With only four games remaining and a playoff birth an almost certain impossibility, the New Jersey Nets still haven’t begun to think about what they’ll do with the pending free agents on their roster come this offseason.

“It’s still too early,” team president Rod Thorn told the Bergen Record. “I want to wait until we get to the end and then dispassionately look at the whole thing. Right now, you have opinions about certain guys, but we’ll wait until this is over, see what else is out there, and what the costs are going to be.”

Darrell Armstrong, Nenad Krstic, DeSagana Diop and Bostjan Nachbar, the quartet of players in question, represent a huge part of the team’s depth. Armstrong provides veteran leadership but may be expendable if Marcus Williams develops into the type of player the Nets envisioned when they drafted him in the first round a few years ago. Diop is a solid shot blocker who can play both forward and center but, just like Armstrong, could prove to be dispensable if Sean Williams can stay out of foul trouble and guard more efficiently against the pick and roll.

However, despite his arguable worth to the Nets, Diop said that he likes playing in the Garden State. Nonetheless, he has his own demands if he sticks around after the season is over.

“I just want to win. That’s what it comes down to,” Diop told the AP. “I want to help a team win. Losing is not fun at all. I don’t care how much money you make. The style isn’t important.”

The story of Krstic’s season is quite different from role players like Armstrong and Diop, though. Not the same player since a nasty knee injury last season, the 24-year-old is running out of excuses and will find himself on another team next year if he doesn’t take whatever the Nets offer him.

Nachbar, however, despite being slowed somewhat by a nagging back injury, has been a solid offensive option off the bench when healthy. While Thorn preferred not to discuss the team’s ideology going into the offseason, he did share his thoughts on Nachbar’s perseverance this season.

“When you’re trying to assess players, the ones who care and the ones who give you all they have are valuable,” Thorn told the Star Ledger. “Certainly you take that into consideration. It says a lot about him that he’s still out there playing. Even though our chances don’t look very good right now, he’s still out there competing. But that’s the kind of guy Boki is.”

Three and a half games out of a playoff spot with only seven games left to play, the New Jersey Nets appear to be on a sinking ship with no oars. Originally looking rejuvenated after trading Jason Kidd to the Mavericks, the Nets have failed to win down the stretch, going 4-6 in their last ten games.

Last week, the team was stressing the need to continue their streak of six consecutive seasons in the playoffs. It was almost as if they thought that fate alone would give them a postseason birth. Now, they see things in a much different light.

“We can’t rely on history. All that History is on our side, I don’t believe that,” Nets second-leading scorer Vince Carter told the AP. Since the All-Star Break, Carter has stepped up his game, averaging three more points a game and has been a more consistent shooter. “I just believe what we need to do is come to play and take the wins. We can’t just say, ‘Oh, it can happen.’ Let’s go take these wins and I’ll feel better about it.”

To make matters worse, the team doesn’t appear to be in a situation to depend on anyone other than their new big three of Richard Jefferson, Carter and Devin Harris, to get them into the playoffs. Nenad Krstic, Josh Boone, Sean and Marcus Williams have all shown signs of promise this season, but have all failed to put up a consistent effort for a prolonged period of time. In addition, Bostjan Nachbar, the team’s biggest offensive option off the bench, has been battling back problems for the past few weeks and isn’t in a position to help either.

“If it were a December thing, I’d take off. But now is not the time to do it, so I’m willing to suck it up a little bit and hope for the best,” Nachbar said. “This team has given me so much, it would be unfair for me to shut it down right now when it’s the most important part of the season.”

With injuries taking their toll and the team’s chances at reaching the playoffs for a seventh season eroding, Nets Coach Laurence Frank is still committed on making things happen on the court. Nevertheless, he knows things aren’t going to be easy for his club and is hoping his bench comes up big down the stretch.

“The bottom line is, the games are dwindling down and you do whatever it takes to win,” Frank told the AP. “The core group you rely on for a lot of minutes, then you look at the second group of starters, the supporting actors, to fill in and do their job.”

