connecting*the*dots

Go Jersey!

Post-game update: (81-77 L) The Nets don’t have a shot in this series if they don’t change up a few areas of their game:

• Grab defensive rebounds
  The Cavs had 17 offensive boards by the third quarter. Gooden (6 ORB)and Ilgauskas (8 ORB) must be boxed out.
• Take the ball to the rim and quit bitching
  Vince Carter can’t play a strong game on the road for his life. Sasha Pavlovic is a good player, but Carter should be able to dominate him off the dribble, taking him to the hoop All Day. Instead, he settled for pull up jumpers and/or spent forever dribbling himself out of control. And when he didn’t get a call, he dropped into prima donna mode and allowed breaks to develop the other direction.

I’m not panicked, though. Losing by four, on the road, as poorly as the Nets played and shot, there’s only room for improvement.

The man seems to have the golden touch on draft night; first with Michael Jordan, then working a deal to land Richard Jefferson and most recently finding Nenad Kristic on the other side of the planet.

Rod wouldn’t select a Yinka Dare or Rex Walters with a first-round pick.

I have to be honest, I missed out on much of the college basketball season last year, so while I’m familiar with Williams and Boone to a degree — I’ve caught them here and there while following my Syracuse squad — I don’t have too much to go on regarding the particulars of their games over a long stretch of time.

Not that such details would stop me from giving my opinion:

Marcus Williams is the real-deal point guard — a court visionary (not many college PG’s average better than 8 dimes per) and steps-up big time in clutch situations. Unfortunately, he’s also (reportedly) out-of-shape, under-motivated and (legitimately) guilty of participating in the theft and sale of four laptops on the UConn campus his junior year.

His own mother had to move across country to live with him to get his shit straight.

If he can get his head out of his ass, and take his career responsibilities seriously, he’s projected as a top-notch guard in the NBA. With JKidd as a mentor, well, he’s in a perfect position to succeed, as he has the opportunity for big-time minutes next year. I’m betting he’s worth the gamble.

Josh Boone was probably the best PF available at #23, and the Nets are desperate for size and shot-blocking, so he’ll get some run as a rookie.

I’m just hoping he doesn’t turn out to be another Jason Collins.

It’s reported that he has decent hands, can finish around the basket, rebounds well and is a shot blocker, but he also has a reputation for being soft, a poor free throw shooter and has no offensive game — very much like Collins. Thankfully he’ll have Kidd and Williams getting him the ball in a position to finish, so as long as his hands are good and he can finish over another big, his limited offensive skills shouldn’t be too much of a burden.

IMHO, Hassan Adams is a great pick for a late second round selection. He’s an energy guy, can score in bunches, rebounds well for his size; he actually reminds me of Stevie Thompson, the 6 foot 2 inch G/F from Syracuse back in the late eighties. He may not have a specific position on the floor, but he can ball and Lawrence Frank likes to go to a small line-up from time to time. Between him and Antoine Wright, the Nets look to have a nice, athletic 2nd team rotation (later, Zoran). Hopefully he can bring an on-court attitude the Nets have missed since the departure of Kenyon Martin.

Man, we’re only a week beyond the end of the NBA season, and I’m already jonesin’ for the start of next year.

Dear Rod,

Remember when I asked you for a Nets squad that could in the very least compete with other NBA teams a few years back? You responded by delivering us K-Mart, J-Kidd, RJ and a healthy Kerry Kittles. Well, I don’t think I ever properly thanked you for that one. Thank you. It was huge. Watching Nets’ playoff basketball was a dream of mine for years and contending for two championships was, well, an experience beyond my wildest expectations.

Now, please don’t take the rest of this the wrong way. You’re obviously still the Man; the Mac Daddy, Pimp Extraordinaire; a true Thug. The last thing I’d ever do is tell you how to do your job. I mean, you did draft the greatest basketball player to ever play the game after two Rod-wanna-be GM’s passed him up. Over the course of your career, you’ve earned the right to be provided with the benefit of doubt for any move… and then some. Here’s my dilemma: I’m not privy to your eyes and ears.

All media reports indicated that Shareef’s knee scarring was present since high school and that it’s never been an issue during his career. You were about to sign him to a relatively cheap contract, locking him up for six years, until his 34th birthday. Couldn’t we have just rolled the dice and bet on his ROI to ring true within the next two years? I mean, J-Kidd isn’t getting any younger. By the time an arthritic condition might set in, we’d be in rebuilding mode anyway… right? See, this is me — an interactive strategist — trying to play Rod without all of the available information. It is blasphemy. But you do get my point, right? The window is closing on this J-Kidd led squad. The future is now.

