?

With the Nets having three picks in this year’s draft and six players under the age of 25, player development is a big issue for the Nets.

The conventional wisdom is that Frank never gives young guys a chance. The conventional wisdom is that Frank doesn’t like to give rookies significant minutes. But is that an accurate assessment? First of all, what coach, particularly one with a record of consistently making the playoffs, ever willingly gives rookies a lot of time on the floor…particularly those drafted after the lottery or in the second round? Remember this is a coach who won 49 games in 2005-06 with a bench whose only two reliable members were a 39-year-old Cliff Robinson and a 31-year-old Jacque Vaughn.

More importantly, the numbers suggest otherwise. With the exception of Antoine Wright and Mile Ilic, the ill-fated 2005 draft class, Net rookies have gotten minutes quite comparable with what players selected at the same level in the draft have gotten elsewhere, according to a NetsDaily analysis.

Frank has often had to play rookies out of necessity and he has often resisted. After all, this is a coach who won 49 games with a 39-year-old Cliff Robinson and a 31-year-old Jacque Vaughn as his first options off the bench. He wants to trust his veterans, but the veterans he has found on his roster aren’t as good as the kids. (Do the names Rodney Buford, Jabari Smith, Rodney Rogers, Marc Jackson, Lamond Murray, Linton Johnson III, Scott Padgett, Jeff McInnis, Travis Best, Eric Williams, Jamaal Magloire mean anything to you?)

Specifically, here’s how Frank has played rookies in each of his four full years as coach. For the sake of clarity, we’re not going to include rookies who were called up from the D-League, players like Billy Thomas and Derrick Zimmerman, or those went back and forth, like Ilic.

2003-04: The Nets first European player since Drazen Petrovic is drafted amid high hopes and nostalgia. Zoran Planinic arrives in the US and at first impresses the team in summer league. “He had a VERY good summer league” Ed Stefanski says later. But a lot of things intervene. Planinic is lonely, homesick. Stefanski admits the franchise didn’t know how to handle international players, particularly one who speaks such poor English. Byron Scott reportedly tells the front office, “get me an AMERICAN point guard”. It’s tough to lay this one at Frank’s feet, at least this year. A year later, Richard Jefferson publicly says Planinic needed more time to develop. Then he breaks his hand and misses half the season.

2004-05: Euroleague star Nenad Krstic comes to the US. He cannot speak English. He is 20 years old. He sits on the bench for a few games, then in December after Alonzo Mourning starts to sulk, Frank gives him a chance. He plays 75 games, including 57 as a starter, racks up 1,965 minutes, seventh among rookies, and averages 10 points in the regular season, eighth among rookies. In the playoffs, he plays 38.5 minuts a game and averages 18.3 points and 7.5 rebounds in five games, tops among rookies. He makes the All-Rookie Second Team. Not bad for a guy who was drafted #24 in 2002. The Nets learn their lesson, getting him a translator. Planinic helps him adjust.

2005-06: At #15, Antoine Wright is the highest Nets’ pick since RJ. He is a bust. Deal with it. It happens. In his first year, he shows he is not good enough, not mature enough. Helpful hint as to why his playing time is limited: Wright plays 39 games and only 370 minutes and shows he has a long way to go. Over the next two years, Frank gives him plenty of chances. He remains inconsistent. How’s he doing in Dallas? Will be even be in the league next season? Is this who Thorn is referring to when he says, “If you don’t have the right people, you can work and work and work (with them) and they’re still only going to be OK”?

2006-07: Three rookies–Marcus Williams, Josh Boone and Hassan Adams–make the Nets’ roster and get a grand total of 2,375 minutes. The total would have been higher if Boone hadn’t been hurt in the summer. That’s an average of 30 minutes a game for three back-ups. Adams starts eight games after being drafted at #54. No player taken in the bottom half of the second round starts more than two. Let’s compare those numbers to the Hornets who also have three rookies in 2006-07, each taken before the players the Nets selected. Hilton Armstrong was taken ten spots ahead of Williams at #12 (and had been the object of Thorn’s desires), Cedric Simmons was taken eight spots ahead of Boone at #15 and Marcus Vinicius, a Brazilian sharpshooter, was taken 11 spots ahead of Adams at #43. They play a grand total of 1,271 minutes, half what the Nets’ threesome plays. Williams, in spite of his up-and-down season, makes the All-Rookie Second Team. Then, he breaks his foot just before training camp.

2007-08: The Nets’ high-risk/high-return rookie, Sean Williams, has a mediocre summer league and is described as a “project” by everyone. Yet, he winds up playing 1,278 minutes, starting 29 games, the most by a Nets’ rookie since Krstic. No player drafted after him starts more than 16 games. Nine of the players taken before him don’t start that many. After several miserable outings and an admission that his legs “feel heavy”, he sits at the end of the year. Anyone going to say he deserved to play…after he played poorly, particularly on defense, and after the team acquired two similar players with more experience? Not to mention complaints about his attitude and maturity from his teammates.