Earlier in the season, most NBA matchmakers would have agreed that the Nets had the talent to get into the playoffs as a seventh or eighth seed in the Eastern Conference. Those matchmakers couldn’t predict that Jason Kidd would request a trade and Nenad Krstic would take three quarters of the season to get his game back to where it was early last season.

Those same matchmakers couldn’t have predicted that Vince Carter would play streaky offense and spotty defense most of the season and that Laurence Frank would start Jason Collins over Jamaal Magloire, Sean Williams and Josh Boone for a good chunk of the season.

However, despite the flumps produced this season on the bench and on the court, New Jersey is only a half game behind the Atlanta Hawks for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Nets General Manager Rod Thorn doesn’t seem to think his team will have a problem getting into postseason play this season and has already stated that Frank isn’t in jeopardy of losing his job if they don’t.

“I expect us to make it,” Thorn told the Associated Press.

The Nets themselves also don’t seem worried down the stretch about their playoff chances, even though they don’t particularly love the way the season has gone for them.

“I would prefer to be in a little bit higher situation battling for seeding, rather than battling to get in, but I do enjoy it,” Richard Jefferson, the Nets leading scorer, told the AP. “This adds a little more fun to your season. It makes the games more important.”

Adding a little bit of excitement of his own as of late has been Krstic, who seems to be completely healthy after suffering a debilitating knee injury last season. Before the injury, Krstic was emerging as the team’s biggest weapons on offense.

“I’m feeling really good, my knee is feeling great right now,” Krstic told the AP after scoring a season high 22 points at Madison Square Garden on Monday. “This season for me is still going to be ups and downs. If I play bad the next game, it’s not going to be about my knee, it’s just I had a bad game. I just want to put that behind me. That’s like past me. It’s almost a year and a half ago; I don’t care about that.”

With a healthy Krstic and the newly acquired Devin Harris supporting Jefferson and Carter down the stretch, the Nets may just yet make due on Thorn’s words.

Winning three of their last four games, the New Jersey Nets are contending for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, but not by much.

Currently tied with the Atlanta Hawks with the final slot in the Eastern Conference, the drastically revamped Nets feel they owe it to themselves to make the playoffs and put the bumps and bruises of what has been a season-long stretch of inconsistency, behind them.

“It’s always important. In this league it’s so important to be in the postseason. We’ve been fortunate because we’ve been there six years in a row,” explained coach Lawrence Frank to the Associated Press. “We don’t want to let down that legacy of achievement. Think about it. There’s only been four teams—and we’re one of them—that have made it six years in a row, so there’s got to be something to it.”

However, all is not well in Nets-Land, especially for former first round pick Marcus Williams. Scoring only 28 points in his last five games, Williams was picked out by Nets head coach Laurence Frank as someone who has to step up for them to be able to get into the postseason.

“We’re going to need better,” he said, before giving a less than favorable assessment. “He’s definitely talented,” Frank told the AP, stressing “the intensity, you have to bring every single day (and) to be able to defend against the better guys he has to put himself in optimal condition. He has to put himself in the best shape of his life—as a younger player you’re now asked to do more. That means you have to be reliable and in order to be reliable you have to be consistent and in order to be consistent you have to be committed every single day.”

Nevertheless, regardless of the ineffectiveness of Williams and nagging injuries to key players Bostjan Nachbar, Nenad Krstic and new point guard Devin Harris, the Nets know what they have to do in order to make the playoffs.
“It basically comes down to this: We have to play our best basketball in the last month — the way we were supposed to play all year,” Nets center Josh Boone told the New Jersey Star Ledger. “But that’s the way it is every year with this team. It always comes down to which team can put it together at the right time. We put together a great run at the end of last year (and in 2004), and hopefully these three home games are a springboard for another big finish this year. We definitely have it in us.”

There aren’t many ways to feel when you end a six-game losing streak, but when you do it against a team like the Cavaliers, you have to smile a little bit. Sure, this team needs more help on the boards and isn’t as creative as they used to be with Kidd, but they got it done on Wednesday, inching past the Cavs 104-99, courtesy of a 21-point night from Bostjan Nachbar off the bench and 24 points from Richard Jefferson. Shooting 51 percent from the floor and 46 percent from three point land, the Nets got the breaks they haven’t gotten all season.

