Notes on a Winning Streak

Nets president Rod Thorn normally doesn’t call a meeting this early in the season, but felt it was needed after his team was out-worked and out-played Wednesday against Indiana.

So Thursday, Thorn gave his players a piece of his mind. His message?

“Basically, we need to play tougher,” Thorn said. “We’ve been too soft, particularly around the rim, defensively. We need to play tougher if we want to have any chance to have any success. We have to play a lot tougher.”

The Nets responded with back-to-back wins over the Hawks - their first winning streak of the season.

***
Rookie Brook Lopez had a strong game Friday (25 points, nine rebounds) starting for the injured Josh Boone. It’s possible Lopez could become the full-time starter at some point.

Generally, a player doesn't lose his starting job due to injury, but coach Lawrence Frank reiterated that other than Vince Carter and Devin Harris, no job is solidified. So it’s also possible Ryan Anderson could be back in the rotation full time as he’s played well in the two games getting minutes in place of injured Eduardo Najera

“We went into camp saying spots 3-through-15 were open,” Frank said. “We had injuries to some guys in camp, so it was hard to evaluate. So we’re still searching.

“We’re still looking for the best combinations. So those things are open. There’s nothing solidified. Devin and Vince are starting. And we’ll continue to evaluate. I think you should get what you earn.”

Frank also said he’s not considering starting Jarvis Hayes at small forward for under-producing Bobby Simmons because he likes what Hayes gives the Nets off the bench.

***
The Nets have had talks with Golden State involving multiple players, including unhappy Warriors Al Harrington and Marco Bellinelli.

The Warriors wanted either Josh Boone or Sean Williams. The Nets weren’t interested. Eventually, they likely will make a trade. The Nets have seven power forwards/centers, but currently only four healthy so nothing is imminent.

“We talk to people a lot,” Thorn said. “Most of it’s idle chatter like with most teams. I don’t really have anything to say about it.”

***

Carter passed Jason Kidd (7,373) and moved into third place on the Nets’ all-time NBA scoring list with 7,386 points and counting. He trails Richard Jefferson (8,507) and Buck Williams (10,440).

Comments

[lax]

trade boone he sux

[Adam.y]

Really now with Devin we're a really decent team, we have a great 1-2 combo in Devin and Vince and a very respectable supporting cast surrounding them.
If Thorn/Kiki can get us a good SF like Al Harrington this team would be down right great.

A Swift-Sean-2nd round-MW pick we got from them package should do the trick.

[Anrdés]

^I hope they could get it done.

[Peter]

The fact that Rod ran this instead of Frank tells me that the players don't respect Frank. The president of the team shoul dnot have to go into the locker room this early in the year to get things going. Get a real coach.

[kason]

first let change so players around we take from them al harrington marcus williams and marco bellinelli and we give them sean williams stormile swift trenton hassell and the pick we got from them for marcus williams that do in why marcus you may say we need a back point guard to help out d harris in macus williams good player this get bad rap this sit on a beach we so have never let him in rj go anyway