Nenad

[jking]

Will he ever see around 30min/game this year? There seems to be a ton of 4 and 5's on this team now, and even though Nenad is starting, he still is getting yanked often.

He played 21 min the other night, but only cause it went into OT, and then last night he was back to 12 min......do you guys see him getting regular minutes (average 30min) again this year??

[NetsForce]

I don't see him getting regular minutes or returning to form until next season... =/

[halfHAVOC]

whats the point of him starting if hes not useful...

+
when is he gonna post up instead of taking jumpers

[Serpo]

The biggest problem is he's our only Center with an offensive game and a shot .

Swift alongside Boone or Diop might be an option but 2 C/PF with a bad offensive game isn't that good .

[MrDollarBills]

His knee looks fine to me, the guy is moving like he was moving prior to the injury

The coach is just a bloody idiot. He doesn't run plays for him, and then yanks him when he's our only big man that can generate offense on the block and from the mid range J.

[jcrack32]

His knee looks fine to me, the guy is moving like he was moving prior to the injury

The coach is just a bloody idiot. He doesn't run plays for him, and then yanks him when he's our only big man that can generate offense on the block and from the mid range J.

I don't think this has to do much with Frank. The team and Curly made a mistake coming back early from rehab and that has set him back even more than expected. He's still only working his way back to game speed. His knee may look to be ok physically but he is still reacting and responding slow. I gotta believe that they are purposely bringing Curly around slow this time around so as to not risk any more setbacks. Posting up puts more strain on the knee and maybe Curly doesn't feel ready for that.

[jcrack32]

Haha...just as I finish that post, Kristic is getting touches in the post. Nice!

[mack69]

I don't see him getting regular minutes or returning to form until next season... =/

I agree as long as he makes progress with his conditioning and he is able to make the outside shot his minutes should remain the same.

A better question for everybody should Swill minutes be reduced to give Stro a chance to play?

[jking]

16 and 9 in 34 min last night, 10 boards in 26 min the night before......looks like they're starting to let him loose now. Looks like after building up slowly, he should be around 30min/game the rest of the way.

Also considering it seems like SWILL and STRO have fallen out of favor completely, seems like Nenad, Boone and Diop will be the big man rotation......

[MrDollarBills]

Nenad has a pulse!! The one bright spot during these abysmal performances by this team. Keep it up Curly, as long as he can get himself back in the groove and returns to his old self who cares what happens the rest of the way out

and his rebounding is improving.

[netsforever]

I'm very happy to see Nenad regaining his confidence.

[isekii]

The question is how mcuh do we sign him for ?

I don't think he's worth 40-50 mill right now.. or if he'll ever be worth that much.

He's still slow as a turtle but his jump shots seems to be coming back.

[netsforever]

The question is how mcuh do we sign him for ?

I don't think he's worth 40-50 mill right now.. or if he'll ever be worth that much.

He's still slow as a turtle but his jump shots seems to be coming back.

A 2 year contract with a team option for year 3, starting at around 3 million, with 20% increases every year seems fair to me.

3 million in 08/09
3.6 million in 09/10
4.32 million in 10/11 ( Team Option)

That seems fair to me... but Nenad will likely command a 4-5 year MLE level contract at minimum if he keeps up his current level of play (16-9-2 vs Memphis). However, if he slips back to his old level of play (5 ppg, 4 rpg, 32% FG on season)... he'll probably end up with a contract closer to my thinking.

Either way - he's not going anywhere barring a drastic change in personnel as some part of a massive trade.

[NetsForce]

I'm pretty sure the max raises a player can recieve is 10.5%

So if you wanted to give Nenad a 3 year contract starting at $3 million a year his contract would have to look like this:

Year 1: 2008-2009: $3,000,000
Year 2: 2009-2010: $3,315,000
Year 3: 2010-2011: $3,630,000

Also it's important to note that the raise isn't compounded, it's a 10.5% raise of the first year of his contract, so for example to calculate the Year 2 salary I did the following --->

($3,000,000 x 10.5%) + $3,000,000 =
315,000 + $3,000,000 = $3,315,000

Now for year 3, I didn't take $3,315,000 x 1.105, rather I had to do this --->

($3,000,000 x 10.5%) + $3,315,000 =
315,000 + $3,315,000 = $3,630,000

Basically with a starting contract of $3 million and max raises of 10.5% Krstic's contract would be increasing by $315,000 a year.

Your proposed contract total for those 3 years was $9,945,000, less than $10 million over 3 years for Krstic? That would be a complete steal... Which is why I think the Nets will have to pay him more than your ideal offer. Even with Nenad coming back from injury and all there is just serious inflation in the big man market...

*Last thing the Nets have Krstic's bird rights so they don't have to use the MLE to resign him I read a couple of posts in some other threads and some posters seemed to overlook this point...

edit: This is the real last comment for this post... Mikki Moore is owed around $17.5 million over the span of his 3 year contract with the Kings.

[Rich Rane]

This team needs to let Diop go this summer. Frank obviously can't handle playing 5 bigs, let alone 6 with the annual big we draft.

[NetsForce]

I'm hoping that the Nets can pull a sign and trade for Diop and preferably only have to take back a minimum contract and a draft pick...

I went through the list of teams with trade exceptions on ESPN and here are the teams that seem to have a big enough trade exception to acquire Diop:

Chicago Bulls: $5,205,000
Golden State: $10,000,000
Phoenix: $8,091,189
Seattle: $3,226,135

From that list I'm going to immediately knock out Golden State, since Diop doesn't really fit their game plan and he'd just end up being Adonal Foyle or (even worse) Patrick O'Bryant 2.0 if he went to the Warriors... I'm also going to cross off Phoenix because they have this sick aversion to adding salary and I'm once again not that sure how Diop would fit in with them, he's not a bad runner for a big man but he's a much better half-court player since he's not good at receiving the ball on the move... So anyway that leaves 2 teams with decent-sized trade exceptions that could acquire Diop via a sign and trade:

Chicago Bulls: $5,205,000
Seattle: $3,226,135

I'm skeptical as to whether or not $3.2 million would be enough to get Diop's services as I'm sure there is some team out there willing to overpay for him with their MLE (if not then Seattle is a valid destination since Petro and Swift have been certified grade A flops), soooo...

To make a long story short I think the Bulls are the only team in the league that could realistically acquire Diop with their trade exception (and as a result keep the Nets from having to take back big salaries).

With their lack of centers Diop at least on paper seems like he could be a good fit in Chicago...

(wow I made that a lot longer than I had to...)

[jeff1624]

I think diop goes back to dallas this off season..

It'd be nice to use him to get a pick back but I really believe dallas will use some of the MLE to get diop back.