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Can we bring Mile Ilic next season?

I dont think he is ready and he has a buyout...dont know how much.

 

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"Best player available"

As Stefanski said recently, the Nets intend to choose the best player available "and we hope he's a big guy".

That said, again, the Nets have for the most part drafted big over the entire Thorn era. They've had 12 picks and here are the "bigs" they have drafted...Kenyon Martin and Soumale Samaki in 2000, Jason Collins and Brian Scalabrine in 2001, Nenad Krstic in 2002 and Mile Ilic in 2005. Six out of 12 picks have been "big guys", capable of playing PF or C. Four the 12 have been seven-footers: Samaki, Collins, Krstic and Ilic.

D'Alessandro said during this week's chat that Stefanski told him that he was encouraged by what he saw in the NCAA's and it had made him more optimistic about the draft. He also said that the Nets are thinking of trading up so secure a higher pick. [So are the Knicks, by the way.] It's not as easy as it sounds. You have to find a team with a pick high enough to risk two lower level picks in a deep draft and then that team has to need depth.

Last week's chat, D'Alessandro said Stefanski has postponed his annual European trip three times and that he is expected to wait til after the NCAA's. So I think the Nets brass should soon have a much better idea of who they are going to target [and who they are going to invite for tryouts, not that that matters much to the Nets].

 

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I don't believe the "best player available" mantra will prevail again this draft. I beleive it will be "best available player" that "fills a need". When you are picking down in the 20s you look for need. The differences between the players are not as great and are more about eye of the beholder.

When the Nets chose Collins it was based on need not that he was best available. They had no centers as MacCulloch was not signed yet, so they took the best available center. They can't go into the season drafting another wing with the first pick. Not in the 20s. There shouldn't be one that is more overwhelming in skill than the best available big.

Uh...Stefanski said that two weeks ago. You can ignore it, but he said it and I believe he meant it. And moreover, I hope that they follow it. I always believe you take the best player available rather than try to fill an IMMEDIATE need. When you have a veteran team with solid players at each position, drafting to fill an immediate need doesnt make much sense.

You draft to fill needs when you have a gaping hole or holes. The Nets don't have a gaping hole in their starting lineup and to be quite frank, tell me which of the PF types out there at #23 and #24 [or even #16 if you traded up] would supplant either Collins or Robinson, particularly on defense?

The Nets plan last year, which didnt work out, was to draft the best player available and go for an offensive minded PF in free agency. Makes just as much sense this year as it did last year.

That said, if a solid PF is there and the Nets think he is the best player available, fine by me. I also think it best for them to use both picks since the bench is the issue.

 

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Like I said, I don't think the differences in talent are that big when you get down into the 20s. I'm not concerned with the starting lineup as much as I am with big depth. If they exercise Cliffy's option for next season, I think at age 40 they need to use him more sparringly like the Spurs do with Horry.

I would hope Stefanski isn't so cemented in his opinion about a draft two months from now where a) he doesn't know where he's picking and b) you don't know who will be declaring. I also think it would be a slap in the face of the players on the current team if he came out and openly said they need to draft a big. I think he's smarter than to openly declare that to the media with the season still in play.

I would be more than shocked if the Nets trade up and draft a wing that is the "best available' player at the time.

Was it a slap in the face of Jefferson and Carter that they drafted Wright or was it slap in the face of Collins and Krstic when they signed Shareef Abdur-Rahim?

Please.

They have a philosophy of selecting, for the most part, the best player available. If in 2002, they selected the best player available to fill an IMMEDIATE need, would they have selected a skinny 18 year old from Serbia? They could have picked Dan Gadzuric or Carlos Boozer that year if they wanted to improve their rebounding in the face of the loss to the Lakers. Gadzuric was mature, 5 1/2 years older than Krstic and had played in a great program at UCLA. Similarly, Boozer was from a national championship team at Duke. Everyone would have been happy back them with either of those picks, but the smart pick was going with who they thought was the best player available...and they were right.

I hope they keep both picks so just like 2001 when they felt they needed to restock the bench they added Jefferson, Collins, Armstrong and Scalabrine.