Despite the fact that many NBA insiders feel that the New Jersey Nets had a better season than they should have expected, staying at .500 for a good half of the season, the team itself feels they still have a ton of work to do before becoming the team they’d like to be.

Battling injuries to key players and inconsistency from their bench and several young players, the Nets indeed have a plethora of work ahead of them before they’ll be a playoff team once again.

“It’s very disappointing,” Nets head coach Lawrence Frank told the Burlington County Times last week. “It hurts. It hurts not being able to participate in the playoffs. We’re a 34-win team. Is that acceptable? No. We want to put ourselves in position to be a playoff team. It you’re not in the postseason, then you should be disappointed.”

Earlier in the season, many felt that Frank was in danger of losing his job. However, it appears for the time being that the young coach has a home for at least one more season.

A season that will either cement his reputation in the league or force him to attempt to find a new home to do his job.

“I have always liked Lawrence as a coach and been supportive of Lawrence,” Thorn told the Associated Press a few days ago. “I know a lot of good things he does as a coach, it’s part of it. We’ve won a certain number of games two years in a row and it’s natural we sit down, we always sit down at the end of the year and talk about players, coaches and this is part of it.”

While Frank and the organization feel a bit more pessimistic about the team’s current situation, the team itself has a few ideas on how to make sure they don’t miss the playoffs for a third consecutive season.

“We’re just a couple of pieces away,” Vince Carter insisted to Yahoo Sports. “Rebounding, that’s what we need. We just need a guy who cleans up the glass. We have a lot of scoring. We have a lot of shooters. We have guys who can just get a bucket when you need it.”

While Brooks Robinson was no slouch on the boards this season, Carter definitely has the right idea here. A player that could help out on the boards at the power forward position could be a huge step in the right direction for this team, especially considering how inconsistent Yi Jianlian was last season.

Photo by Bill Menzel.

Right before Yi Jianlian got injured in early January this season, he finally looked like he’d turned the corner. He was scoring about 12 points a game and was playing anywhere from 25 to even 38 minutes a game.

Why?

Because he was producing. It was a reward.

After he came back a month later, he wasn’t the same player and his playing time diminished significantly. Now, it appears his agent is miffed about it.

As TNA superstar James Storm says, “Sorry bout your damn luck.”

“His agent is supposed to represent Yi’s interest, and that’s his job, that’s his loyalty. With Yi … we wish post-injury he had more success, but he didn’t,” Nets coach Laurence Frank told the Associated Press. “And the difference between an agent and a coach, the coach’s loyalty is to the whole team, not to an individual player. Whereas the agent’s job is to be loyal to his clients.

“We feel with Yi, look at it as a simplistic model—he’s a good person, a very hard worker, and he has talent. You put those three things together, he’ll be as good as he possibly can be because of those three factors.”
That my friends is a nice way of saying that Yi’s agent doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

By the numbers alone, it’s fair to say that Yi’s agent has as much bargaining power in this situation as Ike Turner would have in a domestic violence case.

Before the injury, Jianlian reached double digits in scoring 20 times and recorded more than 10 rebounds three times. After the break, he failed to get more than seven rebounds in a single game and has broken double digits in scoring a measly three times, despite playing for over 20 minutes in seven games.

After Jason Collins was allowed to revel in mediocrity for years, Frank has finally learned his lesson and won’t allow another player to do the same thing. Yi has averaged only 5.9 points per game since the All-Star break and in those 23 games he’s played, he’s been far from the player the Nets had before then. He can say that the Olympics and his training for them caused him to peak earlier in the season and run out of gas later on, but let’s be fair here, this is a professional athlete that gets paid millions of dollars to make sure he can play a sport to the best of his ability all season. If anyone is to blame for Yi’s demise this season, it’s not Frank and his decision not to give him playing time.

It’s his own.

Sorry bout your damn luck kid.

Photo by Bill Menzel.

