The Thorn Effect

Rod Thorn has been around talent in the NBA since Day One. Looking back nine months to the trade that sent All-Star point guard Jason Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright to Dallas for Devin Harris, Keith Van Horn, DeSagana Diop, and two future first-round draft picks demonstrated again his knack for making a great deal for top talent.

It may have been 1963, but Thorn was the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA Draft that year after a career as a two-sport star in basketball and baseball at West Virginia. He made the All-Rookie Team (True, while in a much smaller league) and stayed in the league for nine years as a player.

He coached an ABA championship team with Julius Erving. He drafted Michael Jordan. Then, after 14 years in the NBA league offices, the Nets got him to come back to New Jersey.

Since then he's drafted Kenyon Martin, made a draft-day trade for Richard Jefferson and Jason Collins, swapped Stephon Marbury for Jason Kidd in his prime, sent spare parts to Toronto for Vince Carter, and stole Devin Harris and two first round picks for a 35-year old Kidd when rebuilding needed to be done.

The Mutombo-for-Van Horn trade didn't work out well because Mutombo was not the big bodied, soft-handed center that Todd MacCulloch was the year before—even before he missed most of that 2002-'03 season with a wrist injury. The trade of Kenyon Martin to Denver was, in part forced by management, but he saved face a little bit by spinning those draft picks for Vince Carter.

Thorn and new GM Kiki Vandeweghe realized that the Nets team that took the Cavaliers to six games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals two years ago needed to be changed. I hated to see Richard Jefferson go, but he was really they're only valuable trading chip.

The Nets' draft picks the last three years currently make up a third of their roster, with C Josh Boone, G-F Chris Douglas-Roberts, C Brook Lopez, F Ryan Anderson, and F Sean Williams, while PG Marcus Williams was traded for a future draft pick and Jefferson's trade netted another recent first round pick in Yi Jianlian.

The Nets' roster currently has eight players taken in the last four drafts—the Nets' five picks from 2006 to 2008 plus Yi, Maurice Ager, and Devin Harris (traded for the Nets' '05 first-round pick Antoine Wright). The youth of the core players is why the Nets keeping Vince Carter is the smart thing to do.

As much as I loved watching Jason Kidd for seven years in New Jersey, it had to end sometime. The Nets would've done well trading Kidd-for-Harris straight up, but getting a pick that netted Ryan Anderson and another future first-round pick has to go down, even at this point in time, as one of the best trades in Nets history.

Harris scored 30 points four times in the last five games, and the team is 5-3 with him in the lineup and 0-3 without him. Two of the losses were to the Indiana Pacers who, to no surprise, were led by PG T.J. Ford with Harris out of the game. A healthy Harris likely changes the outlook of one, if not both, of those contests.

The roster of the Nets is going to be really good one—just not this year. I couldn't believe how many NBA "experts" were picking New Jersey to finish DEAD LAST in the Eastern Conference—not just the Atlantic Division.

Kidd and Jefferson may be gone, but there are pieces there. As much as it's downplayed, it's quite obvious that in 19 months when the 2010 NBA Finals are over, the Nets will jettison Bobby Simmons and his $12M annual contract in an attempt to lure a 27 year-old LeBron James to be the final piece of the puzzle in New Jersey.

The lure would be an up-and-coming team with a talented point guard and center (Harris and Lopez), some good defenders and rebounders (Boone and Williams), and another offensive player with skills to help LeBron avoid double teams (Carter), who would be in the last year of his contract.

That 2010-11 season would likely see a starting lineup of Harris, Carter, LeBron James, Brook Lopez, and Yi Jianlian, with Sean Williams, CDR, Ryan Anderson, and Josh Boone coming off the bench, along with whoever the backup PG is at the time if Jay-Z can lure his friend to come about 500 miles east.

For now—fans will see some growing pains, but Thorn's trade of Kidd coupled with his and Vandeweghe's drafting prowess to produce a winner for the Nets before too long. As one analyst said after the Nets' thrilling 129-127 win in Toronto last night, "The Nets—they are relevant"

I couldn't agree more.