Now that a week has passed since the NBA draft, and we’ve all had a chance to reflect on all the changes to the team (including the trade of Richard Jefferson), perhaps this is a good time to review how well the Nets complied with “Rod’s Draft Rules” in 2008. For the uninitiated, these are a series of preferences towards specific types of players that the Nets appear to use, either consciously or subconsciously, when making their ultimate draft decisions. They range from physical attributes and maturity to certain skills such as the ability to play defense.

First, to reiterate what has been said before in this space, we do not believe that these are necessarily hard-and-fast rules, but just preferences and tendencies. I have no doubt that if an extraordinary talent was available (such as if the Nets had the opportunity to draft LeBron James when he entered the draft years ago), they wouldn’t hesitate to violate these “rules” if the player’s potential and other attributes just outweighed the other considerations. With that said:

Factor (1): The Selected Players are tall for their position.

What happened:
The Nets drafted a 7’0” center, a 6’10” PF, and a 6’7” SG/SF.

Analysis:
We nailed it.

Factor (2): The Selected Players have usually attended a major school, were coached by a well-respected coach, in prominent conferences.

What happened:
The Nets drafted two players from the competitive Pac-10—one from Stanford, and one from Cal. The third player was selected from Memphis, a school that spent most of the year ranked #1 in the nation, and was coached by former NBA (and Nets) coach John Calipari. During this decade, prior to this year, seven Stanford players, four Cal players, and four Memphis players have been drafted by NBA teams. Don’t shoot me if I’ve miscounted.

Analysis:
We couldn’t have scripted this one better.

Factor (3): The Selected Players are not a freshman or a high school senior (the latter no longer an issue).

What happened:
In a draft that set the all-time record for the most college freshmen selected, the Nets held true to form, selecting two sophomores and a junior. In all fairness, though, had Brook Lopez been off the board, the Nets would likely have selected Jerryd Bayless, who was coming of his freshman year.

Analysis:
Three for three.

Factor (4): The Nets do not overvalue hyper-athletic kids with “potential,” preferring instead to select players that may be less athletic but have more highly developed basketball skills.

What happened:
You’d be hard pressed to find any scouting report describing any of the three draftees as “athletic.”

Analysis:
Guys, if you’re reading, I think you’re athletic. Really, I do. But, let’s face it, you’re not likely to win the Olympic decathlon, or even a dunk contest among your new teammates, even if we forbid Sean Williams and Vince Carter from competing.

Factor (5): The players selected tend to be strong defensively, especially with regard to on-ball defense.

What happened:
We’ve noted that the Nets appear to be less stringent about this factor than the ones that I’ve listed previously. In part, that may be that defense often takes longer to develop, and that it is a weakness for many college players—and thus it is harder to find a strong defensive player that complies with a majority of the other rules. This year, they selected one player that has a reputation for being a strong defensive player (Chris Douglas-Roberts), and two guys without that kind of reputation, but for whom early indications appear to be that they are dedicated to improving their defensive play.

Analysis:
About what we expected. With only a handful of players with strong defensive reputations, the Nets came away with one out of three, and two guys with the potential to not embarrass themselves.

Factor (6): The players selected have a high basketball IQ, if not a high IQ, period.

What happened:
All three players have been lauded by DraftExpress for their basketball IQ and intelligence. You needed only watch the recent press conference, and hear their thoughtful (and often humorous) responses to agree with that assessment.

Analysis:
We nailed this one as well.

Factor (7): The players selected do not always have the ability to hit a mid-range jump-shot.

What happened:
To be honest, I’ve gone back and forth on this factor. Obviously, the team is seeking shooters—heck, they’re always seeking shooters. However, past drafts have suggested that this factor takes a backseat to some of the others listed here. Among the players selected this year, as expected, there is a mixed bag. CDR has a reputation for a poor outside shot, although it did improve during his junior year. As such, his situation may be comparable to Antoine Wright, whose shooting improved in his third year before he entered the draft. There’s no need to remind anyone what happened once Antoine went pro. Regardless, the Nets have long expressed interest in big men that can shoot, and it looks like they picked one up in Ryan Anderson, who could eventually fill the role that Keith Van Horn held during the beginning of the decade. As for Lopez . . . the reports are that his range extends to about seven feet from the basket. Let’s leave it at that.

Analysis:
This ended up about what I would expect: One shooter, one non-shooter, and one question mark.

Factor (8): The players selected are not necessarily the top option on offense for his team.

What happened:
Each player led their team in scoring. Anderson led the Pac-10 in points per game; Lopez was fourth. Douglas-Roberts was sixth in scoring in Conference USA.

Analysis:
We couldn’t have been more wrong.

Factor (9): The players selected are known for their team-oriented play.

What happened:
DraftExpress wrote about Douglas-Roberts that “[h]e has a strong work ethic, is an excellent teammate, is very well-spoken, and has a will to succeed and win that can’t be taught.” Although Anderson and Lopez led their teams in scoring, they appear to be unselfish as well. Although there’s more to this than just assists, we note that both big men averaged nearly one and a half assists per game.