I remember when I did my season preview piece this season and I projected the team would win 33 games and come in tenth place, scoffing at places like the Yahoo Sports Basketball Blog that predicted the team would come up with a paltry 18 wins.

Nonetheless I understand where most of these places were coming from at the time. Small payroll, unproven young talent, what did you expect, a championship?

Highly unlikely, even to the most ardent Nets fan.

With four games left this season however, while the Nets have 32 wins and are two games out of tenth place, they have exceeded the expectations of many.

Who would have thought? Me, that’s who.

Am I good or what? Well, let’s be fair here. I’m alright.

I don’t think anyone could have expected Devin Harris to play as well as he has this season and at the same time, many of the youngsters have shown that they have the potential to be useful players in the future.

Because of that, the New Jersey Nets should be proud with what they accomplished this season and should feel good about the direction they are going in.

“We have some nice pieces in place to win. But obviously we have a ways to go,” veteran Keyon Dooling told the Associated Press. “You can tweak a roster here and there, or you can get one player, and that can take you. Look at Boston. You bring KG in and bring Ray Allen in, and they’re the best team in the league. We’ll see. Maybe we’ll get something good in the draft, or a free agent pickup that will get us over the hump.”

However, unlike the Celtics, I think the Nets have some of the pieces on their roster already. Over the past three weeks, Chris Douglas-Roberts has shown that he can thrive with more responsibility and I still have faith that Ryan Anderson can be productive as well. However, more than anyone, I think Brook Lopez has the makings of an excellent center that will eventually be someone who will not only score 15 points a game, but someone who can average a double-double every night.

“He’s exceeded what we expected,” Nets coach Lawrence Frank told the AP. “Even going in, to seeing him from summer league to seeing him from training camp, he’s exceeded expectations.”

So while missing out on the playoffs for a second season in a row may be a tough pill to swallow for most fans of this team, the future is still a bright one.

Photo by Bill Menzel.

Everyone in the NBA knew going into the season that the Nets were in the middle of a rebuilding scheme and weren’t expected to be much more than cellar-dwellers.

However at times, they actually looked like a playoff team and one that had a ton of potential.

Not many teams are in a situation to have two All-Stars while being under .500 and the Nets were pretty damn close to achieving that. As well, they had a host of talented youngsters that appeared to be turning the corner as well.

Now, despite the fact that the team should be happy with what they’ve gotten out of Brook Lopez this season and the flashes of brilliance from the rest of their babies, the Nets again, for the second season in a row will most likely be on the outside of the playoff picture, looking in.

17 losses in their last 23 games will do that sort of thing.

Now, a bigger dilemma than missing the playoffs is presented.

Is Nets head coach Laurence Frank to partially blame? Or is he rewarded for taking a team full of kids and dealing with injuries to his key players and making them at the very least, respectable.

“After the season, all of us get graded and rated,” Thorn said. “All of us. We look at everything at the end of the year.”

Heh, that doesn’t sound very good if you’re Frank.

The team too doesn’t know what to make of the speculation as well.

“It’s things we can’t control. The things we can control are on the floor,” Devin Harris told the AP. “Our effort, the things we do on the floor. And that’s the things we have to focus on. We can’t worry about that. It’s not a decision we make.”

Simply put, Frank was brought in to provide energy and get the team back the finals after Byron Scott could not.

Over the past few seasons, that situation, for a variety of reasons, has not changed.

Will Frank have to pay, with his job, at the end of the season?

“Rod, to me, is the premier executive in sports because he’s very honest,” Frank told Yahoo Sports. “I’ll take Rod Thorn any day of the week, not because he’s supported me, but because he’s always been honest with me. Everyone gets evaluated every year so this is no different than in the past. I don’t need a vote of confidence. What we need to do is play as hard as we can, compete and try to win as many games as possible. Then when the season is over then we’re all evaluated.”

The difficulty of the rest of the schedule the New Jersey Nets have this season can be looked at in two different ways.

