In the last 12 months, the New Jersey Nets have gone from a powerhouse to a doormat to a second-tier playoff team. The arrival of Vince Carter in December and the team’s second-half surge offered unexpected hope for the team’s fans, but the Nets’ remarkably fast turnaround will stall unless they make several small, savvy moves during the current off-season. The decisions they’ve made this week are steps in the right direction, but bolder moves will be needed if this team is to rejoin the Eastern Conference elite.

That said, the Nets are in an enviable position. They boast a solid core of starters, their needs are obvious, they have some cap flexibility, and they own multiple first-round picks in upcoming drafts. They are also run by a team president, Rod Thorn, who has shown considerable resourcefulness in recent years, and who seems to have a credible plan for winning while rebuilding.

At the core of Thorn’s blueprint is the All-Star trio of Carter, Richard Jefferson, and Jason Kidd. Carter proved this past spring that he’s still an MVP-caliber player, Jefferson is on the upward arc of his career, and Kidd, while on the downside, probably has two or three productive years left with him. Add in Nenad Krstic, who quietly put together a stellar rookie season in 2004-05 while frequently playing out of position at center, and the Nets can rely on an excellent nucleus.

The problem is that there isn’t much else to this team. Starting center Jason Collins is really a bench player, and the assortment of backup forwards and guards coach Lawrence Frank put out on the floor in 2004-05 looked at times as if they had been recruited from a nearby pickup game. Thorn’s biggest challenge, then, lies in finding another functional big man and a credible cast of benchwarmers.

Thorn took a positive step Tuesday night by drafting two players who should help fill these needs. First round pick Antoine Wright of Texas A&M shot 50.1% from the field last year and 44.3% from behind the arc. He’s slated to back up both Carter and Jefferson and provide scoring punch on the second unit. Wright’s marksmanship addresses one of the team’s biggest weaknesses; the Nets’ 42.9% shooting in 2004-05 placed them next to last in the league, and only two members of the bench rotation shot better than that on the season.

The Nets used their second-round pick on Mile Ilic, a 7-foot-1-inch, 240-pound center from Serbia. Some observers are predicting that the Nets will let Ilic play in Europe for a year and put on some muscle before crossing the Atlantic, but the team’s decision to decline the option on the contract of reserve center Clifford Robinson makes it more likely that Ilic will join the fray now. Otherwise, the Nets will need to spend money on another backup pivotman or play Krstic out of position more.

If he does spend the coming fall in New Jersey, Ilic’s transition should at least be eased by having Krstic,a fellow Serb, as a mentor. The knock on European big men is their soft play in the paint, but Krstic was anything but timid in his rookie year, and Ilic will need to follow the same path and hit the weight room daily.

Of course, there’s no guarantee the rookies will be able to contribute right away, and this is where Thorn will have to make some savvy signings. The Nets’ payroll currently inhabits that ambiguous region between the salary cap limit, (around $47 million) and the luxury tax threshold of roughly $63 million. This gives them some flexibility to add salaries via trades, but it means their only available tools for wooing free agents are their mid-level exception and assorted veterans’ minimum contracts. Thorn should devote the bulk of this budget to a forward who can score and rebound.

The best choice would be Donyell Marshall, an unrestricted free agent who made just over $5 million last year. Marshall, 32, has been an effective, undervalued role player on several losing teams, most recently the dysfunctional mess that calls itself the Toronto Raptors. As a reserve to rising star Chris Bosh last season, Marshall averaged 11.5 points and 6.6 boards in 25 minutes a night. The Nets might offer him the attraction of suiting up for a team that is almost certain to make the playoffs; Marshall has played in 744 games, but only nine of them in the postseason.

If the Nets lose Marshall to the Chicago Bulls, a team on the way up with similar needs, then the pickings get slim. The best option would be to try and work out a deal that would fit Shareef Abdur-Rahim under the cap.

The Nets announced yesterday that they had picked up the option on reserve point guard Jacques Vaughan; power forward/fan favorite Brian Scalabrine and promising shooting guard Zoran Planinic are also likely to return. To avoid paying luxury tax next season, Thorn will have to fill out the roster with free agents who will play for the veterans’ minimum – say Juan Dixon or DeMarr Johnson.

True, Thorn dipped into this pool last year and came away with little of value, but if the team can sign Marshall and the rookies come through – and Nets fans can take comfort in the fact that Thorn has drafted well in the past – the Nets should be well positioned to play deep into spring.