“It was a must-win situation for us,” point guard Devin Harris told the AP. “We had a rough road trip. We needed this win to get our confidence back.”

With streaky shooting from Vince Carter and company this year, the Nets currently find themselves 11 games under .500 and only a half game ahead of the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Nets General Manager Rod Thorn knows the key to the team’s success is their shooting and knows that they have to stay hot in order to make the playoffs.

“We haven’t shot the ball well enough,” Thorn told Reuters on Thursday. “A lot of teams zone us, which has given us a lot of problems. We definitely need to either have some of our guys on our team get better shooting the ball or get some people that can make shots. That’s an area we’ll look at very closely.”

However, with the Nets over the cap, I doubt they’ll be room for them to make any huge moves this offseason. Nonetheless, with a healthy Nenad Krstic and Devin Harris getting more accustomed to New Jersey, the Nets may not have to make any huge moves. Josh Boone and Sean Williams in time can be a solid two-some at center and with Marcus Williams, DeSagana Diop, Nachbar and Trent Hassell on the bench, the Nets will be in decent shape as a team. In the Eastern Conference, New Jersey should be able to make the playoffs. However, you can forget about advancing past the first round unless they start shooting better and play better on defense.

I’m rushing things though, this season isn’t finished yet. Even though they have a tough schedule ahead of them, they still control their own destiny. They just have to get solid performances from guys like Jefferson, Carter and Harris and hope that Nachbar and Williams can provide a spark off the bench.

With a slim one-game lead over the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, the New Jersey Nets need to find some kind of consistency if they hope to reach the postseason. Losing their last three games in less than admirable fashion, thanks to sub-par shooting and spotty defense, things are not looking as good as the organization hoped earlier in the season.

To make matters worse, Richard Jefferson, the player many expected to lead the team after the trade of Jason Kidd a few weeks ago, has failed to step up and take charge of a team desperate for a leader on the court.

“I feel I haven’t played well in a about a week, a week and a half. Just me personally,” the Nets forward and leading scorer told the Star Ledger. “There were times the team played well, but on an individual level, I feel I haven’t played well. I have to play better.”

Averaging only 16.7 points through his last three games and shooting 41.9 percent from the floor, Jefferson hasn’t been the same player he was through the first half of the season, when he was averaging 23 points a game and playing a pivotal role in the team’s success.

With the loss of Kidd and new point guard Devin Harris still adjusting to the team’s offense, RJ knows that he can’t continue what has been a mediocre stretch of games for him. More importantly though, Jefferson understands the need to score in the clutch, something he hasn’t done lately.

“I’ve got to do a better job of doing something in the fourth quarter,” Jefferson told the Star Ledger. “My last six games, my numbers in the fourth quarter are pathetic, they’re a joke. Over my last 6-7 games I haven’t done anything.”

Luckily for the Nets, forward/center Nenad Krstic, is starting to regain the form that made him a fan favorite last season before a debilitating knee injury ended his season. Coming off of a 34-minute, 16-point performance against Grizzles on Wednesday, a healthy Krstic will not only help New Jersey this season, but will improve their chances next season.

In a classy, team-first move, Krstic isn’t thinking about the offseason yet and is trying to prove that he’s still the promising player he was last season.

“You can’t think about that,” Krstic told the Star Ledger. “I still have enough time. You know, I’m just trying to do my best on the court and see what happens. I can’t do anything else.”

However, a healthy Krstic alone will not guarantee the Nets a playoff spot. The New Jersey front office is well aware of this though and is hoping the team can sandwich a few wins together, while the teams on their back, most notably Atlanta, can lose some steam.

“Our schedule is very, very tough,” Nets President and GM Rod Thorn told the AP. “Atlanta has a bunch of easy ones, plus they have a doubleheader coming up Saturday and they’ll probably win two right there.”

