Henry Abbott from the TrueHoop mothership talks about Devin Harris’ awful season, but then makes a comparison to another PG in Nets history who could never turn the team around – Stephon Marbury. This article has apparently rankled some Nets fans out there so let me quickly react and say, while there are many reasons to be down on Devin Harris this season (injury prone, can’t shoot, no defense), the one thing I haven’t heard anyone say about him that would make him Marbury-esque is that he’s being too selfish. In fact just the opposite this season, where all reports from the beat writers suggest the guy is following the team’s mantra of feeding the bigs down low to a fault. So I think Abbott’s comparison is a little off the mark here, though I appreciate his ability to get people talking about it.
Al Iannazzone reports that the Nets are doing their due diligence by letting teams know they are willing to make a trade. Will it work?: One source said they don’t expect the Nets to make a big trade before the deadline, but added there is still plenty of time and things can come together quickly.
CC Sabathia, Nets motivational speaker?: “I was in Cleveland for a couple of years when we lost everybody,” Sabathia said, referring to the 7-1/2 seasons he spent with the Indians. “So it’s tough (at) times, but you just have to grind through and keep playing hard because these times will make you better.”
Even WFAN radio man Chris Carrino is affected by the Nets poor play: “I will never complain about this job that I dreamed about doing since I was a little kid,” Carrino said. “But the thing I miss is really being able to dig down, get emotional about the game, get excited about the game, deliver big calls, get into important strategy.”
After his terrific performance Wednesday, the Nets were heaping praise on Kris Humphries at practice yesterday: “Kris is probably one of those guys who’s talented enough to be a starting power forward in this league,” Dooling said. “He just hasn’t found that right situation yet and he’s making the best of this situation.”
As Dave D’Alessandro reports, maybe the Nets snapped themselves out of their funk on Wednesday because Keyon Dooling snapped himself out of his: “Over the last three weeks, I’ve fallen victim to the frustration — I let it get to me, I wasn’t lively, I wasn’t talking a lot,” Dooling said Thursday after the team’s practice session. “I had a talk with myself, and then I had a talk with Kiki. And we agreed that I just had to get back to who I am – being positive, being the guy who lightens up the room.
The Huffington Post (?) posted some video of TWill’s dunks from Wednesday night. Classic reaction from one reader on the blog: No one cares you lowly intern. go work at espn.
A great edition of Dave D’Alessandro’s mailbag. I’m going to touch on this in a bit.