Analysis:
Douglas-Roberts certainly fulfills this factor to a “T.” As for Anderson and Lopez, the prospects look good, but we’ll have to wait and see how reliable they are at setting screens, boxing out, going after loose balls, etc.—the little things that have been epitomized by the play of Jason Collins and Josh Boone.

Factor (10): The Nets do not draft two players at the same position in the same draft.

What happened:
The drafted a center, a PF, and a swing man.

Analysis:
Check.

Conclusion:

The results of this draft leave no doubt: Rod Thorn is still making the decisions.

The roster isn’t set. Some players could leave. Some could arrive. The Nets in fact have had a seven-player turnover in just the past week and a half, losing Richard Jefferson and DeSagana Diop while gaining Yi Jianlian, Bobby Simmons, Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson, and Chris Douglas-Roberts.

That said, fans should have an almost constant stream of games featuring Nets’ talent, some of them available on television, others online. In fact, over the next nine weeks, at least one Net player will be playing competitively somewhere in the world almost daily. Yi Jianlian and Nenad Krstic will be the busiest.

July 4-6 - Team China vs. Australian All-Stars, Ningpo, China. Yi Jianlian will try to dominate the paint against a team of all-Stars from the Australian National Basketball League in a two-game exhibition set outside Shanghai.

July 7-11 - Orlando Pro Summer League, Orlando. Rookies Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson and Chris Douglas-Roberts will join Sean Williams, Maurice Ager and Julius Hodge in Orlando for the 15-game summer league. The other teams in the mix are: the Magic, the Heat, the Bulls, the Sonics, and the Pacers. That means the league will likely feature the #1 (Derrick Rose), #2 (Michael Beasley), #4 (Russell Westbrook) and #10 (Brook Lopez) draft picks.

July 17-July 20 - Borislav Stankovic Cup, Hangzhou, China. Yi Jianlian will compete in this annual FIBA tournament. He is training for it currently in China. He could face off against Andrei Kirilenko of Russia on July 19. In addition to China and Russia, the national teams of Iran and Angola will compete.

July 21-24 - Team USA vs. USA Select Team, Las Vegas. Devin Harris has been invited to play for the USA Select Team, a group of young stars who will provide the US Olympic team with competition in three days of practice. Harris of course would be going up against Jason Kidd.

July 21-24 - Rocky Mountain Revue, Salt Lake City. The Nets will play for the first time in the Jazz Summer League. Marcus Williams, who didn’t play in Orlando, is scheduled to play here. The other teams competing: the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, a D-League All-Star team and the Iranian National Basketball Team, FIBA’s Asian Champion. Among the notables in the Revue will be Anthony Randolph, Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright of the Warriors, George Hill of the Spurs, Al Horford and Acie Law IV of the Hawks and Gerald Green of the Mavs.

July 25-27 - Mechel Cup, Moscow, Russia Together with Russia, Latvia and Ukraine, Nenad Krstic’s Serbian National Team will take part in this Olympic tournament which for Russia will be a tune-up for the Olympics, for the others a tune-up for European competition later in the summer.

July 29-August 1 - FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament, Nanjing, China. Yi Jianlian is part of the host nation’s team in this annual tourney. Nenad Krstic committed to play with Serbia in this tournament January when he told an ESPN chatroom this January: “It’s an honor to play for my National Team and I’m looking forward to playing this summer.” The three day tournament also includes Angola, Australia, Argentina and Iran.

August 10-24 - Olympics, Beijing, China. Yi Jianlian can be expected to play a major role for China in the Olympics. If Slovenia gets into the Olympics via the Qualifying Tournament, Boki Nachar could play in Beijing.

August 20-September 6 - Eurobasket 09 Qualifying Tournament, Bormio, Italy. Serbia didn’t qualify for the Olympics last year, so it must play in a qualifying tournament to get in the European championships next year in Warsaw. Nenad Krstic and his Serbian teammates will play a round-robin tournament in northern Italy against other teams, including Italy, Finland, Bulgaria and Hungary.

October 9-12 - NBA Europe Live 2008. The Heat, with Dwyane Wade and Michael Beasley will take on the Nets at the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy in Paris on Oct. 9. The teams will then travel to London for their second contest on Oct.12 at The O2 Arena.

The Nets should be announcing their summer league roster later this week…games begin in Orlando on Monday and run through Thursday. All games are webcast on the Orlando Magic website. Among those who will be on hand are Derrick Rose of the Bulls, Michael Beasley of the Heat, Russell Westbrook of the Sonics and of course Brook Lopez of the Nets.

So far, here’s who we believe will be headed south:

The Roster Players:

–Sean Williams, 6′10″ power forward. Based on his performance in Orlando last summer, Nets’ fans had little hope of him making much of an impact. But as he pointed out, he improved every game. Now, he wants to prove how much he has improved just since the end of the season and show off his new frame, not topping 240 pounds.

–Maurice Ager, 6′6″ shooting guard. There is certainly an opportunity for Ager, with the Nets short on swingmen. The problem is that Ager has a sweet contract for trading purposes and his name is increasingly in trade calculations.