Of course, it’s not all about numbers. It’s about “development”, certainly a subjective term. Yet, in two cases when dealing with key young players, Frank made his mark this year.

On arrival in New Jersey, Devin Harris, age 24, is handed the keys to the team. Obviously, Frank wouldn’t have done that if Kidd was still around, but Kidd wasn’t. Harris, frustrated by Avery Johnson’s control-freak coaching, rewards Frank’s trust by setting career highs in points, assists, rebounds, field goals made and attempted, three pointers made and attempted, steals, blocks and, perhaps most importantly, minutes…all in 25 games.

And what about Boone’s development? After missing two training camps due to surgery, Boone got his shot this year, less than a third of the way into the season. He winds up with 13 double-doubles, more than anyone in his draft class, which includes highly prized prospects like Andrea Bargnani, Tyrus Thomas, and yes, even LaMarcus Aldridge.

Frank isn’t perfect. And the Net system, for better or worse, is tough to learn, particularly for rookies. Read what Rod Benson said about Nets’ training camp in this month’s SLAM Magazine: “There is so much to deal with mentally. First it was all the plays–it was damn near like trying to memorize the dictionary. And New Jersey’s plays were all based on reads, which made it even tougher. Basically, the five guys you see in those bright red Nets jerseys on the court have to be a bunch of tall Peyton Mannings.”

Here’s the reality: Frank gives minutes to players he trusts, no matter what the experience level. When those players don’t perform, they sit. He uses the prospect of big minutes as an incentive. That Frank doesn’t encourage or play young players is not just conventional wisdom. It is 180 degrees wrong.

Sometimes, you want to put your opinion into words and write them out. But sometimes, a picture can do a better job of expressing your feelings. So, in order to make things easier, we here at NetsDaily have created some pre-made images for you to use when the time is right. Put them in your blog, a message board post, or insert them into your comments here at NetsDaily.

Enjoy, and we welcome all suggestions for more like these…

Every Sunday, we’ll be updating the Nets’ off-season with bits and pieces of information, gossip, etc. to help take the edge off missing the playoffs, relying on the Nets’ beat reporters and others who have slipped interesting data into larger stories and blogs.

Deconstructing Thorn

Trying to parse Rod Thorn’s 45-minute meeting with beat reporters was difficult enough for those there, let alone for those of us who weren’t. But we’ll give it a shot anyway.

We don’t believe Thorn intends to sit on the current roster. It makes no sense, not for someone as competitive as Thorn and not with more assets than he has had in a long, long time, in terms of draft picks, young talent, expiring contracts, cap space, trade exceptions plus the usual mid level and low level exceptions. He didn’t set the table just to display a happy meal.

As Thorn said, quite clearly, “We’ll look to obviously make some changes.” He might be “comfortable” if the Nets return Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter, but Thorn isn’t about “comfort”.

The poker-playing Thorn wasn’t about to dis anyone on his roster. He didn’t need to. He didn’t want to. He had already met with each of the Nets’ 14 players and told them what he thought four days before the media availability. What good would it have done to publicly diminish the trade value of anyone from Vince Carter to Mo Ager?

What he did talk about was team needs, particularly paint protection and deep shooting, even if Boki Nachbar stays, which looks less and less likely.

“We had a major problem on the defensive end of the court this year, not being able to guard the basket and not being able to keep wing players in front of us as well as you need to. That combination is tough. It’s tough to be very good defensively if you don’t do either of those and we did not do either of those.”

“I think even with Boki we need one other guy who can make a jump shot because we struggled a lot of nights when teams zoned us or loaded up on the strong side,” he noted.

One other telling point in the talk was that the Nets aren’t about to spend a lot of money this off-season.

“We have to do a better job at identifying the guys who are certainly more than minimum but they’re not huge outlays of money who can help us,” he said, apparently without prompting. “We don’t want to be a luxury tax paying team unless we can sign somebody that you know is going to make a big significant difference. So what we have to do is identify around the edges some people that can come in and help us in spots that we need some help.”

Although Thorn didn’t apologize like his coach did, the “we” he said needed to do “a better job identifying players” are named Thorn and Kiki Vandeweghe.

What’s the bottom line? Here’s our guess.

The two weeks beginning with the draft on June 26 is critical to the franchise future and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a complete roster revamp.

The Nets’ draft strategy, at least under Thorn and Ed Stefanski, has in recent years been two fold: try to combine picks or offer money to get a higher pick and go for the best player available…with a bias towards size. (For a more thorough analysis, see Dumpy’s historical look at the Nets’ draft biases.)

