duncan228
12-01-2008, 11:16 PM
Nets' trade for Harris paying real dividends (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Nets_trade_for_Harris_paying_real_dividends.html)
Mike Monroe
When the New Jersey Nets finally were able to muddle through the intrigue that nearly scuttled the biggest in-season trade of the 2007-08 season, it was clear they were committed to a new direction.
The deal that sent Jason Kidd and friends to Dallas for Devin Harris and pals was the first big trade Nets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe helped orchestrate after Rod Thorn, the team's president of basketball operations, hired him. So it was no surprise it involved trading a popular veteran for youth and salary cap space. Vandeweghe had done the same thing when he ran the Nuggets, rescuing them from the salary cap no man's land he had inherited from Dan Issel.
Now, it's beginning to look like the Nets' new direction will land them in the hunt for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs long before they make a planned move across the Hudson River, from New Jersey to Brooklyn. That change of venue won't happen before 2011, if it ever occurs. The Nets figure to be an Eastern title contender by the time the 2010-11 season begins.
I wonder if many Nets fans still miss Kidd after Harris' breakout weekend out West.
If your grandmother's house was so far over the river and through the woods that you missed the weekend's NBA games, you need to know that Harris established that he is the East's most productive point guard and perhaps its best.
Harris dropped 34 points on Deron Williams and the Jazz in leading the Nets to a 17-point win Saturday night. Just 24 hours later, he scored 21 of his career-high 47 in the fourth quarter against Steve Nash and the Suns.
Those two games pumped Harris' scoring average up to 25.3 points, which ranks him fourth in the league.
In fifth place: Kobe Bryant at 24.4.
There have been plenty of big scorers on bad teams, but Harris is no stats fiend. He pretty much willed the Nets to three victories on a four-game Western road trip, leaving New Jersey with the sixth-best record in the East.
“Devin has played great,” Vandeweghe said while awaiting a delayed flight at Denver International Airport late Monday afternoon. “He's taken us to another level.”
Vandeweghe won't speculate on where Harris ranks among Eastern point guards. But he leaves little doubt he regards the 6-foot-3, fifth-year player from Wisconsin as nearly untouchable, were any team to inquire about a trade.
“We're very happy to have him,” he said, “very, very happy.”
The migration of Kidd and Chauncey Billups to the Western Conference has left the East without a signature point guard. Mike Bibby has helped to keep the Hawks among the conference's leaders, and Mo Williams looks a lot like the perimeter scoring threat LeBron James has begged Danny Ferry to bring to Cleveland for the past couples of seasons. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce lobby for recognition for Rajon Rondo, and Derrick Rose already has shown he is a future star at the point.
Right now, though, there is no Eastern point guard you'd rather have than Harris. It is no wonder former Mavs coach Avery Johnson was so adamantly against the February trade that sent the talented 24-year-old to New Jersey in exchange for Kidd, who was 34 when the deal went down.
“When we made the trade,” Vandeweghe said, “we could see Devin was very fast and a very good defender. When given the opportunity to play consistently, he always scored.”
The Spurs knew Harris was one of the few point guards capable of keeping up with Tony Parker in the open court. They were incapable of hiding their glee after the trade finally was revised after Jerry Stackhouse's blabbering delayed it.
It didn't hurt the Spurs' feelings much last weekend when Harris handed two of their Western rivals homecourt defeats, either.
Mike Monroe
When the New Jersey Nets finally were able to muddle through the intrigue that nearly scuttled the biggest in-season trade of the 2007-08 season, it was clear they were committed to a new direction.
The deal that sent Jason Kidd and friends to Dallas for Devin Harris and pals was the first big trade Nets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe helped orchestrate after Rod Thorn, the team's president of basketball operations, hired him. So it was no surprise it involved trading a popular veteran for youth and salary cap space. Vandeweghe had done the same thing when he ran the Nuggets, rescuing them from the salary cap no man's land he had inherited from Dan Issel.
Now, it's beginning to look like the Nets' new direction will land them in the hunt for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs long before they make a planned move across the Hudson River, from New Jersey to Brooklyn. That change of venue won't happen before 2011, if it ever occurs. The Nets figure to be an Eastern title contender by the time the 2010-11 season begins.
I wonder if many Nets fans still miss Kidd after Harris' breakout weekend out West.
If your grandmother's house was so far over the river and through the woods that you missed the weekend's NBA games, you need to know that Harris established that he is the East's most productive point guard and perhaps its best.
Harris dropped 34 points on Deron Williams and the Jazz in leading the Nets to a 17-point win Saturday night. Just 24 hours later, he scored 21 of his career-high 47 in the fourth quarter against Steve Nash and the Suns.
Those two games pumped Harris' scoring average up to 25.3 points, which ranks him fourth in the league.
In fifth place: Kobe Bryant at 24.4.
There have been plenty of big scorers on bad teams, but Harris is no stats fiend. He pretty much willed the Nets to three victories on a four-game Western road trip, leaving New Jersey with the sixth-best record in the East.
“Devin has played great,” Vandeweghe said while awaiting a delayed flight at Denver International Airport late Monday afternoon. “He's taken us to another level.”
Vandeweghe won't speculate on where Harris ranks among Eastern point guards. But he leaves little doubt he regards the 6-foot-3, fifth-year player from Wisconsin as nearly untouchable, were any team to inquire about a trade.
“We're very happy to have him,” he said, “very, very happy.”
The migration of Kidd and Chauncey Billups to the Western Conference has left the East without a signature point guard. Mike Bibby has helped to keep the Hawks among the conference's leaders, and Mo Williams looks a lot like the perimeter scoring threat LeBron James has begged Danny Ferry to bring to Cleveland for the past couples of seasons. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce lobby for recognition for Rajon Rondo, and Derrick Rose already has shown he is a future star at the point.
Right now, though, there is no Eastern point guard you'd rather have than Harris. It is no wonder former Mavs coach Avery Johnson was so adamantly against the February trade that sent the talented 24-year-old to New Jersey in exchange for Kidd, who was 34 when the deal went down.
“When we made the trade,” Vandeweghe said, “we could see Devin was very fast and a very good defender. When given the opportunity to play consistently, he always scored.”
The Spurs knew Harris was one of the few point guards capable of keeping up with Tony Parker in the open court. They were incapable of hiding their glee after the trade finally was revised after Jerry Stackhouse's blabbering delayed it.
It didn't hurt the Spurs' feelings much last weekend when Harris handed two of their Western rivals homecourt defeats, either.