The Rookies:

–Brook Lopez, 7′1″ center. As Rod Thorn says, he’s “huge, absolutely huge”. He’s also going to be challenged like he’s never been challenged before. He will no doubt be involved in stopping Miami’s Michael Beasley.

–Ryan Anderson, 6′10″ forward. Cal-Berkeley Is he a power forward (11 rebounds per game in the PAC-10) or a small forward (46% from beyond the arc)? We’ll know more once he has to bang bodies with the likes of Beasely.

–Chris Douglas-Roberts, 6′7″ shooting guard. Memphis. How much can you, should you expect from a player taken at #40 in the draft even if he was First Team All-American and Conference USA Player of the Year at Memphis? He will tell you a lot and expect him to try proving it from day one. Reunion with Rose.

–Jaycee Carroll, 6′2″ shooting guard. Utah State. You want a sleeper, here he is. Carroll scored 2,502 points in college, shot 49.8% from beyond the arc and the Nets called him immediately after the draft to let him know they wanted him on the summer league. He surprised them in his workout with his athleticism. He’s married, 25 years old and a Mormon missionary who spent two years in Chile.

–Brian Laing, 6′5″ swingman. Seton Hall. Another player who won a spot on the roster based on his workout performance. Laing played both forward positions for the undersized Pirates. Hyper-athletic (a 39″ vertical leap), Laing averaged 18 ppg in the Big East and has spent the last five months honing his shooting guard skills. Think Hassan Adams.

–Brian Hamilton F 6-6 200 5/14/82 Louisiana-Lafayette R

The Comeback Kid(s):

–Julius Hodge, 6′7″ swingman. North Carolina State. Hodge’s story is well known: All-American at NC State, disappointment as a first round pick, shot at close range in Denver, traded and then dumped by Milwaukee…then a great season last year split between Australia and the D-League. He has a great oppunity in part because he can play three positions: SG, SF and some point, as this three triple-doubles in Australia showed. Like Laing, a graduate of St Raymond’s HS in the Bronx.

–Will Conroy G 6-2 195 12/8/82 Washington 1

–Brian Hamilton F 6-6 200 5/14/82 Louisiana-Lafayette R

–Marcus Slaughter F 6-9 228 3/18/85 San Diego State R

–Yuta Tabuse G 5-9 175 10/5/80 BYU-Hawaii 1

–Donnell Taylor G 6-5 193 7/26/82 Alabama-Birm. 2

–Yuta Tabuse G 5-9 175 10/5/80 BYU-Hawaii 1

–Donnell Taylor G 6-5 193 7/26/82 Alabama-Birm. 2

The forgotten man in all this week’s wheelin’ and dealin’ and draftin’ was and is Bobby Simmons, The league’s Most Improved Player, 2004-05, and arguably the most successful D-Leaguer in the NBA.

“He will be a rotation player for us. He made the deal work,” Rod Thorn told WFAN on Thursday in what has passed for comment from the Nets’ front office on Simmons.

He has been lost in all the hoopla over the Nets’ success in the draft, the marketability of the player who he was traded with—Yi Jianlian, the loss of the player they were traded for—Richard Jefferson, and of course, the possibility this was all done to clear cap space for Lebron James in 2010.

What has been written about him this week focuses on his contract, not his game. The Nets liked him because his contract runs out a year before Jefferson’s. The Bucks didn’t like him because their previous regime signed him to a ridiculous five-year, $47 million after that MIP season. (Ironically, the Bucks had the money available because Shareef Abdur-Rahim had turned down the Bucks to accept a lesser offer from the Nets.)

Simmons is 28, the same age as RJ…the same height with a little bit more heft. He’s another deep shooter—preferring the corner. He is a career 39.0% shooter, with a high of 43.5% in his MIP season and 35.1% last season. He’s a good if risk-taking defender but a poor ball handler. Don’t expect him to run the court, but he can board using his strength. He also possesses something Lawrence Frank will appreciate: a great work ethic.

His numbers dipped his first season in Milwaukee—going from 15.6 to 13.4 points per game and from 5.9 to 4.4 rebounds. Then in October 2006, he suffered a stress reaction in his right heel.

The Bucks initially thought the stress reaction would get better without surgery. He continued to rehab in hopes that it would. It didn’t. First, he underwent “successful” arthroscopic surgery in December to remove bone spurs on his right ankle then had a second “successful” surgery three weeks later to address a symptomatic cyst in his right heel bone (calcaneus) and plantar faschiitis on his right foot, according to NBA.com.

Season over. Career in question.

He returned last season, perhaps too early after major surgery, and hardly contributed until the last month of the season. Although we know the perils of basing a player’s future success on what he does for a lottery team at the end of a season (See Magloire, Jamaal), there is some hope from what Simmons did in April.

In 10 games, he averaged 12.7 points in 23.8 minutes, hauling in 3.1 rebounds as well. He shot 51.6% overall, 46.5% from the arc and 85.7% from the line. To go with that, he averaged 0.9 assists and 0.7 steals. His assist-to-turnover ratio was negative since he averaged more turnovers (1.6) than steals and he only went to the foul line 14 times in 10 games. He also was a foul machine, picking up nearly three a game, fouling out once and picking up five two other times.

