Closing Time

It’s over. And now begins an offseason filled with questions and more than likely change.

This time, and for the first time in six years, the Nets aren’t building around Jason Kidd. That makes the job even tougher, but it has to be done.

The Nets ended their most disappointing season since I’ve been around them (1996) with a 105-94 loss to the Celtics at TD Banknorth Garden. They closed out the grossly underachieving campaign with a 34-48 record, 10th worst in the NBA.

Rod Thorn, Kiki Vandeweghe and Lawrence Frank will conduct exit interviews today and for some the next couple of days could be their last with the Nets.

It won’t be for Frank. As you know, Thorn believes in Frank and is giving him the chance to get the Nets back to the playoffs. If they struggle next year, after Thorn and Vandeweghe assemble the team, then Frank could be in trouble.

Player wise, no one is entirely safe. It’s likely Devin Harris will be back and Vince Carter, unless someone shows interest and a fair trade offer. Josh Boone should be back and Sean Williams, unless they’re needed to sweeten a deal for big-named player. After that it’s up in the air.

As you’ve heard me say on YES or seen me write in various places, they have to make changes. No one should be safe. I don’t want to say gut the team, but Thorn and Vandeweghe have to be bold in their moves, be creative, use all the assets they have and they have plenty.

Ownership has to give them the freedom to spend money, which they always say they will and then they make them make moves to get under the luxury tax.

As far as the assets:

• The Nets have their lottery pick (either 1, 23, 10, 11 or 12), the Mavericks’ first-round pick (No. 21), and a second-round pick. They have the midlevel and lower-level exceptions and two trade exceptions ($1.68 million, $770,000). They can’t be combined.

• They have players going into the final year of their deals: Stromile Swift and Maurice Ager.

• They have young, talented players in Richard Jefferson, Marcus Williams, Sean Williams and Boone.

• They have Keith Van Horn’s contract, which is non-guaranteed, but can be used in a trade.

• They have restricted free agent Nenad Krstic that if they lose, should make sure they do a sign-and-trade to get something for him.

The key is the Nets have to find shooters, tough players, physically and mentally, and competitors. When they lost Kidd, they lost a rare athlete with a tremendous will to win. That’s hard to replace. No one on this team even comes close to that.

But it starts today for Thorn and Vandeweghe.

“There’s only one advantage to ending your season early,” Frank said. “And that is that you have a longer period of time in the offseason to get better.”

I know you guys can’t wait for that.

***
By finishing with the 10th-worst record, the Nets will have 11 ping-pong balls in the May 20 Draft Lottery.

They have a 1.1 percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick, 1.3 percent of getting No. 2 and 1.58 percent of getting No. 3. They have a 86.97 percent chance of picking 10th; 8.88 percent chance of picking 11th and .18 percent chance of picking 12th.

***
The Nets finished up three games behind Atlanta for the final playoff spot. Well, they lost to the Knicks three times, twice to the Grizzlies, twice to the Clippers, once to Minnesota.

Oh never mind. They didn’t deserve to make it.

***
Carter may undergo an X-ray on his ankle today to see what the next step will be. He may need surgery.

***
Bostjan Nachbar will have an MRI on his back today. He has a disc problem that he hopes will just require rest. Nachbar showed a lot of character by finishing out this season.

He was given the opportunity to sit after the Nets were eliminated in Toronto Friday. He said no and it wasn’t brought up again.

The Nets should try and hold on to Nachbar, who becomes a free agent on July 1. Although he had an inconsistent year, he can play multiple positions and is valuable when the Nets go small or player smaller teams because of his versatility.

***
Sean and Marcus, who played zero minutes and three respectively in the Nets’ home finale Tuesday, combined to play 40:32 seconds against Boston.

This will be a big a summer for Sean, who will return to Houston this weekend and resume workouts with John Lucas. Marcus plans to work out in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Comments

[Jeff]

Finally it comes to an end. Cant say I'm not glad. Like I mentioned in my other posts, one of the more frustrating seasons I have ever experienced as a Nets fan.

Ill say it Al. They have to gut this team. They have to remove everyone on this team and hand the keys to Devin Harris. I dont want to see anyone on this team from the Kidd era, except Boone and Sean Williams. They need to start fresh and begin a new chapter. That's all I want from Rod and Kiki.

Thanks for the coverage Al. You really did a great job covering this team this year and also for giving us Nets fans a place to vent our frustrations with this franchise.

[mina]

al- i'll have to disagree with you when you write, numerous times, that the nets dealt a franchise type player in kidd.

kidd WAS a franchise type player. but this year he wasnt. harris is already a better player than him. even when kidd was here, carter was more important to the nets on the court than kidd was. as i remember when carter missed those 6 games at the beginning of the season, kidd and the rest couldnt even crack 75 pts and even 35 % from the field.

kidd is not the same player he used to be. after his micro fracture surgery ihe's been on steady decline.

also to prove he wsnt the same player. frank had his whole offense changed to a motion type offense to better suite kidd and rj rather than carter. with the ball in kidd's hanfds most of the times this year in this offense, the nets were the worst offensive team in almost every category.

kidd is no longer a franchise type player. and the nets got a huge upgrade right now in harris.

so please, next time ewhen writing an article and mentioning kidd's name, please state the facts. kidd is no longer a franchise player, and hasnt been for a couple opf season.

and say its a big maybe for carter to regain his allstar form is also bizarre. carter has been injured all year. after kidd got traded he put monstrous numbers, not allstar type of superstar type worthy numbers. carter has basically carried this team since he's got here. his numbers this year are almost identical from last year. the only difference is his scoring averages, but that is from the lomited touches he's had this year by frank design. his shooting clip is the sam if not even better. the more shots carter gets the better his scoring averages is and the better his team is.

if anything, the nets still have a franchise type player with the ability to carry the load for the team. i dont think kidd was able to that before he got trade. as ive noted those fiive games hwere carter misses, and the offense which he led this year are clear indications that kidd is a shadow of his former self.

[Adam.y]

I agree with mina, the Nets got an equally good player for today in Harris with some amazing upside for a 1-2 tops good years of Kidd.

What they need to do is try to swing a deal for a third star without touching Vince,Harris and RJ.
They have some great assits to pull off a blockbuster trade and some of the possible candidates like JO ,Brand and Mike Miller can help them soo much.
I also believe that they have to at least try to sign Emeka Okafur who would be a perfect fit for this team.

[Adam.y]

Man sorry I meant to write assets.

[steve]

Harris can put up some stats, but all the very important intangibles that Kidd brought are gone. And this is the problem in trading a guy like Kidd for Harris. The trade is lopsided, and now the Nets are back to the bottom of the NBA.

Now the question is, do the Nets care enough to build a winning team? Or are they content enough with fighting ATL for the final playoff spot in a miserable conference?

The next question is, can the Nets rebuild the team even if they wanted to? It seems to me that trading RJ or VC for anything close to equal value may be impossible. Also, fixing the bench may be a very difficult task.

But hey, if we get bored, we can watch Kidd in the Playoffs on Saturday with a team that actual cares. :/