Two really solid links this morning.  First the great Jared Wade (who writes for HardwoodParoxysm.com and EightPointsNineSeconds.com) wrote up a little something on Mikhail Prokhorov forh his site Bothteamsplayedhard.net:

Mikhail Prokhorov, the $13-billion man who is now officially the new owner of the Nets and a guy Bill Simmons has dubbed the Russian Mark Cuban, has good news for Nets fans. Your favorite team will be in the Playoffs next season and will also soon win a title. This, too, will probably happen next year, but you can never be sure what the future will hold so it’s possible it might take up to five years. He explains it all in the video below. Sorry for the wait.

(Mostly, I think this is awesome because it reminded me of that fantastic, long-ago SLAM magazine cover story: “Generation Nets: Champs by 2001. Count on It.”)

Wade also breaks out the Google Translator and has at it with Prokhorov's personal blog.  Some really good stuff.  While Wade had his attention on Prokhorov, the guys at The Basketball Jones were focused on the lottery and they went to see a psychic to figure out how things play out.  Click the link to see the video, but the psychic says, "New York or close by."

Sebastian Pruiti

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A new series begins this week on NetsAreScorching.com where we take a look at the possible coaching candidates for the New Jersey Nets. First up will be Mike Krzyzewski, and you may not believe this, but I actually spelled his surname without looking. Seriously. Anyway, we have a good list of candidates, which I won't spoil here, but feel free to chime in and let us know what you think about our choices. Like we could stop you anyway.

Mike Krzyzewski has never coached in the NBA, though he did lead the Redeem Team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, helping Team USA capture its first gold medal since 2000. He was offered the Los Angeles Lakers head coaching job in 2004, but politely declined after some thought and since not accepting the Lakers job, Krzyzewski has said he was committed to Duke and USA Basketball only. However, will the promise of money, potentially coaching LeBron James, leading a winning team in the NBA in the New York market, and knowing that ownership will be as committed to winning as much as him, be enough to get Krzyzewski on NBA sidelines?

New Jersey Nets fans should hope so.

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Dennis Velasco

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The Chicago Tribune is reporting that teams out there who are interested in LeBron James for their roster, or John Calipari as their head coach, may have to take them as a package deal.

League sources said Sunday that noted NBA power broker William Wesley continues to work back channels to sell John Calipari and James as a package deal to franchises such as the Bulls, Nets and Clippers with coaching vacancies and salary cap room.

I have never been shy about my opinions on John Calipari. While I'm not naive enough to believe that professional sports are highly ego-driven, after watching Calipari blame everyone but himself for the failures of the Nets' teams he coached in the late 90s, I truly believe Cal is the ultimate narcissist. If LeBron's reputation hasn't already taken enough of a hit after Cleveland's playoff collapse last week, I think his legacy will be fully tarnished if he attaches himself to Calipari. More importantly, I don't think Calipari is capable of coaching in the NBA. He's never stuck it out at a program long enough to demonstrate sustained success, his recruiting practices are very questionable based on the number of violations his programs have rung up, and if a player isn't one of *his* guys (see Jayson Williams, Kendall Gill, etc), he'll throw you under the bus.

Mark Ginocchio

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Came across some audio of Jay-Z talking to Steven A. Smith about the playoffs, and Smith's final question is about Jay-Z and his status with the Nets.

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The gist of it seems to be that Jay-Z is doing this because he loves it (even goes as far to say he hasn't made any money from the Nets) and he wants to become more active.  He also talks of a meeting he had with Mikhail Prokhorov, and says that relationship is off to a real good start.  This is some good news, because many people were worried that Jay-Z would end up selling his shares when Prokhorov took over, but this seems to be opposite of what Hov wants to happen.

Sebastian Pruiti

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This offseason is going to be an exciting one for the New Jersey Nets, but before we can move forward we must look back.  Over the next couple of days, I am going to be looking at the Nets who will (most likely) be back, and review their year, from what they did well to what they didn’t.  Today we are going to look at the Nets' most improved player, Courtney Lee.

Courtney Lee had a ton of stuff to deal with this year.  He got traded from a team he helped take to the finals to a team that didn't make the playoffs, and this lead to some struggles during the first part of the season.  Throughout the season, Lee basically had two groups of fans rooting against him.  You had the CDR faction upset Lee was getting consistent playing time and sets run for him.  You also had the "Keep VC" contingent basically hating Lee because they were expecting him to produce at the level of Vince.  Through it all, Lee was able to continually improve throughout the season.

The Positives

Improving Shot

Courtney Lee's True Shooting Percentage dropped a bit from 2009 to 2010, going from 55.6% to 52.5%.  This was expected, as everyone knew that Lee wasn't going to be able to keep  up the same percentages he was able to have in Orlando with an increased Usage Rate (from 15.49 to 17.75).  What was strange was how he got there.  Lee's shot was absolutely miserable in the first part of the season, but then it came on during the second half of the year.  Through December, Courtney Lee's TS% was at 47.72% (League average is 54.5%).  From December on, Lee's TS% was 55.2%.  He was able to improve his shot by improving his fundamentals:

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Sebastian Pruiti

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As if the Boston Celtics haven't given me enough reasons to despise them over the years - winning all those championships and going from irrelevant  to world-beaters in the course of a few months by importing Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen - the Cs have now done something that may be unforgivable from my viewpoint: they've given Knicks fans hope.