Word from Milwaukee is that he lost a lot of mobility and a step since the surgery. He takes more chances on defense to compensate, has become a spot-up shooter.

But critics have been wrong about Simmons before. He was taken as a second rounder out of DePaul by the Sonics in the 2001 draft, then immediately traded to the Wizards, where he bounced back and forth between the NBA and the D-League.

He played 56 games for the Clippers in 2003-04, missing a month because of a severe hip sprain. Then, he broke out in 2004-05 with the Clippers and went from making a vets minimum of $638,000 to that guaranteed $47 million.

Simmons, a Chicago native, hasn’t been heard from since the trade. There’s no information when he will talk the media or even if he will have a press conference. He won’t share the stage Monday with the three rookies and if he does join Yi whenever he has his press conference, he’ll be lost.

The challenge now for Simmons is to make people forget his contract and remember his game.

Every Sunday, we’ll be updating the Nets’ off-season with bits and pieces of information, gossip, etc. to help take the edge off missing the playoffs, relying on the Nets’ beat reporters and others who have slipped interesting data into larger stories and blogs.

Youth must be served

Where to begin? The loss of RJ? The second greatest scorer in franchise history, one of the most popular players to ever wear the Nets uniform, gets sent to the NBA’s Siberia and he becomes a footnote to stories about the team’s quest for Lebron, its youth movement and its new marketability in Asian communities ‘round the world? How sad is that? Part of the reason is that Jefferson has yet to speak about his feelings, although he is reportedly bummed out. So we’ll wait to hear from him.

Speaking of youth, Jefferson turned 28 last weekend. He should be at the top of his career, where the wisdom of experience is combined with a still-active body.

Meanwhile, the Nets have become the youngest team in the NBA, or at least will be once they dump Keith Van Horn’s contract, and barring the acquisition of an older player. By Dave D’Alessandro’s calculations, the average age of the active Nets is 24.07 years. Last year, the youngest team in the league was the Trail Blazers, at a little under 24. They were the third youngest team in NBA history. It’s not that a young team can’t succeed. The 2001-02 Nets were the fourth youngest team in the league that year and the youngest team to make the Finals in 25 years, since the all-time youngest Portland Trail Blazers of 1977. Still, nothing says rebuilding like the lack of razors in a locker room.

We gone through the litany of young players before, but imagine this: it is entirely possible that the Nets will at some point field a frontcourt of Yi Jianlian, Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson, all born in 1988 (We are going to accept the official data of the People’s Republic of China on Yi’s passport).

The draft class in fact should be better than the 2001 class that brought the Nets Jefferson, Jason Collins, Brandon Armstrong and Brian Scalabrine. It was that class, like this one, that made that 2001-02 team so young. We particularly like the selection of Anderson and not because he reminds us of a young Van Horn (minus the knee high’s). He was one of our NetsDaily Sleeper picks. The man can shoot, as this highlight reel shows. Lopez is so Jeff Spicoli he promises to be a media star in New York. And Rod Thorn cannot get over how big he is. In two WFAN interviews, he called Lopez “really big”, “huge” and “absolutely huge”. In his official pre-draft camp measurements, Lopez was 7 foot, one half inch tall in sneakers. No height (or grade) inflation at Stanford.

How does one explain the drop of Chris Douglas-Roberts? Bad workouts? Please. Dave D’Alessandro said CDR’s workout with the Nets might have been the best…and the Nets passed on his twice. Unless there is some skeleton the size of The Hulk in his closet, there was no reason for him to get to #40. We don’t care why at this point. If he is as advertised, he’ll be one hell of a bargain. We also liked the John Calipari said of the Nets’ luck: ”If we would have drafted like that when I was there, I’d still be coaching the Nets.”

Lebron is coming!!!

Don’t believe it. Simply don’t believe it’s the sole motivating force behind all the roster moves. The conventional wisdom is that Lebron James and Jay-Z are soooo close the Nets’ favorite co-owner will be able to convince the King to set up court at the Barclays Center in 2010. So the team has to get way under the cap. That way they won’t have to do a deal with Cavs to get him.

First of all, it rarely works out that way. After Michael Jordan left the Bulls for the last time, the team of Reinsdorf and Krause thought that hoarding cap room would be the fastest way back to the top. They went nuts, dumping contracts, stockpiling picks, bringing in low-budget role players. Tim Duncan and Tracy McGrady would soon be Bulls, they were certain. Instead, it was all soon bull. Neither of those guys wanted to play for a bad team. The Bulls suffered through a period of mediocrity and worse that led them to Derrick Rose Thursday night. Cap Space has yet to score a point in the NBA.

Rebuilding isn’t foolproof said Kiki Vandeweghe earlier this week (in the same interview where he said trading Jefferson “would be difficult for us”…apparently not that difficult.)

Also read what Lebron said about his career plans two weeks ago, which were conveniently lost in the King James-to-Brooklyn hoopla: “I’m dedicated to bringing a championship to this city. I’m bringing a parade to this city. I love this city. I love Northeast Ohio … Right now I can’t see myself going anywhere else.” You can latch on to that “right now” condition in his comments or you can take them all at face value. What happens if in 2010 he does bring a parade to Cleveland? You think he is going to walk away from a championship team? Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. The point is that a lot can happen in two years and to base all your roster and marketing moves on one linchpin move that far away doesn’t make a lot of sense…at least to us.

