Jan
13

By

Report: Mikhail Prokhorov Looking to Sell Nets

Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg Business is reporting that Mikhail Prokhorov is looking to sell the Brooklyn Nets. It’s long been rumored that Prokhorov was planning to cash out on his purchase of the Nets, and it looks like that time is upon us.

Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirmed the report, and ESPN’s Mike Mazzeo tweeted out a statement from Prokhorov’s spokesperson.

 

The selling price can merely be speculative at this point, but it will almost certainly be around and possibly higher than the $2 billion mark the Clippers sold for.

IN MEMORIAM

In his short time as Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov gifted us with several golden quotes to remember him by:

“If you know how rich you are, you are not a billionaire.”

“You could have all the money in the world, but you have to be smart enough knowing how to spend it. I really try to be on that smart money side. Once you make a serious mistake you can suffer five or six years, and I do my best to avoid serious mistakes.” (So Mr. Prokhorov, what about that luxury tax and all the traded draft picks…)

“I don’t use a computer. We have too much information and it’s really impossible to filter it.”

“I never count my money. I think that’s your job.”

And finally, on former Nets coach Jason Kidd:

“I think there is a nice proverb in English. Don’t let the door hit you, where the good lord has split you.”

Jan
12

By

Recap: Nets 99, Rockets 113

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The Houston Rockets, and James Harden, were just too much for the Brooklyn Nets tonight. The Nets fell behind by double-digits in the first quarter and would chip the lead down to two points before halftime, but Houston opened it back up in the second half and their bench extended the lead to as many as 23 in the fourth quarter. Houston would hold on for a 113-99 victory, led by James Harden’s 30 points in 30 minutes, and the Nets will enter their home game Wednesday against the 26-11 Memphis Grizzlies on a six-game losing streak.

Early in the first quarter, Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard engaged in some back-and-forth jostling coming up the court that soon escalated into a thrown ball and KG head butt. He’d be ejected after just four minutes of play and Dwight remained in the game with a technical, and Houston (Harden) extended the first-quarter lead to 11. Rather than give a straight recap of tonight’s game and chronologically describe the 14-point loss, let’s discuss some of tonight’s events in bullet points.

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Jan
10

By

Recap: Nets 93, Pistons 98

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The Nets came into tonight’s game with what should have been some solid motivation. After getting embarrassed last night on their home court with a loss to the Sixers, the Nets had the chance to redeem themselves with a win on a SEGABABA against the suddenly spunky Pistons.

A few weeks ago, back-to-back losses to Philadelphia and Detroit may have been grounds for expulsion from the NBA. But the Pistons have quickly turned their season around while winning 7 out of 8 games, all after cutting mercurial forward Josh Smith.

In the first quarter it appeared the Nets were on their way to being embarrassed again. They came out of the gates seeming disinterested and playing sloppy. The Pistons took advantage and were looking like the Showtime Lakers on the fast break. Thankfully the Nets were able to steady themselves and head into the 2nd quarter down just 1 point, despite missing 15 shots in the quarter.

With solid minutes from the bench -Brook Lopez and Darius Morris in particular- Brooklyn kept themselves in the game. The Nets continued to struggle with their shooting and constantly left Detroit shooters open, but they were able to head into halftime tied at 47, thanks to runs of 8-0 and 9-2 in the quarter.

Sadly the halftime tie was likely the high point for the Nets in this game. They were able to keep the game close and got solid contributions off of the bench. Six Nets scored in double figures, and Brook Lopez was active defensively while pulling in 15 rebounds. But the issue was that at no point did it seem that any Brooklyn player believed they would win the game. They all seemed to be going through the motions, as if they were hostages being forced to play basketball. At no point did I sense any passion or excitement from anyone. Sure, it’s just a random Saturday game in January, but the Nets can not win when they play so morosely.

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Grades:

Jarrett Jack: Saying Jack had a “rough” night shooting would be like saying Stan Van Gundy “kind of” looks like Ron Jeremy. Jack’s shot was awful tonight, as he went 2-12 from the floor. Many of his 10 misfires (7 of them from the 3-point line) were obvious as soon as they left his hand. Hopefully he can regain his touch by Monday. D

Joe Johnson: Joe had 17 points on 14 shots, but never quite got in a rhythm. Not his best night, not his worst. B-

Bojan Bogdanovic: After a couple weeks of coming off the bench, Bojan regained his starting spot tonight. While he is still hesitant and inconsistent on his jumper, he made up for it with some timely, intelligent cuts. His defense is still a work in progress as well, but hopefully getting regular minutes again will boost his confidence on both ends. C