With games against Boston, Orlando and the Lakers over the next few weeks, the Nets know they will have to rise to the next level against those teams or lay in the land of mediocrity and play golf in late April and May.

“We’ve been playing against some pretty good teams and they know how to close games,” Nets veteran guard Keyon Dooling told the Associated Press. “When you have experience and you have a team that’s been together, like Cleveland, they know how to close out games.”

On the other hand, with games against Charlotte, Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and the Knicks, the Nets will be able to make up some ground and if they get hot, they can still sneak into the last spot. Is it plausible? Perhaps. But only if this team gets their act together right now.

With Devin Harris still battling a strained shoulder, the pressure will now rest on the shoulders of Vince Carter. Who after scoring 41 points two weeks ago against the Clippers, seemed primed to lead the team into the post-season.

“Obviously, he’s the best player on our team, the leader on our team,” rookie Brook Lopez told Yahoo Sports after that game. “And as crazy as stuff he does, you kind of come to expect that from him.”

Lately, he hasn’t been as hot though, scoring 45 points over his last two games, which is far from average, but as stated before, the Nets need more if they are going to be one of the top sixteen teams in the NBA by the end of the regular season.

One person who could help out a bit more is Yi Jianlian, who is only averaging six points a game since the All-Star break.

As the Spanish say, basurero.

What’s going on in Brooklyn?- Frank Gehry says one think. Bruce Ratner and Brett Yormark say another. Who do you believe? Will the Nets ever move to Brooklyn?

Still projecting the start of the 2011 season as the time when they should be in Brooklyn, the Nets aren’t convincing anyone of anything anytime soon.

“We will get it done,” Yormark promised in a recent radio interview. “There is no ‘Plan B.’ We are going to Brooklyn.”

Yeah. Whatever you say buddy.

Photo by Bill Menzel.

What is Sean Williams thinking?

Just after getting his act together and finding his way back into the Nets rotation, Williams goes and gets himself in hot water after allegedly throwing a computer monitor and damaging other electronic equipment during a dispute at a cell phone store in Colorado. Damages were estimated at between $1,200 and $1,300.

The rumor now is that the team will be seeking anger management classes for the troubled youngster.

Pretty funny considering the fact that I’ve seen Yi Jianlian show more emotion while in a silent film than Williams has shown most of the season.

Rather than be firm with the kid, he gets a slap on the wrist, two-game suspension and even more coddling from the organization.

“Sean feels horrible. He feels horrible first for letting down the team, letting down his teammates. He feels horrible for making a poor decision. He’s sincerely heartbroken. He feels very, very bad.”—Coach Lawrence Frank told the Associated Press, after meeting with suspended F Sean Williams Wednesday.

You see that? What? This is an article and your incapable of seeing what I’m doing? Well, I’m playing the world’s smallest violin for Williams right now.

He’s heart-broken? He feels very, very bad? For what? Getting caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing in the first place?

Are we at the point in our society where we still have to make excuses for these guys? Charles Barkley had it right when he said these guys aren’t role models and my entire argument has nothing to do with what little kids think of what Williams did, but the fact that he let his teammates down when they needed him the most.

Great job Sean, keep it up. I smell something in your future and it’s not an All-Star appearance. It’s most likely an episode of Pros vs Joes.

However, the Nets, for some reason, still have faith in the kid and are willing to work through these problems.

For what reason, I have no idea.

“He’s got a great heart and he’s made some poor decisions,” Frank told the Associated Press. “But if you were to sit down like we did today and talk to him, he’s a very engaging person and he’s just made some mistakes and he has to take responsibility for them and we just move from there.”

I know exactly where the team should move at this point; somewhere else.

The New Jersey Nets know things are getting down to the wire.

They know that things aren’t in their favor either.

In the middle of a four-game road trip, the Nets have already lost to Golden State a team that by all means they should have been able to defeat, but thanks in part to a horrendous late game display on defense and great individual play by Stephen Jackson.

With the loss to the Warriors, New Jersey now knows that they will have to be on their best behavior if they want to try and secure a playoff spot.