Talk about a spirited first game for Devin Harris and his new team, the New Jersey Nets. I don’t know how you guys felt, but I thought his being here on Thursday affected the entire team. The energy on the court was so solid, from the starting lineup, down to the bench. It almost felt like the team knew they were starting a new chapter. They could put the first 57 games of the season and all the up and downs behind them and focus on cementing a playoff spot. While the Nets will have to get very hot down the stretch to give them a possibility of making it past the first round this year, they can make things very interesting down the stretch.

Only two games behind Washington for the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference, the Nets would obviously rather play Toronto first in the playoffs than Boston. In order to do that though, they are going to have to get significant contributions from everyone on the court. With that being said, outscoring the Bucks bench 48-8 is a pretty damn good start.

I love the way this team has options now on the bench and doesn’t have to force guys like Nenad Krstic and Marcus Williams to get back in the swing of things. Harris looked amazing off the bench and was able to get right into the game once he checked in. DeSagana Diop was also solid off the bench on Thursday, as was Bostjan Nachbar and Josh Boone may not be a superstar, but he’s doing a solid job on the boards and is scoring in double digits much more than he was earlier in the season.

Williams lost in the crowd?- I am worried about the amount of playing time Sean Williams has been getting lately, having not played over 20 minutes a game since February 13, but he’s going to have to establish himself more in the low post if he wants to get into more games. As far as I’m concerned, this kind of competition and the Nets newly improved bench could prove negative for Williams’ development, but at his age, the competition could be good for him.

Nonetheless, things are about to get much harder, with a few games against San Antonio on Sunday and Tuesday and Dallas and Houston on the horizon. This is where this Nets team can begin to solidify their spot in lower playoff brackets and make life easier for themselves.

In one of the weirdest turn of events in recent NBA history, Jason Kidd finally got his wish. He’s no longer a member of the New Jersey Nets. However, the Nets got plenty of talent back in the deal and have started to put a team together that should be able to put out a consistent performance on the court every night.

The question remains if they will be consistently good or bad though.

By trading Kidd, the Nets have passed the torch to Richard Jefferson. Vince Carter’s numbers don’t indicate it, but he’s not the guy that has to go out and bust his hump on the court for this team to win, Jefferson is. Having a career season, averaging almost 24 points a game, Jefferson cannot take a nap down the stretch and is going to have to especially strong for this team to make the playoffs. Currently in the seventh spot in the Eastern Conference, the Nets can kiss the playoffs goodbye if they take their time gelling with their new teammates.

How long it takes for the new Nets to get on the same page of their teammates remains to be seen though. Without a doubt, their arrival changes the dynamics of the team completely. While no one knows when Keith Van Horn will make his return to the New Jersey [this time free of Stephon Marbury] or if he’ll ever finish the retirement paper work he was supposed to start in 2006, Maurice Ager is a youngster that could develop into a solid player and Trent Hassell has proven to be a solid guy off the bench that can do a little bit of everything. DeSagana Diop gives the Nets a big man off the bench that can rebound a little and play in the post.

While the aforementioned players will definitely play a role in determining this team’s playoff chances, Devin Harris will be the key to determining if this trade was a good one for New Jersey. Less of a creator than Kidd, Harris will be asked to shoot more and play more minutes than he ever has before. No one knows how he’ll respond to that type of pressure. Some feel this will be the opportunity the youngster needs to escape the shadow of the players he played with in Dallas. Others feel the deal will expose him to the rest of the league and won’t allow him access to the lanes and room on the court he got while playing with Dirk Nowitzki.

Still nursing a bone bruise on his left ankle, Harris and the Nets will have to wait for an answer to that question.

Nets waive Jamaal Magloire- Looks like this will be one of the last times I type Jamaal on this blog. Waived yesterday, Magloire just never got a chance to show what he had for the Nets, partly due to coach Lawrence Frank’s refusal to take Jason Collins off the court when he was stinking up the place. Add in the fact that youngsters like Sean Williams and Josh Boone need more playing time in order to develop, Magloire never had a chance. It makes you wonder why they signed him in the first place.