Assuming the Nets don’t move up in the draft lottery on May 20, they will be left with #10 and #21 in the first round and #40 in the second. The Nets tried to move up in 2006 to take Hilton Armstrong or even Saer Sene. They thought they had a deal with the Sonics for #10, but Seattle turned them down. A year earlier, they tried to trade up in the second round to take Monta Ellis, but they couldn’t work that one out either and the Warriors took Ellis at #40.

Moving up is difficult. Once you’re in the lottery, it gets harder. Houston parlayed its three picks, at #13, #18 and #23 in 2001 to secure #7 from the Nets and take Eddie Griffin. That’s the most recent success we can think of, if you can call that outcome a success. So, truth be told, it’s not likely. Besides, Thorn noted that he thought the Nets could get some immediate help at #10, that a number of good players have been taken at #10. (He might have said “around #10” since the last seven years results have been mixed at #10, with only Andrew Bynum, Caron Butler and Joe Johnson being solid picks at that position.) He also called the draft “deep”, an indication he thinks there is value to be had at #21 as well.

So what’s likely to be on the table when the Nets pick at #10? A raw, teenaged big man, much like Bynum…or Sean Williams: DeAndre Jordan of Texas A&M, Anthony Randolph of LSU, JaVale McGhee of Nevada, Marreese Speights of Florida, and Alexis Ajinca of France are all between 18 or 20, all hyper-athletic, all raw. Jordan probably has the most potential, McGhee and Speights the most developed skills, Ajinca, the most experience. It’s unlikely the most complete big men, Brook Lopez of Stanford and Kevin Love, will still be available. (Special obligatory note about an advantage Lopez has: his full name is Brooklyn Lopez.)

So our bet is the Nets take one of the kids. We also doubt the Nets will use all three picks. Three times in the past six years the Nets have taken a European player and stashed them overseas: Nenad Krstic in 2002, Christian Drejer in 2004 and Mile Ilic in 2005. Don’t be surprised if they do that again, even with the 21st pick. Think Ante Tomic, Nikola Pekovic or Victor Claver.

Does the choice of a “Sean Williams clone” mean Williams is superfluous, aka trade bait? Could be, depending on what happens four days later.

On July 1, lots of options open, literally and figuratively. Stromile Swift has a player option which he is not likely to act on. Nenad Krstic can start fielding offers from anyone…and by the way, that doesn’t necessarily mean just the NBA. He could get offers from a Euroleague. Whether those offers are real or not is another issue. And Keith Van Horn can be traded starting July 1. With an option that reportedly doesn’t come due til October, that gives the Nets four months to include him in a deal. Van Horn has the best kind of expiring contract: one that is large enough to make deals work (apparently $3.75 million after July 1) and with a buyout that can be paid by having the Nets provide “cash considerations” as a sweetener.

More intriguing is what Jermaine O’Neal and Elton Brand (and to a lesser degree, Shawn Marion) do. All can opt out of their contracts. O’Neal would be giving up two years and $44.3 million; Brand one year and $16.4 million; Marion one year and $17.2 million. Sounds crazy to give up that money, but Carter did exactly that last season. Also, O’Neal and Brand are coming off injury-plagued seasons. Will the prospect of a longer deal with less money in the first year appeal to a player newly attuned to job security? It might. That could change everything. Instead of being an arms-length transaction, a sign-and-trade arrangement is usually one-sided. The team awaiting the player’s signature has the advantage. The star player’s former team is looking to salvage what it can: cap space, draft choices and a young player or two. It’s what the Nets wanted and got in the Jason Kidd deal.

The Nets’ interest in Jermaine O’Neal is well-known. They talked with the Pacers about a trade last year…and that interest apparently never went away. The only other real suitor last summer, the Lakers, have found their big man (men). Dave D’Alessandro has reported the Nets don’t seem overly concerned about O’Neal’s knee(s). The Pacers on the other hand would like to get rid of him, at least the front office would.

You think Thorn might have been thinking wistfully about O’Neal when he said this last Monday: “I think we need to be more physical near the rim, challenge more than we have and just be a better presence.” Remember, a healthy O’Neal was always a candidate for the All-Defensive Team. Even this year, when rehabbing a bad knee, he averaged 2.2 blocks per game.

If either O’Neal or Brand wants to switch teams, and the Nets are one of those teams they would want to play for, there are lot of ways to work out a deal, with or without Richard Jefferson but perhaps with Marcus Williams and/or Sean Williams. That’s all pure speculation, by the way.

