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Seanc3
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Here is a recent article:
A team coming apart: Dysfunction marks the new Nets
Monday, December 11, 2006
BY DAVE D'ALESSANDRO
Star-Ledger Staff
It was late last week that Rod Thorn finally got around to addressing his stumbling team, which a team president usually saves as a last resort. The message he gave his Nets players was direct, even though he went on for about 20 minutes.
"Basically, it was that we need to come together and play better," Thorn imparted last night. "And that for the 48 minutes, we've been inconsistent. Some nights it's starters, some nights it's guys off the bench. But it has to change."
If it were only that simple. And Thorn is not naive enough to believe that it can change with one pep talk.
For weeks, there have been whispers -- from players and management types, who for obvious reasons don't want to speak for the record -- that this team has legitimate chemistry issues, personality conflicts and breakdowns in mutual trust. For the most part, these matters are unrelated to their jobs, but it has had a profound effect on their performances.
One player, who also requested anonymity so as not to disclose his team's dysfunction, was glib: "We'd make a pretty good HBO series right now," he said.
The hard evidence is sketchy, but the locker-room problems manifest themselves in a dozen little ways. Their fourth-quarter execution, for the most part, is awful. Their best players --notably Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson -- look distracted at times. Their inability to sustain effort is alarming. Their starting lineup, which was one of the most productive in the NBA last year and still pulls in 75 percent of the payroll, rarely takes control of games.
The bottom line, however, is hard to refute: This team has far too much talent to be 7-12, so the chemistry problems must lie elsewhere.
"I don't want to deny that on any team you have something going on time to time," Thorn said, "and our team is no different from anyone else."
Lawrence Frank is a bit less vague.
"We lose focus and concentration," the coach said yesterday. "Obviously, I think we're getting what we deserve right now. It's hard to say -- whatever you want to chalk it up to. We've been selective with different things at different times. It's a recurring deal. We're talking about the same things the last month. From ability to sustain focus, production, effort, whatever you want to call it. We just can't piece it together."
When asked whether the focus/concentration problems were related to a more deep-rooted problem in the locker room, Frank would neither confirm nor deny it.
"Look," he said, "at end of day, we come to work and do our jobs because we're getting paid. And the focus has to be on the court."
Thorn's response to the same question: "I don't think we have any problems in our locker room, no," he said. "But maybe you lose confidence -- in yourself and each other. We have to get our swagger back."
At the same time, however, Thorn has been around long enough to know that teams just grow tired of each other, or stay together too long.
"That's certainly a possibility," he said. "There are very few sure things in pro sports."
And could that be happening with this team?
"You know, I wouldn't say that at this time," he said. "We've had four times when we've led going into the fourth quarter (and lost). We used to close well, but we just haven't this year. Last year it used to be the bench, this time it's both the bench and starters. But we're still in good shape in our division. I'm not using that as crutch, but we're probably in better shape than we were last year, vis-à-vis our division. It's there for us."
Frank, whom Thorn praised again yesterday as a "terrific" coach who is "not the problem in any way," couldn't predict where this season is going, either. He added that he has never told his superiors that the personnel needs to be changed -- just to shake up the chemistry -- and never would.
"I'm hired to coach the team," Frank said. "Everyone is disappointed with where we're at -- whether it's a player or coach or management or ownership. As a coach, my job is to find a way with whatever guys we have here. The core of our team has shown what it's capable of doing."
And if that core suddenly decides it no longer wants to be the core?
"Well," he said, "I'll just say we're committed to doing it with the group we have."
Get inside the Nets with beat writer Dave D'Alessandro's blog on NJ.com/nets, where you can chat with Dave every Thursday at noon.
He may be reached at
ddalessandro@starledger.com
© 2006 The Star Ledger
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved
[Edited by - Seanc3 on 12-11-2006 3:01 PM]
[Edited by - Seanc3 on 12-11-2006 3:28 PM]
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12/11/2006 3:24 PM