Congratulations are due to Jason Collins. Even ahead of Martin, he's the MVP of the game for the defensive job he did on Yao. In Game 1, the Nets used Scalabrine double-teaming to defend Yao. In Game 2, Twin did the job with minimum help. He used all 5 fouls in the effort, too, indicative of his physical post defense. Stopping Yao just about doubles a team's chances to defeat the Rockets, and in this game, Twin's defense left the Rockets scrambling for answers.
Frank passed his first test. Players are working harder, he's making adjustments, and he managed the game well against Van Gundy, who is one of the top coaches in that respect. Oddly, the SG production, involving Kittles and Harris, has dropped since he took over. The only notable negative is Frank's continued over-use of the starters, which can be partially explained by the under-utilization of Veal and A-Train. To his credit, he continues to emphasize the development of Lu, Rogers and the rookie. Hopefully, as those three gain more of the coach's trust, the starters' minutes will drop to a more reasonable level.
Of the three, Planinic seems to be the first candidate to lose Frank's trust. For the first time as a head coach, Frank returned to the Harris/Kittles back-court, which - predictably - brought a rapid degradation of the Nets' half-court offense. At this time, Frank and the Nets appear to have no answer for backing up Kidd. I don't have much of an impression of Lu's 16 minutes. Rogers' evolution under Frank is interesting in that he's basically become a Veal imitation - a touch here, a touch there, and otherwise play a utility role.
I admit, I was wrong about Scalabrine and Williams insofar as my belief Frank would return them to the rotation against a better team. (It's possible, in A-Train's case, Twin was just defending Yao too well.) Instead, Frank adjusted what he's been doing since he took over. He opted to stick with the same players by way of increasing the starters' minutes. It's not an ideal long-term solution, but his bench reclamation project continues intact.
Has A-Train dropped to the bottom of the regular rotation and has Veal joined Armstrong and Davis in the DNP-CD ghetto? It's hard to believe Frank would demote his two most reliable bench players. The three games have been a good indication of what Frank wants to do, but it's too early to say. It's possible he has no problem playing his starters heavy minutes rather than expand his rotation. I guess if Rogers continues to play a Veal-like game, then he can duplicate Veal's role from Veal's stint as the 3rd forward. We'll need to wait and see on A-Train.
A well-matched, hard-fought, defensive game. Twin takes the MVP for stopping Yao, K-Mart scored like a star, Kidd outplayed Francis, and RJ eventually outplayed Jim Jackson. The Nets team defense has significantly improved since Frank took over, back to where they were last season, which probably is as much player motivation as better preparation.
Not quite the story-line of Van Gundy besting Riley, but not a bad imitation. A good win for the newest NBA coaching star.
for a trade.