So what do we think is going on? A couple of possibilities.

In our most paranoid moments (there are a lot of them lately…gotta renew that prescription), we think the Nets are going through some heavyweight, short-term cost-cutting. The team’s losses are mounting…$40 million a year. The team has the heaviest debt-to-assets load of any professional sports team, according to Forbes Magazine. The arena financing picture is murky at best and there are still a few more annoying lawsuits out there to slow everything down. Arguing that the team needs to do this to get Lebron or Chris or Dwyane or Amare is a lot easier to sell than saying Bruce Ratner and his corporate parent, Forest City Enterprises, needs to retrench a bit in the current challenging economic times.

But when we take off our tin foil hat and put on our accountant’s green eyeshade, we see something else afoot, something that has value whether the team gets Lebron or not: Richard Jefferson wasn’t traded for a player or two. He was traded for a country…China.

It’s not that the two ideas are mutually exclusive, but Yi, if handled right, presents the Nets with a golden opportunity. Prior to last year’s draft, Ed Stefanski flew to Shanghai and made a pitch for Brooklyn and the Nets to Yi’s handlers, including the Chinese Basketball Association and Team Yi. Eleven teams had been invited. Every team made that pitch understood the value of Yi.

New York has the biggest Chinese population in the United States—and Chinatown is one subway stop away from the site of the Barclays Center. The United States in turn has the largest overseas Chinese population in the world. Chinese and Chinese-American culture is thriving. In Brooklyn alone, there are about 250,000 native-born Chinese, from the Peoples’ Republic, Taiwan and Hong Kong. A full nine percent of the borough’s population was born in China, the largest foreign-born contingent. About 40% of the borough’s population is foreign-born, 949,000 according to the latest census data. How do I know all this? Because it was tucked in the back of “Brooklyn Tomorrow”, a glossy magazine produced by by the New York Post but financed largely by Forest City Ratner. I picked up a copy Thursday at lunch. (Where’d I put that tin foil hat again?)

There is money to be made here…and not just in ticket sales, but in corporate suite sales, sponsorships and naming rights, lots of it. And not just by the franchise, but by the players. Nets’ games will now be featured on the fifty-plus Chinese TV stations that carry NBA games. There are 300 million Chinese who play basketball and one billion viewers watch NBA games on Chinese television. Some months, the NBA brings in more revenue from China than it does from North America. The numbers are staggering.

Chinese fans will know the names of Devin Harris and Sean Williams and oh yes, that Carter guy who already has a Chinese fan site devoted to him. It almost exploded in delight this week at the pairing of its two favorite players. It’s reported that every Houston Rocket but Yao has a Chinese sneaker contract. Shane Battier has taken Mandarin lessons so he can better sell PEAK sportswear…as well he should. His agent has said he makes more from his Chinese endorsements than his American ones. Nice recruiting tool for free agents.

Yi is a huge star in China, with more personality and, yes, better looks than Yao. He is the fourth most popular Chinese celebrity in the latest polling. Yao Ming is first. He is featured in romantic commercials along with the country’s top young starlets. His first Nike commercial made fun of the contrast between the staid old China (Yao) and the new hip-hop China (Yi). He was chosen by the Chinese Red Cross to videotape a plea for donations following the Sichuan earthquake.

Chinese media had writers and producers living in Milwaukee, some of whom will no doubt move to New Jersey and cover the Nets for their local newspapers and television stations. Business publications in Milwaukee and Madison newspapers lamented the trade, noting how Yi was Wisconsin’s link to to the world’s fastest growing major economy. People wonder if the Bucks will be able to maintain their Chinese-language website. Will the Nets set one up as well? Already, they have posted a CNN video of him talking about the Olympics, shot in April.

Here’s what Brett Yormark (who knows just a little about marketing) told the New York Times about the possibilities of Yi: “We jumped right on it. We’ve talked to the Bucks and the Rockets so we can learn from their mistakes and, more often, replicate what they did. It opens up a truly new fan base for us. Yi is going to give us the opportunity to be relevant to Asian-American fans in ways we haven’t been before.” (And critics of Atlantic Yards should understand that Ratner just got a brand new and powerful constituency in his battle with them.)

Here’s the beauty part, the Lebron connection. Lebron James is a huge Nike client. Yi Jianlian is a huge Nike client. Lebron James is very popular in China, so popular in fact that Nike opened a Lebron James Museum in Shanghai last year. China Daily was there to record fans’ fevered reactions. If Lebron plays in New York (and last we checked, Brooklyn is part of New York), his Nike contract reportedly includes a 15% kicker.

As John Schuhmann of NBA.com wrote hours after the trade: “if LeBron envisions himself as a global icon, he might see the opportunity to team with Yi, in addition to moving to a larger market, as a wise business move”. Who’s a better teammate in that hunt for iconography: Zydrunas Ilgauskas or Yi Jianlain? You figure it out.