The out and out cheerleading for LeBron James from New York Magazine and the Daily News was innocent enough. Frank Isola, before he was openly belittling reporters from Ohio, was telling me to "not take myself so seriously" for mocking the Daily News for their ridiculous pandering to James in October. But now that the Celtics have successfully knocked off the Cleveland Cavaliers with their 94-85 victory last night, I think all Nets fans who are unfortunately immersed in NYC media have to brace themselves for what's about to happen. If you thought this idea that it's LeBron's "destiny" to come to the Knicks was bad before, it's about to reach intolerable levels.

I have believed all season that LeBron would stick it out in Cleveland, but a lot of that was based on the idea that the Cavs were such a good team, I couldn't imagine a scenario where they weren't at least in the Finals this June. The fact that they were knocked out in the Eastern Conference semifinals, against a team that resembled a barely warm corpse a few weeks ago (remember that stunning punch in the mouth you took from Courtney Lee and the Nets in February, Celtics fans? I'm not letting you forget, yet) may change things up a bit. I've maintained that LeBron goes where he has the best chance to win it all. If that team they built up in Cleveland this season can't even get past the second round, then I have to wonder if that franchise is ever going to put the pieces together, especially as they become more financially limited with LeBron holding a max contract.

With that said, I still think it would be beyond ridiculous to assume that if LeBron leaves Cleveland, it's only to come to the Knicks. Notice how I don't write "New York" there. Because while Frank Isola, Will Leitch and their gang of cheerleaders may think that New York only means the Garden, I think Daniel Goldstein and his $3 million buyout will tell you that the Nets and Brooklyn are very much a reality and if LeBron and his agent don't think they can't make their "billion" playing two years in a major city 10 minutes outside of NY before spending the rest of their remaining years in NYC's best borough (and I say this as a newly minted Brooklyn resident), then they're nuts. However, I would be remiss in mentioning teams like Chicago, Sacramento, the Clippers and Miami, who will have the same ability as the Knicks and the Nets to sign LeBron or another max guy this summer. But don't expect Frank Isola to let those facts to get in the way of a good photoshop contest, or an exclusive interview with Lenny the cab driver, who "knows" LeBron is coming here to win championships with Eddy Curry and the cock, Rooster, Danilo Gallinari. Because those guys are superior components when compared to Shaq, Antawn Jamison, and Mo Williams.

Mark Ginocchio

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There is no questioning that John Wall is an excellent talent and NBA prospect.  Ask anyone that watches basketball and they will tell you in no uncertain terms that he's phenomenal, an athletic freak, and quite the dancer.  My NAS colleague, Devin, praises Wall and makes excellent points about Wall's game.  However, if I were the New Jersey Nets, I'd select Evan Turner if the Nets' luck is as good as a picture of a bikini-clad Jessica Alba and the team wins next week's NBA Draft Lottery.  Turner is as versatile as they come and many consider Wall and Turner, Pick 1A and 1B, but we'll get down to Turner and his skill set a bit later.  First, let's peep the point guard that most people think is no longer in the Nets' plans and seemingly expendable.

Oh, and for the record, the Nets have a 25% chance of winning the NBA Draft Lottery and receiving the first overall pick of the 2010 NBA Draft and I have a -25% chance of gaining any attention from the aforementioned Alba.  Snowball meet hell.

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Dennis Velasco

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So as my introductory piece, I'd like to do a re-post. Some of you have likely already seen this on the popular SBNation subsidiary NetsDaily - I originally posted it under my NetsDaily username Newark2Brooklyn. It elicited a fair amount of discussion once it was put on their front page. I wrote this before Thorn said he'd take Wall with the first pick, and it was partly a response to the Wall-Turner debate that was going on there. Some people agreed with my assessment completely, others were the exact opposite. I usually consider that a good sign.

Glad to be writing for NetsAreScorching, and rest assured, mostly everything else I write will be less than half this length.

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Devin Kharpertian

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Here on NetsAreScorching.com, Mark and I have prided ourselves on getting a high number of quality content up.  To be able to continue doing that, we have decided to add two new writers to the team, Dennis Velasco and Devin Kharpertian.

Some more info on Dennis:

Dennis Velasco grew up a New York Knicks fan in Queens, NY. Eventually, DV learned to love the NBA and not just Patrick Ewing and his out-of-control hyperhydrosis.  DV figures if he and Jay-Z could both have roots with the Knicks and the latter can own part of the Nets, why can't he blog about them?  And don't get it twisted, DV knows about the Nets.  He's had his ankles broken by Kenny Anderson in a pick-up game, thought Buck Williams was always underappreciated as a Net, to this day thinks Derrick Coleman's "Whoop-dee-damn-doo" is one of the best sports quotes of all-time, and knows Drazen Petrovic could have been one of the best foreign players in the NBA ever.  DV has written for SI.com, Yahoo!, SLAM, Hoops Hype, and The New York Times amongst many other places he's fooled into thinking he writes good.

