MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: For much of the first half of the season, Vince Carter seemed destined to be most "disappointing," not most "valuable" Net. And although he surrendered the team scoring lead to Richard Jefferson, Carter took on the team leadership mantle as well as anyone and raised his game after the trade of Jason Kidd. He raised his averages in virtually every category after the All-Star break, going from 20.5 points per game to 22.7 (627 points in 27 games) while lifting his shooting from .445 to .475. All that on an ankle that probably will need surgery in the off-season.
MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER: He left in February, but the negative imprint Jason Kidd put on the team carried through the entire season. The team captain wanted out, made it be known and too many times played with extreme indifference. Ultimately, he was traded and the Nets tried to change on the fly but never recovered. BIGGEST NEEDS: The Nets are like virtually every other team in the league: they want, and need, additional shooting. And with a drop from their usual top 10 defensive positioning (17th in points allowed (100.9); 12th in field goal percentage defense (.456), they want an interior presence to guard the rim.
FREE AGENT FOCUS: The Nets repeatedly have said they want to keep their key free agents: two unrestricted types, F Bostjan Nachbar and C DeSagana Diop, both key bench players who should attract a fair amount of interest, plus restricted free agent F Nenad Krstic. The Nets can match any offer Krstic receives but there is no guarantee they will match because they do not want to be a luxury tax team. Also, Krstic struggled terribly in his return from a torn ACL and subsequent knee surgery. Unrestricted free agent G Darrell Armstrong is not likely to return. Diop may be the toughest of the three to re-sign. He has indicated a return to Dallas is very possible.
"Our main objective is we'd like to keep everybody. We realize that might not be possible given that you work under salary cap restrictions," GM Kiki Vandeweghe said. "We like the guys we have, we like our free agents and we'd like to be able to keep them."
PLAYER NOTES:
--G Vince Carter is off crutches and has been receiving treatments following his right arthroscopic surgery that cleaned out the joint and removed loose bodies. Carter injured the ankle in November and was bothered throughout the season. Team president Rod Thorn was pleased with Carter's progress and claimed he was on schedule. Carter is expected to be completely recovered for the start of training camp.
--C Josh Boone is anticipating his first fully healthy training camp. Boone, drafted in 2006, missed all of his rookie season camp after shoulder surgery. Last season, he was hampered following arthroscopic knee surgery. Now, he has been diligently hitting the weight room since the end of the season, looking to improve on his averages of 8.2 points and 7.3 rebounds last season.
--G Devin Harris had a bit of a laugh over comments from his former Dallas coach Avery Johnson, who was a rigid taskmaster on the point guard with a Mavs.
Johnson, out as the Mavs coach, admitted after the fact he should have given Harris more freedom and hastened his development. Harris insists his relationship with Johnson is solid.
"I heard a couple comments: 'I should have given Devin the ball a little bit sooner.' It's good to know but there's not a lot we can do now," Harris said.
"Obviously, we were close and it's just his way of showing some allegiance to me. I don't think he was a big contributor to the trade talk when it was going on. We had developed a close relationship."
