There are some potential free agents who look at the Nets and see a mess not even a mother could love. Others gaze on them and see possibilities, starting with Brook Lopez and Devin Harris.
Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay saw both sides last night. He saw the bad: the undeniably, you have got to be kidding blowing an 18-point lead bad. And he saw the good: the throw in a couple of free agents and with the draft picks plus Brook Lopez and Devin Harris, there is hope good.
But for the 51st time, the Nets’ bad outweighed the good.
“I was just saying how good Brook Lopez is,” said Gay, who scored 29 points to help Memphis rally from 18 down, beat the Nets, 104-94 at the Meadowlands, and drop them to 5-51. “I got a chance to play with him this summer and he’s a great player. There’s Devin. The Nets have some pieces.
“Obviously, my mind’s with the Grizzlies right now, but if you look at the Nets, you see a team that is obviously struggling, but it’s not an organization that struggles for long,” Gay added. “It’s just an off-year.”
Last night, it looked as if the Nets were on as Lopez began his 26-point game with his career-best quarter, 17 points, many of his scores coming off feeds from Harris, who had 13 assists, but only one in the second half, and scored 17 points. But the Nets, who lost Jarvis Hayes to a left calf strain in the third quarter, ran into one of their trademark droughts and Lopez scored just four points after halftime.
Lopez had just three shots in the second half and left without commenting. The Nets also were guilty of jacking up far too many jumpers.
“It’s a part of our immaturity as a team,” Keyon Dooling said. “When somebody has a hot hand, no matter who it is, especially when you have a center as dominant as Brook, we just have to force feed him.”
“We went away from what got us there,” interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. “We called the same things that worked in the first half, and when they didn’t work, called other things for him [Lopez] to get the ball.”
“They did a good job fronting him, getting him frustrated and keeping him off his spot,” Harris said. “It made it tough to get him the ball where he likes [it].”
This game had “NETS” written all over it, and they blew it.
The injury (Hayes). But it was minor: “Got kicked in the calf, be OK for Tuesday,” Hayes said. Some unhappiness (Chris Douglas-Roberts never played). “It’s really unpredictable. I can’t pinpoint it,” said Douglas-Roberts, who added that he knew no reason for the benching.
One team executive said there was an “unexcused absence,” another said he was late Saturday at practice, but Douglas-Roberts disagreed.
“There was nothing for me to miss,” he said.
And there was The Drought.
The cold spell helped the Nets blow their second biggest lead of the season. They gave away a 19-point lead on opening night in Minnesota.
Ahead, 74-66, at 4:30 of the third, the Nets were outscored, 17-0, trailed, 83-74, when O.J. Mayo (24 points) tripled at 11:06 of the fourth.
As for Gay, he should populate free agency’s second tier, and with all the teams that made cap-clearing moves at the deadline, Gay ($3.28 million this year) should benefit as he heads to restricted free agency. Memphis can match any offer and give six years to other teams’ five. Should an offer come from the Nets, who will have roughly $24 million to spend, it would not scare off Gay, the 6-foot-8, fourth-season pro from UConn.
“The record doesn’t mean much when you’re dealing with a team,” Gay said. “In my position, first you look at where you’re at. After that, you see what else is appealing. That’s what I was taught to do and that’s how I’m going to handle it. . . . It’s up to them and how bad the team wants me. Right now, my heart is with the Grizzlies.”