Of course, Yi has to prove he can be a major contributor to the Nets. If he becomes a mediocre, deep shooting softie, not much of this will matter. He MUST become a star, he MUST become the next Dirk Nowitzki. The Nets ownership will demand it. The Chinese Basketball Association will too. Good Luck with that, Kiki.

One final note on Yi: the trade will not be complete until he makes a 14,000-mile round trip between Beijing and East Rutherford. Thorn said this week under league rules, no trade is official until all players pass their physicals…or the teams agree to waive physicals. Thorn says the team is making arrangements for the physical. How that will happen within Yi’s Olympic training schedule will be a challenge.

Free Agency

This will be a busy week. Starting Tuesday, teams can talk to free agents. Although teams can’t sign a player til July 9, announcements can be made beforehand. A few years ago, Raja Bell and the Suns concluded a deal by July 2.

What’s our thinking about the three Nets’ free agents? We would bet DeSagana Diop is gone back to Dallas. He said all the right things about the Nets during his time here in the winter, but we can’t see the Nets matching a full MLE offer from the Mavs. (see above re mounting losses). We would also bet Boki Nachbar stays and here’s why. With the loss of RJ, the Nets need someone experienced, reliable and tough enough to fill that three spot, either in the starting lineup or off the bench. We didn’t think that way last week.

That leaves us with Nenad Krstic. As Fred Kerber writes in the Post although some are saying the acquisition of Yi makes Krstic superfluous, “they are as similar as Serbia and China,” which means not similar at all. The questions will be about playing time and money. Krstic could survey the roster and think he has no chance of getting big money or big minutes, what with the need to play Yi (see above) and the desire to play Lopez. He may just decide to play elsewhere. We get the sneaking suspicion that elsewhere may not be on this side of the Atlantic. We put his chances of staying at less than 50-50, which makes us sad considering what we thought his potential was before he collapsed two Decembers ago.

Beyond that, the names out thrown out there by the beat reporters are very familiar with one exception. Kerber’s list is Warrior Michael Pietrus, Wizard Roger Mason, Clipper Quinton Ross, Pacer Kareem Rush and Knick Fred Jones. D’Alessandro’s is Pietrus and Ross, as well, along with Warrior Matt Barnes, and Magic Keyon Dooling. The exception, says Kerber is that the Nets are targeting J.R. Smith, who is still only 22 years old. A Jersey native who grew up in Clarksburg near Lakewood and played at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark before jumping to the NBA has always been a favorite of Thorn’s. Smith seemed to mature as a person this season and improve his game as well. The Nuggets say they will match any offer for Smith. The Nets are slightly under the cap right now so couldn’t play at the level above the $5.6 million MLE. But maybe Smith wants to come home or wants a Chinese sneaker deal and ask for a sign-and-trade.

Speaking of free agency, we’d like the Nets’ brass to clear up the arcane matter of how many trade exceptions they Nets have in their off-season arsenal…and how they got them. Al Iannazzone has long said they have one, a $3.3 million exception that expires at the trade deadline. But this week, D’Alessandro said the team has three: the $3.3 million, plus a $4.2 million exception that expires June 30 (of which year) and one for $3.7 million that expires October 26. TE’s can’t be combined and individual TE’s can’t be combined with a player, but you can send out a TE and a draft pick or the draft rights of a player (Christian Drejer?) to secure someone making less than the amount of the exception.

NetsDaily Draft Sleeper of the Week

As noted way above, Ryan Anderson was a NetsDaily Draft Sleeper…the last one as a matter of fact. We had noticed that the entire scouting apparatus went on a road trip to Philly to watch him work out for the Sixers. That’s when we figured he was very much in the mix for #21. It turns out someone went to watch him in Washington as well. We named ten sleepers. Of those ten, four were picked in the first round…proud to say Anderson was the highest at #21; two were picked in the second round, three went undrafted and one dropped out.

Final Note

There are few nights as cool in sports as NBA Draft Night. It is, as one poster on SportsTwo said, “it’s like Christmas morning!” Lots of subtexts. Here’s one we just noticed today. Jonathan Givony in grading each team’s performance in the draft suggested that the Nets should have taken Donte Greene over Anderson at #21. He adds: “one of the reasons he even fell here was due to the fact that he got into an argument with a member of their coaching staff in a private workout.”

What we are told is that the coach in question was Brian Hill and that Hill repeatedly warned Greene to cut the trash talk during the workout on June 12. Greene was supposedly going after Anthony Randolph hot and heavy. Hardly an argument, though.

With the addition of China’s Yi Jianlian on Thursday, the Nets’ international contingent has grown to four, although the other three, Nenad Krstic of Serbia, Boki Nachbar of Slovenia, and DeSagana Diop of Senegal are all free agents with varying chances of returning to New Jersey. They also have varying degrees of commitment to their home countries’ national teams this summer.