“There’s an opportunity to beat some teams that maybe on paper we shouldn’t beat,” Dooling told the Associated Press a few days ago. “It’s a very important trip, especially with the playoff race getting tighter.”

Tipping off with the Portland Blazers tonight, New Jersey will try and forget the last time they met, when rookie point guard Jerryd Bayless scored 23 points [He hasn't scored more than 19 since that game] to compliment a 29-point performance from Brandon Roy in a 105-99 win. In order for that not to happen tonight, the Nets will have to get more than just solid performances from Vince Carter and Devin Harris and will need someone from the bench to step up and provide a spark.

In that loss to Portland, the Nets bench scored only 24 points, with Dooling scoring 14 and Jarvis Hayes scoring seven. The team also had a huge problem rebounding that night as they were out-boarded 34-45. Portland was also very aggressive on offense that night and forced the Nets to commit 27 personal fouls.

When you add up all of this, it’s obvious why they lost and if they are to win, they’ll have to work hard and get more from their bench. It’s that simple.

One guy that has to continue to play hard is Sean Williams. Simply put, if he can continue to score six points and add four boards in 15 minutes a game, he’ll be one of the best backup centers in the league. After spending time in the D-League this season and almost losing his job, he should be the last person anyone should have to ask to play hard.

Seeing his season transpire the way it has has been rough for the former first rounder, but it looks like he’s discovered the error of his ways and is ready to get back to what he was doing in spurts last season.

“The low point for me was when I left the D-League and I came back to Jersey and I realized that my career was in jeopardy. And I didn’t understand why. I didn’t understand why at the time,” Williams told the AP. “I was really wondering where I was headed, how I got to this state where I was in the D-League and how things transpired in the D-League, (but) it helped me understand everybody has a role and to be successful in this league, you have to fill your role and show that you can come and consistently do what you’re supposed to do.”

If he truly understands that new role, the Nets should be in much better shape and with more consistency from Harris, Carter and Brook Lopez, who knows, the Nets may have what it takes to make the playoffs.

Photo by Bill Menzel.

Lets face it, despite how good the duo of Devin Harris and Vince Carter have been and regardless of how much Brook Lopez has progressed this season, the Nets have been hard-pressed to find a consistent presence from the other two spots in the lineup.

Bobby Simmons showed some flair against the Bulls last week, scoring 18 points, but aside from that, he’s been pretty inconsistent this season. The same goes for Ryan Anderson, who seemed to be picking up the slack for an injured Yi Jianlian last month, to only be benched a few games last week. The only consistent and dependable player this team has coming off the bench this season seems to be Keyon Dooling, who I feel is having one of, if the not the best, season of his NBA career. The same thing goes for Jarvis Hayes, whose play has seemingly gotten better after he injured his hand a few games ago.

Ironic, don’t ya think?

For what it’s worth too, I think Trenton Hassell, despite playing in 39 games, has been solid. It seems that every game I watch this team play that he gets an opportunity in, he does something. Against Boston, he hit all of his shots and didn’t really hurt the team on defense. Now I’m sure you’ll say he’s been starting lately, but he’s playing under 20 minutes which to me puts him in the realm of a bench player. Nevertheless, his hustle and drive is something I’d like to see from more of the players occupying the Nets bench.

Despite the problems from the rest of the bench though, someone always seems to come up big when th team needs them.

“We’ve gotten great contributions from the bench,” Frank explained to the Associated Press a few days ago. “Basically what we told our guys, it’s all hands on deck. You know who’s definitely going to play and based on matchups and the play of the game there are a couple guys who can be in or they can be out. And they’ve got to be ready. It may be your night, it may not be, but you’ve got to be ready.”

Two players that have gotten more playing time as of late are Sean Williams and Chris Douglas-Roberts, who have taken some of the pressure off of guys late Dooling. While they haven’t produced as much offensively as Frank would like, they have given the Nets a different look. At the same time, they may get some of the under-producers to finally get their act together.

