No Ordinary Joe
They let us in a little early today and got to see Joe Alexander do a Vince Carter-type dunk. Alexander’s elbow was in the basket.
It was a joint workout with the Knicks and Nets with coach Mike D’Antoni, his brother Dan, Brendan Suhr, Glen Grunwald, Phil Weber were in the house along with the usual crew of Nets’ onlookers: Thorn, Vandeweghe, Frank and Polinsky.
Alexander is a great athlete with tremendous jumping ability. But will he be there at No. 10? Who knows at this point. He could go to the Bucks at eight. Is he more attractive to the Nets than Danilo Gallinari? Highly doubtful.
All signs seem to be pointing to the Nets getting Gallinari, unless someone surprising scoops him beforehand, or someone unexpected drops or they make a trade.
There is plenty of time and chances any or all of that happens so it’s now a waiting game. But after the workout, Vandeweghe reiterated the phones are ringing but nothing has grabbed him or Thorn yet.
“We’ve been fielding a lot of calls at 10 and 21,” Kiki said. “I think we’ll see a good player come to us. I think is a very deep draft. We like those two picks. Right now, we’re not planning to do anything with them, but certainly listening to all the calls.”
Vandeweghe also revealed that the Nets list for 10 features about five names, give or take.
“Probably 5 or so we think can realistically get to us,” he said.
Our guess is Gallinari, Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, Russell Westbrook – although Vandeweghe thinks he’ll be gone – and perhaps Alexander or D.J. Augustin. Then there are the wild cards as in who drops such as Mayo, Gordon or Bayless. (The Nets would love if any of them are there, especially Gordon, yet at this point it doesn’t seem likely. But you can’t say never.)
“You’re going to see some guys who obviously will not get to us and you kind of cross those guys off, “Vandeweghe said. “But this is an extremely deep draft.
"It’s interesting because I don’t think anybody has a good handle on what’s going on. You have a lot of maneuvering, which you do in every draft. You have some very smart agents out there who are maneuvering their guys. Their job is to create the hype around the players and our job is to try and weed through that and get to the essence of the player.
“Your question of who’s on the short list – it’s tough this year because even at 10 you don’t know, people are all over the map.”
Vandeweghe said he would rather take a player who has worked out for the Nets, but Thorn reminded him that they often go with guys who had never stepped foot into their practice facility. Think Antoine Wright and Marcus Williams. OK Sean Williams didn’t either, but Thorn and Ed Stefanski went to see him in Houston.
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No doubt, Thorn has a soft spot for Alexander, who comes out of West Virginia, Rod’s alma mater. Alexander wouldn’t mind sharing stories with Thorn about being a Mountaineer on a daily basis.
“I’d love it if I landed here,” Alexander said. “And 10 is a high pick. So I would not be disappointed at all to come here.”
Tell us how you fit, please.
“My best asset is that I’m versatile,” he said. “So if this team asks me to be a defensive stopper, I can do that. If they ask me to sit in the corner and hit 3’s, I think I can do that too. Whatever they need of me, I feel I can do.”
Kiki's assessment:
"He is very talented athletically. We were joking, saying he looked like me coming out there when I was younger but I could never jump like that. That was the joke. He put his elbow in the rim a couple of times. He’s a good shooter, very competitive. He’s just a very competitive hard-nosed kid. He’d done a lot of workouts. So you could tell he was tired, but he fought today. That’s probably one the best things about him, how competitive he is and how he works."
The Nets also were impressed by Georgetown giant Roy Hibbert, a legit 7-foot-2, and Croatian forward Damjan Rudez, who showed off his athleticism and shooting touch. Rudez was a last-minute addition after Nicolas Batum had to back out after a physical in Toronto revealed an irregular heartbeat.
The other players who worked out were South Florida power forward Kentrell Gransberry, GW guard Maureece Rice and D-Leaguer Mike Taylor.
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As expected, Bill Cartwright won’t return as a Nets’ assistant. He joined Terry Porter's staff in Phoenix.
Coach Lawrence Frank, who has already begun interviewing replacements for Pat Sullivan now that he’s back in Detroit, probably figured he had to expand his search to find a No. 2 to replace Cartwright. Brian Hill is the Nets’ lead assistant.
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Josh Boone is conducting a free basketball clinic and will sign autographs at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus tomorrow from noon to 2 p.m. at the Macy’s court near the carousel.
The whole game-night crew will be there at some point from Team Hype (11 a.m. – noon), the Nets Dancers (1-2 p.m.) and Mini Sly (2-3 p.m.) will be on hand.
Boone is holding a basketball academy for players ages 7-17 Aug. 18-22 at the Nets practice facility. Registrations for the Josh Boone Basketball Academy will be accepted at the event.
Also, Marcus Williams’ Basketball Camp at Hoop Heaven in Whippany starts Monday.
Al, gut feeling, do you think they will get Gallinari or will he be snatched up by the Knicks?
Brook Lopez is not a terrible option but something about him screams bust.
Posted by: Jeff | June 20, 2008 at 06:22 PM
Is there any chatter about potential darkhorses other than Robin Lopez? I'm not a fan of either Lopez, so do guys like Arthur, Koufos or Speights still factor in?
Posted by: Nick | June 21, 2008 at 01:20 AM
brook=Darko!!
http://www.collegefastbreak.com/
Posted by: ryan | June 23, 2008 at 01:07 PM