Around the Nets: Thursday Edition

Mark April 30th on your calendar: it’s the day the Nets officially become the Brooklyn Nets, and according to Brett Yormark, it’s the day the Nets will release their new Brooklyn Nets logo. I’d expect uniforms designs to come out around that time, too.

As of today, the Nets are 6th in the NBA Draft Lottery standings. If they end the season there, they have a 21.5% chance of keeping their draft pick, and a 6.3% chance at the first overall pick. Given the league records now, their ping-pong ball ranking could range from anywhere from 3rd (46.9% chance of keeping the pick) to 9th (6.1%). Quite a bit of variance.

Adrian Wojnarowski officially reports that the Celtics neared completion on sending Paul Pierce to the Nets, for Mehmet Okur and a draft pick. My response: it never seemed like this trade was really all that close, and given how quickly the Nets turned around from “Dwight Howard’s officially not coming” to “Gerald Wallace is,” I’d bet it was a short phone call.

Spotted in the locker room last night: one Brook Lopez.

Sure seems like Mikhail Prokhorov lost $5.6 billion pretty fast.

Filip Bondy at the New York Daily News: “Winning over Knick fans in Brooklyn, or any of the other four New York boroughs, is a process that will take considerable time and perhaps a different pecking order. Old loyalties die hard. They certainly were alive in Newark.”

Few people write a better official game recap than Howard Beck. Here he is recapping last night’s Nets-Knicks game.

From the blogger angle, Seth Rosenthal’s game recaps (and, really, everything else’s) at Posting & Toasting are super unique. I’m aware that things can only be “unique,” and to add a superlative to “unique” adds nothing to its meaning. Seth Rosenthal’s very super uniqueness laughs at this distinction.

Andy Gray tweeted out this picture of Drazen Petrovic that’s too good not to share.

While we’re at it, might as well share this one of Buck Williams blocking Manute Bol, too.

Gary Sussman says goodbye to New Jersey.

The Nets are a “team to watch” next season, says one… wait, there’s no author.