Yi has the strongest commitment to both, as a star on the Chinese National Team along with the Rockets’ Yao Ming…and being under contract with the Nets beyond midnight Tuesday. In fact, Yi had just finished playing a series of exhibition games with the National Team in his hometown of Shenzen when word came that he had been traded to the Nets. The Chinese National Team won eight straight against teams from Croatia and Lithuania in that series with Yi in the starring role. Yao Ming is still recovering from a foot injury. Both are scheduled to compete in two pre-Olympic exhibition tournaments as well as the Olympics themselves.

Krstic’s Serbian team isn’t playng in the Olympics and must participate in a qualifying tournament this summer jusst to make it into Eurobasket09, the continental championship, next year in Spain. Its last two national teams have been disasters with locker room brawls and bad losses. Krstic will also play in two exhibition series before heading to the qualifying tournament in Italy in August. One of them will take place in China in late July and match him up against Yi. He used to dominate Yi in international competition.

Nachbar’s Slovenia is in better shape: it has a chance to get into the Olympics. Still, it must qualify for the Olympics in July. He will not play in the qualifying tournament in Athens but has told the Slovenian national federation he is willing play in Beijing if the team qualifies. It’s not known if the federation has taken him up on his offer.

Diop will not play for Senegal. (Vince Carter, of course, played in the 2000 Olympics for Team USA, winning a gold medal in Sydney.)

Here is the schedule:

July 17-July 20 - Borislav Stankovic Cup, Hangzhou, China Yi Jianlian will compete in this annual FIBA tournament. He is training for it currently in China. He could face off against Andrei Kirilenko of Russia on July 19. In addition to China and Russia, the national teams of Iran and Angola will compete here and in the Olympics.

July 25-27 - Mechel Cup, Moscow, Russia Together with Russia, Latvia and Ukraine, Krstic’s Serbian National Team will take part in this FIBA tournament which for Russia will be a tune-up for the Olympics, for the others a tune-up for European competition later in the summer.

July 29-August 1 - FIBA Diamond Ball Tournament, Nanjing, China. Yi is part of the host nation’s team in this annual tourney. Krstic committed to play with Serbia in this tournament January when he told an ESPN chatroom this January: “It’s an honor to play for my National Team and I’m looking forward to playing this summer.” The three day tournament also includes Angola, Australia, Argentina and Iran.

August 10-24 - Olympics, Beijing, China. Yi can be expected to play a major role for China in the Olympics. Nets fans will be able to watch him go up against Team USA live on NBC August 10. China and the US open their medal quests that morning. If Slovenia gets to Beijing via the Qualifying Tournament, Nachar will play…assuming his team wants him. Of the five Slovenian NBAers, only Rasho Nesterovic has committed to play.

August 20-September 6 - Eurobasket 09 Qualifying Tournament, Italy. Serbia didn’t qualify for the Olympics last year, so it must play in a qualifying tournament to get in the European championships next year in Warsaw. Krstic and his Serbian teammates will play a round-robin tournament in northern Italy against other teams, including Italy, Finland, Bulgaria and Hungary. The Knicks’ Danilo Gallinari is committed to play for Italy.

For the second time in less than four months, the Nets have added five players in the course of a day. In February, of course, the Nets traded Jason Kidd and got back Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Maurice Ager, Trenton Hassell and Keith Van Horn. .

The Nets receive:

–Yi Jianlian, a 7′0”, 20-year-old power forward from Shenzen, China with a contract through 2009-10.

–Bobby Simmons, a 6’6”, 28-year-old small forward from DePaul with a contract through 2009-10.

–Brook Lopez, a 7’0”, 20-year-old center from Stanford with a contract through 2010-11 (drafted with the #10 pick).

–Ryan Anderson, 6’10”, 20-year-old combo forward from California with a contract through 2010-11 (drafted with the #21 pick, acquired from Dallas in the Kidd trade).

–Chris Douglas-Roberts , a 6’7”, 21-year-old small forward from Memphis with a non-guaranteed contract through 2008-09, typically with a team option for 2009-10 (drafted with the #40 pick).

Remaining assets:

–the Mavericks’ first round pick in 2010, unprotected, plus the Nets own first round picks in 2009+ and the Nets’ own second round picks in 2010+

–a trade exception valued at $3.3 million from the Kidd trade that will expire at the trade deadline next February. They can be used in trades for one year from date of the trade, but cannot be combined with a player.

-the full mid-level exception valued at $5.6 million (precise amount yet to be set).

-the full lower-level exception valued at $1.9 million (precise amount yet to be set).

–approximately $8.5 million in cap space before tendering contract offers to–or renouncing–the team’s free agents: Nenad Krstic, Darrell Armstong, DeSagana Diop and Boki Nachbar, as well as well as the three rookies. The Nets ended the season close to $7 million under the luxury tax threshold and are now another $8 million or so under.

-Van Horn’s contract, reportedly valued at $3.5 million (or approximately $4.8 million for trade purposes. KVH’s contract is believed to have a buyout clause which must be exercised before the season begins. The amount of the buyout is unknown.

The Bucks receive:

–Richard Jefferson, a 6’7”, 28-year-old small forward from Arizona with a contract through 2010-11, with a player option in the final year.