At any rate, like I said before, if this team is going to make the playoffs, someone on that bench is going to have to get hot and fast. If not, it’ll be another season watching someone else.

Photo by Bill Menzel.

Even though the cast is a bit different this season for the New Jersey Nets, things are beginning to look awfully familiar.

On the outside of the playoff picture looking in, the Nets understand they are running out of time and have to step up their game. Otherwise the only way they’ll make the playoffs is on NBA Live 2009.

“It’s money time,” Carter told the Associated Press this week. “This is when teams make the playoff push, or are fighting for position or homecourt advantage or whatever the case may be. This is my time to step up.”

Averaging over 20 points all season, both Carter and Devin Harris have held down the New Jersey fort all season.

Harris especially has been on his game, scoring 42 points against the Bulls on Wednesday.

“Now is the time,” Harris told the AP after the game. “We really can’t wait anymore. We can’t be patient. I’d rather be aggressive than passive. Being more aggressive on offense is what I’m trying to do right now.”

However in spite of both Carter and Harris, the Nets are in need of another player, anyone at this point, that can be dependable and produce on offense.

While Brook Lopez has the makings of that player one day, the Nets need more from someone else. 12 points and eight rebounds is damn solid from a rookie center and the Nets need something more from the power forward spot, especially if they are going to make the playoffs this season.

With Ryan Anderson and Yi Jianlian battling inconsistency all season, could Sean Williams be the player the Nets need right now?

Six points and four rebounds in 17 minutes may not be much, but Williams did provide a spark the other night, something Jianlian hasn’t been able to do much of the season aside from a handful of games before his injury.

“You’re looking for energy. And that’s one of Sean’s traits. If he’s consistent with it, then his minutes will be consistent,” coach Lawrence Frank told the Associated Press, stressing Williams, in order to play, must show “high energy level, running the floor, crashing both boards, defensively being a presence around the rim, performing your role with maximum enthusiasm, focus, concentration.”

Anyway the cookie crumbles, things will be interesting the rest of the season in New Jersey.

Photo by Bill Menzel.

When Ryan Anderson was drafted by the Nets this summer, some of the pundits and critics in the league expected him to develop faster than Brook Lopez, the center the team drafted to solve their problems up the middle. While that hasn’t exactly happened, with Lopez catching most of the spotlight from the press this season [as far as the Nets rookies are concerned, Anderson hasn’t been too shabby either.

Scoring 12 or more points in six of his past 16 games, Anderson is beginning to understand what it takes to become a success in the NBA. However, the main reason why he’s gotten an opportunity to play as much as he has been lately has had more to do with Yi Jianlian’s injury than anything he’s done specifically on the court. Despite the fact that he’s played well in Yi’s absence, no one knows what the future holds for either of them.

“He (coach Lawrence Frank) really hasn’t talked about long term. He definitely will work Yi back in (until then) we might play together, me at the five and Yi at the four just to get him back in,” Anderson told the Associated Press a few days ago. “The whole season I was playing behind Yi. It’s funny how it works. If anything this stretch gave me more confidence knowing I can play big minutes.”

Shooting five for 13 in 35 minutes in his first two games since returning, it’s safe to say that Yi isn’t exactly ready to retain his starting spot. That should give Anderson a few more games to show the Nets brass that he’s the better player. Despite the fact that on paper Yi appears to be the better scorer and rebounder, I think Anderson is the grittier player and a much more explosive scorer. Earlier in the season, it was obvious that Anderson was the better three point shooter, but inconsistency has gotten the better of him since then. If Anderson can find a way to get hot from beyond the arc again, he may cement his spot in the starting five.

So far, since Yi’s return, Anderson only has 13 points and has only taken eight shots in over 45 minutes of action. If he wants to be a starter in this league, that will have to change. Otherwise, the Nets will have to settle for a pair of underachievers at power forward, rather than one.

Photo by Bill Menzel