On the Krstic front, the Nets are likely to be looking at a competing offer that same week. If another team is willing to offer him more than an MLE-sized deal, it can do what the Nuggets (Vandeweghe) did with Kenyon Martin: load up the offer sheet in such a way that the Nets won’t match it. But there are other issues here as well. How many years would a team offer the admittedly injury-prone Krstic? Those over the cap can only offer up to the MLE, around $6 million. Would any team over the cap be willing to offer him four or five years guaranteed? Last year, not a single NBA team gave a player an MLE contract with more than two years fully guaranteed. The Kings gave Mikki Moore two years fully guaranteed and a third year partially guaranteed. And is any team under the cap going to risk going over it to sign Krstic? The question of course is what is the Nets’ cut-off number for a match? $4 million, $5 million, $6 million and for how many years guaranteed? Three? Four? Five? It’s likely to be very confusing.

And if the Nets can’t get someone like O’Neal or Brand, won’t match an offer for Krstic, will they overpay for Desagana Diop? It’s hard to imagine them losing both Krstic and Diop and not coming up with another proven big man. Even with a top pick, that would be a disaster.

Lower paid free agents come into play as well. Names are being tossed around are names the Nets have been interested in previously: Mickael Pietrus, who could be the back up small forward if Nachbar departs; and Roger Mason, the combo guard who the Nets wooed last summer and who could provide defense and decent shooting. Both would fit into that salary range between vets minimum and MLE, with Pietrus much close to the top end of that scale.

And forget signing aging veterans this off-season. The Nets are going young. No more Jamaal Magloire, Marc Jackson, Robert “Tractor” Traylor, Jeff McInnis, Scott Padgett, Malik Allen, Lamond Murray, etc., etc. Combine Vandeweghe’s comments about finding “fallen angels”—young players who others have given up on—with Thorn’s comments about the league “getting younger” and the need to develop players better and you can see a strategy shift.

Like we said, that’s just our guess.

Emergency Room

Spare us the sight of VC on crutches. Too depressing. The Nets didn’t put a timeframe on Carter’s recovery and rehab other than to say he would be on crutches for “several weeks” and that he would be ready for training camp. His next public appearance at the Nets practice facility is set for August 4 – 8. That’s when his camp opens for Jersey area kids.

And Thorn did more than hint that the Devin Harris we saw after the trade wasn’t completely healthy, which is both good and bad. The good news is that the kid could be better than we think after some off-season r-and-r. The bad news is that Harris is just a bit injury-prone. Thorn said, “he had two ankle sprains” that hurt his lateral movement on defense. Two?

Kiki’s European Vocation

After scanning the rosters of the Euroleague Final Four, we found very few draft prospects for this year’s draft and those we did find are highly unlikely to see action on Europe’s biggest hoops stage. The only real possibility: Omri Casspi, the 6′8″, 19-year-old combo forward from Maccabi Tel Aviv. So who’s Kiki looking at while in Madrid? There are a few free agents who could join the NBA next season. CSKA’s Ramunas Siskauskas, a 6′6″ swingman who can play little point, is probably the best overall player outside the NBA. He’s 29 years old. His teammate, David Andersen is seven-foot Australian center who has said he wants to try the NBA next season. His rights are held by Atlanta who took him at #37 in the 2002 draft. Anyone wanting him would have to acquire those rights from the Hawks. Then there’s always Zoran Planinic, who plays for Tau Ceramica.

Kiki could take in the Euroleague Nike International Junior Tournament, also in Madrid that weekend. It features eight teams, all from countries rich in basketball tradition (Croatia, Israel, Lithuania, Serbia and Spain). The players are all under 18, meaning they’re at least a year away from being eligible for the NBA Draft. Top prospects? Three big men Dejan Musli, a 7′1″ Serb, Tomislav Zubcic, a 6′11″ Croat, and Donatas Motiejunas, another 7-footer from Lithuania. Zubcic is 18 while Musli and Motiejunas are 17. Krstic was first scouted by Ed Stefanski at the same age in a similar tournament. No doubt, Rob Meurs, the Nets international scout, will have a full report ready.

NetsDaily Draft Sleeper of the Week

Why not? This week’s sleeper is Keith Brumbaugh, the 6′10″ swingman out of Hillsborough Community College in Florida. Brumbaugh was Mr. Basketball in Florida in 2005, the best player to come out of the Daytona Beach area since Carter. (Carter won the local newspaper’s Volusia County Player of the Year twice; Brumbaugh won it three times.) Then, his career spiraled out of control, being arrested six times in 26 months. He finally got it together this season, playing his first ever college games, averaging 34.0 ppg for HCC and making the Junior College All-American team. He will be facing a tough time in Orlando at the NBA pre-draft camp. It’ll be interesting.

A Final Thought

Net fans may not be enamored of Lawrence Frank, but Chris Bosh thinks he’s a hell of a defensive coach. Talking about how Stan Van Gundy has made his life difficult in the Raptor-Magic series, Bosh said this to Toronto’s National Post:

“Him and [New Jersey coach] Lawrence Frank,” Bosh said of coaches that draw up good plans to guard him. “They’re great defensive coaches. They have some good schemes on me.”