Make no mistake about it, tonight’s moves were as critical to the Nets’ future as those at the trade deadline when Jason Kidd was traded. In one aspect, this was opening night for the Brooklyn Nets…the team started making real plans for the 2010-11 season in the Barclays Center, a building yet to rise above the Atlantic Yards.

The Nets went young, they went big, they went with skill over athleticism but most of all, they divorced themselves from the recent (New Jersey) past and started to get way under the cap.

Ryan Anderson becomes the youngest Net in a quarter century. Brook Lopez is the second youngest since Clifford Robinson (the USC Robinson, not Uncle Cliffy) played at age 19 in 1979. The roster now has three 20-year-olds (Anderson, Lopez and Yi Jianlian), two 21-year-olds (Chris Douglas Roberts and Sean Williams), a 22-year-old (Marcus Williams), a 23-year-old (Josh Boone), a 24-year-old (Nenad Krstic), a 25-year-old (Devin Harris) and a 26-year-old (DeSagana Diop)…or 11 players 26 or younger. Unless you count Darrell Armstrong and Keith Van Horn, you can only find one Net who’s over 30: Vince Carter who will have to assume leadership of the team.

Ironically, though, this influx of youth is not likely to lead to an athletic game. Not a lot of speed demons on the roster after Harris. Lopez, Anderson and Douglas-Roberts had two things in common: 1) all had productive seasons for top-flight college programs, with CDR getting to the NCAA Finals after winning 38 games and 2) all of them had their athleticism questioned by draftniks and GM’s alike. In spite of a combined 60 and 25 among the three of them, it was a perceived or real deficit in athleticism that caused Lopez and CDR to drop, precipitously in the latter’s case. Yi is different. He is a very athletic–and skilled–seven-footer. It’s his conditioning and his heart that is in question. One can be corrected, the other remains an issue.

There appears no doubt the team is pointed towards 2010-11 when if the courts and banks agree the team will be playing its first games in Brooklyn and possibly with a shot at Lebron James. The departure of Jefferson breaks whatever chains there were binding the Nets to New Jersey. It will be felt on the court and at the ticket office. Imagine being a Nets ticket rep fielding phone calls tomorrow in East Rutherford. Will the reps hint at how the way has been cleared for Lebron or will they be forced to admit that yes, this isn’t a retooling, it’s a rebuilding. Barring some a serious roster overhaul between now and November, this doesn’t look like a playoff team.

And what does this mean for free agents Krstic, Boki Nachbar and DeSagana Diop? Is Lopez Krstic insurance if he bolts to another NBA team or even a European team? Is Anderson Nachbar insurance? It would appear those choices will permit, indeed, encourage the team to low-ball Krstic and Nachbar next week when free agent season begins. Diop, if he gets the full MLE from Mark Cuban, is likely gone.

Of course, it’s early and the roster no doubt will look different when the Nets fly to London and Paris in late October. It had better.

BROOK LOPEZ
(No. 10 Overall Selection, New Jersey Nets)

Q. What are your thoughts?
BROOK LOPEZ: I’m just really excited. Jersey, I know they are pretty much rebuilding now and made that big trade today, I just hope to bring great energy to the club and help build up the middle defensively.

Q. The Nets already have Williams and Boone and Diop, so how do you see yourself fitting in with the team?
BROOK LOPEZ: I like to handle the defensive end and rebounding and just bring energy and toughness to the team.

Q. Did you have any indication that the Nets really wanted you after you worked out with them, or were you surprised?
BROOK LOPEZ: I actually didn’t work out for the Nets, so I was pretty surprised.

Q. It’s funny, the last center with the Nets, Jason Collins had a twin brother; do you know them well? You’re going to be hearing this
BROOK LOPEZ: I’ll explain the whole thing. My oldest brother was seven and they all play in the same league in L.A. and that’s where my mom and his mom, she gave her a card, and so we pretty much stayed friends all through that and they went to Harvard Westlake and just the relationship continued through college at Santa Clara and to this day they are just sort of mentoring me and we stayed in contact the whole time.

Q. Your brother played 1, 2 against the Collins?
BROOK LOPEZ: Yeah.

Q. What did your brother say to you when you finally got picked? How did it feel?
BROOK LOPEZ: It was great. I was so happy to be up there. I was living a dream, it was extremely surreal and time for me to give up all that anxiety.

Q. Yesterday you were talking about you landing in a city with a lot of culture. We were joking about New York and New Jersey, and now you’re here; what is next for you here?
BROOK LOPEZ: Just get ready to get to work pretty much. I can enjoy the sites in my spare or free time but coming here and getting to work and earning my keep.

Q. Is it going to be strange not playing with your brother? When was the last time you guys were not on the same team?
BROOK LOPEZ: I don’t know. I don’t know. It will be strange. I don’t know when the last time was. But you know, you pretty much knew it was going to happen, so I’ve been getting ready for that and here it is.
I don’t know, I’ll tell you after a year of playing without him.

Q. With that in mind, you might not be playing with your brother again; what do you think this is going to allow you to show as a player that you might have been limited by before?
BROOK LOPEZ: Just like I said, I won’t have to rely on him, or I won’t be able to rely on him to do the dirty work and stuff like that, so I can show off my game more.