Some more info on Devin:

Devin Kharpertian is a fourth-year Division III student at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and if you don't go to Hampshire you probably have no clue what that means. (In short: he's on track.) Like most college students with no direction, Devin likes basketball and is in a band. They're okay. Devin has been a die-hard Nets fan since the Knicks let him down in 1999, and despite being let down countless times by the Nets since then has still stuck by the team, watching every game possible (even this past season).  A draft fanatic & also a Mets fan, Devin accurately calls himself a "sports masochist." He welcomes any and all basketball discussion and can be reached at Devin.Kharpertian@netsarescorching.com

These guys are both really good writers, so expect to see their stuff up here soon.  You will definitely enjoy it.

Sebastian Pruiti

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Al Iannazzone talks to Rod Thorn, and contrary to popular opinion, the next head coach of the Nets in all likelihood won't be a sexy name, but rather someone who's going to help the Nets in the short and long-term:

"I think from my conversations with Mr. Prokhorov, he's interested in a coach who can move the team in the right direction," Thorn said. "Not necessarily a big-splash coach, but somebody who can move a team in the right direction."

I guess you could count me as part of the propaganda machine, as I figured the Nets for sure were going to go for broke here when they reportedly were mulling sending millions of dollars Coach K's way. But if this is actually true, it's a good thing. It demonstrates that Prokhorov is committed for the long haul and wants to build something here, rather than just throw money around to make headlines. We'll start dissecting the Nets coaching options very soon, but knowing that it may not necessarily be a "name" is an interesting twist.

Mark Ginocchio

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It was expected, but the news is finally official as Dave D'Alessandro reports:

The NBA Board of Governors has approved Mikhail Prokhorov’s acquisition of a controlling interest in the Nets, the league announced in a statement released late Tuesday afternoon.

"We are pleased that the NBA’s Board of Governors approved Mikhail Prokhorov’s purchase of majority ownership of the Nets, welcoming into the NBA ownership ranks the league’s first majority investor from outside of North America,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said. “We anticipate that his passion for the game and business acumen will be of considerable value not only to the Nets franchise but to the entire NBA.”

The deal is expected to be officially completed Wednesday, with the final closing

Also in Dave D.'s report, he reiterates that Rod Thorn should be given a contract extension soon (which is important, because once that happens the Nets should get going on their offseason plans):

Prokhorov is expected to give team president Rod Thorn a contract extension sometime next week, and that will be followed by the NBA Draft Lottery in Secaucus -- where Prokhorov himself will probably represent the team Tuesday night -- and a free agent market in which the Nets hope to have at least $26 million to spend on new players.

Good to have this finally set in stone.  With all of the problems the Nets have had with their move to Brooklyn and everything related I was kind of just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  That won't happen now.  Hopefully we get to hear from Prokhorov soon, but if not, expect to see him next week at the Draft Lottery.  Given the good luck that has surrounded Mikhail Prokhorov during his professional life, this should be a good thing.

Sebastian Pruiti

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As everyone has probably read already, there are a number of reports that the current NBA owners are voting on Mikhail Prokhorov's bid to become the owner of the New Jersey Nets.  According to Julian Garcia, Prokhorov is going to need 75% of the vote, and if he gets it, Prokhorov will be the man in charge:

Prokhorov would become the league's first non-North American owner and also its second-richest, behind Portland's Paul Allen. According to Forbes' most recent list of wealthiest people in the world, Prokhorov is worth approximately $13.4 billion - a fortune that has the Nets and their fans hopeful they will quickly turn around the 12-70 record they compiled this season. "It's been coming for some time but it looks like it's about to come to fruition," said Nets president Rod Thorn, who is expected to get a new contract shortly after Prokhorov takes over.

I think everyone is assuming that the 75% vote is going to happen (because we probably would have heard something about it if it didn't happen), and when it does we are going to be going from one of the stingiest owners in the league, to one who is set to be the most willing to spend.

Things have been exciting for Nets' fans and he hasn't even taken over yet.  There is talk of taking over a D-League team in a hybrid deal (something that some of the best run teams do), talk of throwing money at a big name coach, and talk of Prokhorov to do whatever it takes to put the best team out there.  It is going to be funny to see how Nets' fans (including myself) handle the change.  I have been on the record here (and other places) saying that I think Eddie Jordan would be a really good fit as coach for the Nets, should I change who I want to see the Nets go after because Prokhorov is taking over?

One thing is for sure, Prokhorov cares about winning, and he is set to become a hands on owner (He even wants to represent the Nets at the Draft Lottery next week).  I am almost willing to compare him to Mark Cuban in that regard, and you have seen how well it has worked for the Mavs.  10 straight 50 win seasons?  Sign me up for that.

Sebastian Pruiti

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