Kevin Garnett: KG was routinely solid in his 17 minutes. I have to say, it would be fun to see KG playing his 15-20 minutes a night on a legitimate contender. Hopefully the Nets are able to work something out so that he can maximize what is likely his final season. B

Mason Plumlee: Made some pretty moves on offense but struggled a bit with the bulk of Andre Drummond. Increasing his strength (while retaining his quickness) is something Plumlee should focus on after the season. B-

Brook Lopez: Was just 3-9 from the floor and still black hole-ish sometimes in the post, but overall I felt he had one of his more effective games of the season. He did a good job using the Hibbert verticality rule to his advantage on defense, and brought down 15 rebounds - just one short of his season high. A-

Mirza Teletovic: Another dud offensively for Mirza (1-9 from the field). Something just doesn’t seem right with him. D

Sergey Karasev: Played just 11 minutes off of the bench after starting for the past few weeks. He made a few nifty passes but failed to have much of an impact on the game. C-

Darius Morris: Was a spark for the Nets both times that he came into the game. He didn’t do anything spectacular, but was solid defensively and made 2 open threes. B-

Alan Anderson: Somehow every game I watch I barely remember Anderson playing. He had 13 points on just 7 shots, and was one of just 3 nets with a positive plus/minus. I guess that is solid, even if I can hardly recall it. B-

Jerome Jordan: Played only 6 minutes, but I remember more of his time on the court than I do of Alan Anderson’s. Weird. B

Lionel Hollins: Coached a team that lost last night to the Sixers. F

The Nets will attempt to stop the bleeding on Monday, as they come home to face the 25-11 Houston Rockets.

Jan
9

By

Recap: Nets 88, Sixers 90

Welcome to rock bottom, population: Nets.

The Brooklyn Nets have now lost four straight, with their latest act being a two-point loss to the mighty 76ers at home. They had a chance to send the game into overtime or even win it, but Brook Lopez’s fadeaway 30-footer missed the rim entirely. Yes, you read that right.

The game started off in decent fashion, with Brooklyn taking a nine-point lead after 12 minutes behind solid play on both ends. The Lopez-Plumlee combo started with Kevin Garnett out, and dominated Philly early on and throughout the night. Since Brooklyn was playing the Sixers, I half-expected them to extend their lead to the 20-point area in the second. Reasonable, isn’t it? I mean, they’re the Sixers. Instead, the Nets had their usual second-quarter. You know, bad. Brooklyn scored 14 points on 6-19 shooting from the field in the period. Against the Sixers, by the way.

The Nets starting cooking once again in the third with Lopez and Plumlee back out there, but their lead never went beyond 13 points. Most of this game was in the single-digits range, giving Philly the chance to come back with one solid run. That run came in the fourth, when the Nets for no apparent reason played Jarrett Jack and Darius Morris - the only two point guards on their active roster - together. The Plumlee-Lopez combo didn’t appear until the final minutes, when Philly already took the lead.

With the Sixers up two, the Nets spent a couple of minutes not being able to score until Lopez finally dropped a floater in with 25 ticks to go. Michael Carter-Williams found Nerlens Noel inside for the slam with just three seconds to play, and then Lopez shot a fading three from 30 feet out.

The Nets can’t shoot. They can’t move the ball. Their rebounding is shaky. They are old and slow and boy does it show. Their fans can’t even look forward to possibly missing the Playoffs because Brooklyn’s first-rounder will be swapped with Atlanta’s if the Hawks so desire. The team needs a major change, badly.

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Jan
8

By

Recap: Nets 81, Celtics 89

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That was ugly. The Brooklyn Nets of the first quarter looked like a completely different team than the squad that played in the other three periods, displaying confidence and competence on both ends of the court and generally playing hard. By the fourth quarter, those qualities seemed like impossibilities.

The Nets worked the Celtics early in the first quarter, getting good looks at the rim for Mason Plumlee and free-throw line floaters for Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack. Sergey Karasev passed up a couple of outside looks in favor of a layup and some penetration into the paint, while Kevin Garnett was aggressive early on the boards and in looking for his jump shot. Their 8 assists and 2 turnovers in the first quarter would unfortunately be the outlier in their 89-81 loss to the Boston Celtics.

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Jan
7

By

Three Man Weave: Week Eleven Edition

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The Brooklyn Nets were so close to their first perfect week - and four-game winning streak - of the season. Monday’s home win against the Sacramento Kings featured 12 lead changes but a comfortable 8-point margin of victory against a frustrated Boogie Cousins and company, but the team’s Tuesday night road win against the Chicago Bulls rivals the Spurs overtime game from early-December as the biggest win of the 2014-15 season and second against an above-.500 team. Without Kevin Garnett on the second night of a back-to-back, head coach Lionel Hollins inserted Brook Lopez back into the starting lineup (alongside Mason Plumlee) against the Bulls’ frontcourt of Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol and Lopez responded with a season-high 29 points as the Nets took the game, 96-82. A Friday night road win in Orlando gave the Nets their second three-game win streak in as many weeks, but the team scored just a single basket over the last 8:16 of the game and fell two points shy of squandering their 25-point fourth-quarter lead.

