Nets Need Frontcourt Help, and Pickings Are Slim

And now, the rest of free agency can begin.With Memphis’s landing of free-agent center Darko Milicic on Wednesday, all of the teams with salary cap space and the will to use it have been spoken for. For teams like the Nets, now is when it gets really interesting, as their search for frontcourt help will take on new urgency.Normally, teams wait for the biggest dominoes to fall before pursuing lesser players. You’ll see the occasional exception — Jason Kapono, for instance, was one of the first players to reach an agreement, and he’s hardly a perennial All-Star — but the nature of the beast is that teams are reluctant to go after role players if it will tie up money that could be used to land a bigger star.As a result, the Nets effectively sat out the first 10 days of free agency once they came to an agreement with Vince Carter. With no cap space remaining and little interesting in using their entire midlevel exception on one player (which is what Toronto used to land Kapono), New Jersey has been playing a wait-and-see game.So they stood by as Rashard Lewis jumped to Orlando, Gerald Wallace re-upped with Charlotte, and Milicic joined Memphis. But now that those teams have spent their bullets, it’s go time. The only free agent of note left on the market is forward Anderson Varejao of Cleveland, and the Cavs have the right to match any offer for him. Presuming he re-ups with Cleveland, we’re down to the second tier.But this is where the Nets can make their mark. For starters, they can compete with other teams for these players, whereas cap and luxury tax implications prevented the Nets from being a factor with the star free agents.Plus, unlike a lot of teams, the free-agent leftovers offer the opportunity of real improvement for New Jersey. Beyond the Kidd-Carter nucleus, New Jersey’s supporting cast was bad enough a year ago that even getting a couple halfway decent players in free agency could add several wins to their total.Nowhere is that more true than in the frontcourt. Jason Collins basically ran around with a “replace me” sign on his back all season — based on my Player Efficiency Rating (PER, a per-minute rating of a player’s statistical effectiveness), he was the league’s least effective rotation player last season. While he undoubtedly makes an impact at the defensive end, his offense and rebounding have become so pathetic that he can’t be on the court more than 10 minutes a night.The other frontcourt starter, Mikki Moore, is a free agent himself, and as our Martin Johnson noted earlier this week, the Nets are doing the right thing by not breaking the bank for him. As well as Moore did a year ago while filling in for the injured Nenad Krstic, the season was a total fluke. He’s 31, had never played anywhere near this well before, and is unlikely to approach those levels again. That’s why New Jersey’s reported three-year, $10 million offer to Moore has yet to be matched by another club.In the meantime, the Nets are looking at other options, which is wise. What isn’t wise is the player they’re targeting as the replacement — Blazers center Jamaal Magloire, who is one of the most overrated players in the league.Magloire made the All-Star team in 2003 — something you can bank on being mentioned repeatedly at the press conference if the Nets “win” the bidding for him — but he’s been in rapid decline ever since. I’m not saying he’s slow, but let’s just say he makes Collins look like Carl Lewis. And despite repeated efforts by his past two teams to feed him down low, he can’t score in the post anymore. Unless New Jersey can get him at a severe discount — like, $2 million a year or less — this is going to be a waste of money. Because of his reputation, though, I greatly doubt he’ll come that cheaply.That’s not the only big guy they’re looking at, though. The Nets also are kicking the tires on Joe Smith, a free agent forward who should be more productive than Magloire or Moore but, with his slim build and recent history of injuries, would be less durable. He’d also have to play power forward and shift Krstic to center, something the Nets might prefer didn’t happen. It may be a moot point anyway — the Bulls are pushing hard to get Smith too.With all that said, I’m a little surprised the Nets aren’t looking harder at two other players. One is Lakers center Chris Mihm. He missed all of last season with an ankle problem, but in previous seasons he’s been a fairly effective interior scorer — something the Nets desperately need — and at 7 feet he’s a “true” center who can allow to Krstic to play away from the hoop more often.Mihm may be out of the Nets’ price range, however — supposedly he’s looking for a big chunk of the midlevel exception and might get it from the likes of the Lakers or Bulls. If that’s too rich for Rod Thorn’s blood, then let me throw another name out there — 7-foot-2-inch Houston giant Jake Tsakalidis. Don’t laugh. He’s big and slow, and can’t make a shot beyond four feet (just like Magloire). But he’ll cost a whole lot less — a big consideration in the luxury tax era — and he’s arguably been the more effective player the past three years. As an added plus, he has a history of playing extremely well against Shaquille O’Neal.Whatever the Nets decide — and one alternative remains to blow off all these guys and restart efforts to acquire Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal — the one thing that’s clear is we’ve moved to the make-or-break part of the summer for the Nets.Getting Vince Carter re-signed was paramount, obviously, but equally important is putting a supporting cast around the Nets’ stars that can get them back into contention in the East. It hasn’t happened the past two years; over the coming days, we’ll find out if this year has a chance to turn out any different.jhollinger@nysun.com

Nets Need Frontcourt Help, and Pickings Are Slim

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