Jason Kidd obviously doesn’t want to play on the Nets anymore, but that hasn’t stopped him from playing his heart out. Last night was just another example of that as the point guard added another triple double under his belt and fueled a 104-90 win over the Bobcats. Richard Jefferson wasn’t too bad either, adding 23 points of his own, while Josh Boone and Sean Williams were solid too.

If this team wants to make the playoffs this season, this is the type of effort they have to get on a more consistent basis. Vince carter was stronger on the boards then he usually is and Boone and Williams were factors as well. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell that Williams and Boone aren’t the next coming of Jayson Williams, but they can be strong on the boards if they work hard, which will help guys like Jefferson and Carter get more chances on offense. If that happens, the Nets could get hot and get past the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and extend their season an extra week or two.

I’ve said it all season, but I really think if Boone and Williams were given a real shot that they could put up solid numbers. With Nenad Krstic still not ready to assume his role in the starting lineup, I think we’re starting to see small glimpses of what these two can do. While a healthy and dominant Krstic would be a better option, Boone and Williams are more than serviceable and can even flourish once they start to get more experience. With the jury still out on how long it’ll take for Krstic to be his old self again, Boone and Williams should get better as the season goes on. That may not be enough for the Nets to make the playoffs and get past the first round, but it should play a part in keeping them competitive for the rest of the season.

In other news, I think I can officially say that the NBA has changed drastically over the past two weeks, with Shaq going to the Suns and Pau Gasol going to the Lakers. With these moves going down, I wonder what the Eastern Conference has up their sleeves. Losing Kidd seems inevitable at this point and Rod Thorn has expressed an interest in shopping Vince Carter. Trading both of them will change the Nets drastically and only time will tell if they come out a better team in the end.

With an 18-25 record so far this season, the New Jersey Nets have melted down and now find themselves outside the playoff picture, desperately trying to find a way to put things back together. Only in the Eastern Conference in the NBA would this team be only a half game out of a playoff spot and luckily that’s where they are.

With the bench and supporting cast not being able to help out Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson on a consistent basis, the Nets have given up a ton of points as of late and lack a post presence that can get them the rebounds in the defensive end that they need to get them going in the right direction on the court. With players like Antoine Wright[who has been fighting injuries and inconsistency all season] Marcus Williams, Sean Williams and Josh Boone, not being ready yet for full-time duty, Jamaal Magloire not getting any playing time and Jason Collins playing his way out of the league, this team has some serious problems that need to be addressed.

They’re still without Nenad Krstic, who if healthy, could change things a bit for them, but is far from the savior this team needs right now. Nothing short of a clone of Drazen Petrovic circa 1992 and a trade for a legitimate center can save this team now.

In the midst of this eight-game losing streak though, coach Lawrence Frank doesn’t think he’s in fear of losing his job. Instead, he says he feels “embarrassed” and knows his players feel the same way too.

“The only thing I’m worried about is 18-23,” he told the New York Daily News a few games ago. “Everyone to a man is extremely embarrassed about the way we’re playing. … We’re embarrassed. The way we’re representing ourselves, and more importantly, the way we’re representing ourselves as a team, is not acceptable.”

I believe the word you guys are looking for right now is DUH.

The only question is what exactly can the Nets do in order to change things?

For one, there’s been a rumor over the past few days that the Bulls want Bostjan Nachbar, Antoine Wright, Marcus Williams and Jamaal Magloire to the Bulls for Andres Nocioni and Thabo Sefolosha. If they can find a way to get Nachbar out of that deal and give them something else or even a third or fourth round pick, make that deal in a heartbeat. Then next season, you go out and draft yourself another point guard to be Kidd’s understudy [if he’s around as well]. Nocioni has been getting better every year he’s been in this league and Sefolosha projects to be a solid role player. His versatility also makes him a solid option off the bench.

Granted, this move wouldn’t be a huge one as far as turning the Nets into a NBA finals caliber team again, but it would be a step in the right direction. If Krstic comes back healthy and they have Nocioni scoring 15 points a game and Nachbar off the bench, this team will have plenty of scoring and options off the bench.

At this point, it’s probably just a pipe dream, but it’s interesting to imagine at this point in the season.