In their first three wins of the week, the Brooklyn Nets were propelled largely by dominant second-quarter performances. They fell behind in the first quarters of all of their games last week, then outscored the Kings 30-16, the Bulls 31-14, and the Magic 30-15 in their next quarter of play. Those huge second quarters were enough to overcome being outscored in the fourth in all three of those victories as well, and could indicate some success from the new-look bench unit that starts the second. That second-quarter run disappeared in Sunday’s road loss to the Miami Heat, as the Nets still went down 30-21 in the first but tied the second, 19-19, and Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade’s combined 51 points spoiled a potential four-game winning streak.

Last week on The Weave I incorrectly attributed a road back-to-back to the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat games that were both road games but were not, in fact, played on consecutive nights. Instead, the Brooklyn Nets began their back-to-back Sunday in Miami and conclude Monday at home against the Rajon Rondo-led Dallas Mavericks (which is just hours away tipping, as of the writing of this week’s Weave). A Wednesday night game against the Boston Celtics will come sandwiched between a couple of days of rest, and then the Nets will play the Philadelphia 76ers at home Friday and travel to Detroit Saturday for a game against the streaking Pistons.

In Week 11, our three experts get into some personnel issues with the Nets, including the Lopez/Plumlee starting frontcourt, more Deron Williams/Brook starting lineup questions, and Bojan Bogdanovic’s recent disappearance from Lionel Hollins’s rotation. Send us your feedback, answers, or questions for future Weaves in the comments or on Twitter. Read More

Jan
6

By

A First Look at the 2015 Draft for the Nets

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At this point in the season it’s probably too early to take a look at the upcoming draft for any non-Sixer or Knick team in the NBA. Conference play has only just started in the NCAA so most prospects have played at most three or four games against high level competition, and with the NBA season about 1/3 of the way through, the draft order today and the draft order come June are going to be radically different. Something being stupid and fruitless hasn’t stopped us before though so here we go. Read More

Jan
5

By

Recap: Brooklyn Nets 88, Dallas Mavericks 96 - OT

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Remember how the NBA toyed with a 44 minute game in the preseason? If they could have made tonight’s Brooklyn Nets game versus the Dallas Mavericks about 20 minutes it would have been a glorious victory. This one was actually 53 minutes long (with one overtime) and, in an unfortunately common manner, the Nets in the second half became stagnant, sluggish, sloppy, and seemingly…uh, sad (I ran out of S words and wasn’t about to ruin my alluringly amazing alliteration). Even though the Nets remembered how to play basketball with about 2 minutes left in regulation and forced overtime, it wasn’t enough for the win as they ultimately went down 96-88 to the Mavericks.

Let’s start with the worst stat of the game: The Brooklyn Nets started 1-4 from three-point range. Not great, right? Well they then missed their next 18 threes before finishing 3-25. Eighteen. That’s a lot. Really…a lot. You know how it’s frustrating to see a older guy (like myself) in pickup taking shot after shot despite “not having it” that day (that’s totally me)? It’s even more frustrating to see pros doing it because they’re not going to get winded and have to sit after 10 minutes (me again). They can’t abandon the three, but Alan Anderson taking a pull-up shot from the top of the key over the 7-foot Dirk Nowitski (he missed the rim) is not the way to break a slump.

It feels like Brooklyn starts off really well in most games, flying around the court like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and giving the wonderful gift of good shots. This game was no different as even the missed shots were great looks during a first period where Dallas was uninterested in interior defense. Brook Lopez scored 18 glorious points in the first quarter! He finished with 22.

In the second half all that movement stopped like Santa Claus on December 26 as the Nets took a nap and planned their vacation. Did I stretch that metaphor to death, sure, but Brooklyn still looked terrible after halftime, like Santa naked (ha, good luck erasing that from the memory).

With no ball movement and no three-point shooting, Jarrett Jack and Joe Johnson decided it was isolation time. Jack ended up shooting 6-15 for 20 points (8-8 on free throws) and Johnson was 8-19 for 18. It did seem to successfully isolate the other Nets players, but I’m not sure that’s what they were going for. Joe Johnson finally caught fire on both offense and defense with about 2 minutes left, and it was just enough to overcome the rest of the second half, but not enough for a win.

