When training camp began, team president Rod Thorn declared he expected the Nets to make the playoffs.
Then he watched the Nets in preseason, and specifically saw them defend and take care of the ball. Or try to do both.
The goals are a tad less lofty now.
“Get better. Show we’re competitive. Show we’ve got a nice future,” Thorn said yesterday when he insisted he hasn’t lessened expectations, but maybe made them a bit more realistic.
“I can’t say I’ve scaled them back,” said Thorn, whose young, rebuilt, work-in-progress Nets start the season tomorrow in Washington. “I think we’ll be competitive. I really do. Hopefully, we’ll be competitive early.”
Thorn and GM Kiki Vandeweghe discussed the upcoming season and while sounding like two execs with a lot of hope, they also sounded reasonable about what awaits a team with three rookies among the cast of seven players carrying two years of experience or less. Thorn was blunt about the team’s obvious failings.
“We just have a terrible time stopping anybody,” he said of a preseason in which the Nets surrendered an average of 103.7 points.
All is not gloom, the Nets stressed. With the development of the likes of Yi Jianlian, a shooting forward Thorn and Vandeweghe would match with any NBA four/five in that area, the progression of players such as rookie Brook Lopez, who has shown the skills to eventually be a legit NBA center, and the leadership and talent expected from Vince Carter and Devin Harris, hope exists. The hope is the Nets can be one of the teams joining the Eastern Super Six playoff locks: Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Orlando, Philadelphia and Toronto.
“We have a good mix and what [we] tried to do is, along with our rookies, get veterans that play the way we’d like the rookies to learn how to play . . . to kind of show them the way,” Vandeweghe said.
Making the playoffs will be tougher than last year, when Atlanta got in at 37-45. Thorn feels a .500 record will be needed. Are the Nets a 41-victory team?
“On paper, probably not. But our goal is to improve as we go along and get better. I think we will do that,” Thorn said.
*
Josh Boone practiced after missing nine days (rapid heartbeat). “It went well,” said Boone. “I wasn’t nearly as out of shape as I thought I was going to be . . . I’ll be playing (tomorrow). I don’t know if I’m starting.”
Frank wants to see Boone practice today, but it sounded as if Boone may have an edge to start over Lopez because of experience.
“Josh, because he’s been here, is probably a little bit more comfortable communicating and talking in terms of calling the defensive commands,” Frank said.
Yi Jianlian was welcomed yesterday at the Chinatown YMCA by a large group of kids and New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. . . . It is doubtful Eduardo Najera (wrist) will ready to play by tomorrow.