So we now have Wright replacing Buford as the backup swing-man, McInnis replacing Best as the backup scoring point and Jackson replacing Smith as the backup… big scrub. Each of these moves has improved the team, but we still don’t have a back-to-the-basket PF. Remember the playoffs, when Miami doubled Vince and our offense completely shut down? Sorry, man, of course you remember. And sure, I realize that RJ wasn’t at 100% either, so maybe the results would be different this time around. But with all due respect, I don’t believe that for a minute.

So here I kneel, praying to Rod that you’ll listen to me once more. Would I take a Brian Grant signing? Sure. But he doesn’t bring anything to the table on the offensive end. Here’s my armchair GM suggestion: VC for Okafor and a few contracts. Vince wows the crowds every night in NC (with Sean Mays and Raymond Felton in tow) and we get a young, solid post-up player with great rebounding and shot blocking skills. Then, as only you could do, sign Michael Finley off waivers as our starting 2.

J-Kidd, Finley, RJ, Okafur and Nenad. Not to0 shabby.

Again, it’s your world, Rod, I’m just a squirrel trying to get a nut. My honor code is Rod, family and friends — in that order. So you go do what it is that you do so well: hustle a GM into thinking that he’s the Man and rip out his heart in the process. You do you. I’m just going to kick back and watch the story unfold with amazement.

Amen.

According to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, the Nets are on the verge of landing Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and they may be able to pull it off without sending a first-round pick to Portland. If Rod Thorn and Bruce Ratner pull this off, I’m man enough to admit I made a huge mistake creating voodoo dolls of the two of them after they got rid of Kenyon Martin. Why was I so upset? You have to know the pain of a 25-year long Nets fan to even begin to understand.

K-Mart was the heart of the Nets team that made the finals two-years straight. The team was terrible for years prior to him joining the squad. Terrible can’t even begin to describe the team; they had no heart, no sense of pride, with players walking onto the court with “Trade Me” and “All Alone” scribbled onto their sneakers. K-Mart changed that attitude by just stepping on the court. As an athletic rookie with extremely raw skills, he was too loud with too much bravado for most to stomach, but Martin knew what he brought to the team and wouldn’t allow his team to be treated like a bunch of punks by the opposition. When Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson joined the team the following year, the Nets turned the corner for good and became a top-tier club; finally, a winning team, fun at that, to root for.

Last year, during Martin’s free-agent dealings, the Denver Nuggets swept in and out-bid Bruce Ratner for his services, resulting in a sign-and-trade. I went absolutely bonkers, renouncing my season tickets and dipping my game-watching from every game to 75% or so (for those of you that don’t know me, that’s significant). K-Mart’s game is strong, but it was his heart that I instantly missed.

While I still appreciate Martin from afar, I have to admit I was absolutely reactionary about the decision to trade him. The deal landed the Nets three first-round draft picks; two of which transformed into Vince Carter through the trade with the Toronto Raptors. Now, if Chad Ford is right, Thorn and Ratner might land Shareef Abdur-Rahim for nothing in return aside from a $5 million trade exception they landed in the Kerry Kittles trade. That’s ridiculous management. In essence, the Nets added Vince Carter and Shareef Abdur-Rahim, replacing Kerry Kittles and Kenyon Martin… in one year.

Abdur-Rahim has been called soft in the past, but he’s a career 20 ppg/8 rb player. If that’s soft, I’ll take it. And if he doesn’t want to take the big shot, the starting line-up for the Nets is stocked with All-Star talent, I’m sure Jefferson, Carter or Kidd will step up. The soft label is probably due to his defensive game (or lack thereof), but from where I’m sitting he can’t be any softer than Jason "Pillsbury Man" Collins, a 7′ 1" man who can’t average 6 boards in 30 minutes per game, thinks that a charge call is classic defensive intensity and rotates about as fast as a tire with the car in park.

I’ve watched SAR enough times to know that he can bury a team all by himself. He has crafty, juke post moves reminiscent of Hakeem Olajuwon and is consistent with his jumper out to 20 feet. He’s versatile enough to play both SF and PF and makes his free throws at an 80% + clip. SAR is the opposite of K-Mart: quiet, reserved, a stat-filler and, yes, a poor defender who sometimes fades away on the defensive side of the ball. The gamble on him in minimal because the Nets are well coached and in a solid defensive structure; something Abdur-Rahim has never had the pleasure of working within. And since the Nets already have the swagger and filled with star power, his role is more defined.

Martin was the beginning of establishing this legacy, all Shareef has to do is play hard and produce. If he does, there just might be an annual trip to The Swamp planned for sometime in late June.

Salaam, SAR.