Both Deron Williams and Kevin Garnett were out, but I’m not sure it would have made much difference to the outcome. These types of games are frustrating and all too common. Stop it Nets. Stop it right now.

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Grades:

Joe Johnson: While having his fair share of cringe-worthy Iso-Joe moments, Johnson came up with some big shots and big defensive plays at the end of regulation. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and that gets you a grade of C+

Mason Plumlee: A subdued Mason Plumlee showed up against Dallas. He did the little things that Plums is always good for like hustling, cutting, finding shooters, and being a pain on defense, but he was just a little sluggish tonight. He only took 4 shots (making 2) and finished with 7 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 turnovers and could not wrestle two incredibly important rebounds from Tyson Chandler at the end of overtime.  C

Jarrett Jack: I could just have easily used the Facts of Life theme on Jack instead of Johnson. The good: 10 assists, 4 rebounds, and only 3 turnovers in 43 minutes. The bad: 6-15 shooting and many forced shots that should have been passes. Jack as a distributing point guard is a good thing. Jack as a scoring point guard is not.  C+

Sergey Karasev: While continuing to show promise for the future, the Sergey Karasev of right now is a little rough. He finished with 10 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, a steal, and no turnovers in 26 minutes, but was a little overwhelmed by the talented Mavericks. Still, I’d rather see him out there more and it seems Lionel Hollins agrees. B-

Brook Lopez: Oh that first quarter. Brook had 18 points and 6 rebounds, was hustling on defense and crashing the boards. He may have well sat the rest of the game, finishing with 22 points and 13 rebounds. I don’t blame him for most of it as he kept at the rebounds but was forced to harder shots by the stagnancy of the Nets offense. Still, you’d like to see him occasionally create his own shot like the Brook of old. B-

Mirza Teletovic: When the threes aren’t falling you know Mirza’s in for a rough time. He tried making the most of it with 10 rebounds, an assist, and a steal, but that 2-8 from the field and 0-4 from 3 is just glaring. C-

Bojan Bogdanovic: Poor Bojan. Even on a night where I could have brought up the three point percentage Bogdanovic sees only 4 minutes of floor time. In those 4 minutes he managed to miss his only two shots, one of them an airballed three-pointer. His confidence must be just super. F

Alan Anderson: Anderson played 37 minutes and I barely remember him being out there. He was 1-6, but was one of the few who managed to make a three (1-5). Other than that, didn’t make much of an impact. C

Darius Morris: Another young guard I’d like to see more of, but unlike Karasev, Hollins doesn’t agree with me here. Morris only played 9 minutes of nondescript ball.  D

Next game: vs. Boston Celtics on Wednesday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 PM.

Jan
5

By

Brooklyn’s Finest Kicks - December 2014

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After a subpar start to the season, many may struggle to elucidate how the Nets were able to make it to the new year just one game under .500. However, I believe that I have uncovered the factor that has catalyzed their turnaround: fine kicks.

November was a disappointing month in Nets kicks. Joe Johnson and Jarrett Jack were forced to carry the Nets’ sneaker performance as their teammates were stuck in a rut of bland, unimaginative designs and color schemes.

But December was a new month and the Nets unleashed a balanced attack of sneaker aesthetics, as everyone from rookie to vet to hip-hop mogul made an impact. Let’s take a look at what shoes were responsible for the Nets’ resurgence. Read More

Jan
4

By

Recap: Nets 84, Heat 88

The Nets are bad. They beat the Spurs, and the Bulls, but they can’t offer a modicum of consistently good basketball. With a chance at winning four in a row for the first time all season, Brooklyn lost to an underwhelming and hurt Miami Heat squad 88-84.

The Heat took control of this game from the get-go, with a strong 30-21 first quarter that left the Nets dazed. Brooklyn couldn’t find a decent look and Miami took advantage on the break, where the Nets couldn’t do anything to stop them. Brooklyn’s offense finally picked up in the second behind Deron Williams and Mirza Teletovic, spacing out the attack and keeping the game somewhat close.

In the third quarter the Nets went back to their poor shooting ways with the starters back in. There was lots of iso-Joe that simply didn’t work. Jarrett Jack was atrocious. Hassan Whiteside had a career night simply by being the most athletic guy on the floor. Miami prepared well and came away with a heap of steals by seemingly knowing where the Nets were passing before the Nets did.

In the fourth, the Nets finally made their move after what was essentially 36 minutes of being down eight to 12 points. Brook Lopez woke up and finally began pouring it on, but Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were too much to handle for Brooklyn. The Nets had a fighting chance down three with under a minute to go, but Wade drew a foul (*cough* flopped *cough*) coming in for an offensive board and extended the gap to two possessions.

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