From the always entertaining mailbag portion of Dave D’Allessandro’s Nets Blast :
Dave: A couple Euros for your thoughts… 1) Planinic. I don’t know if you remember, but I’ve been asking for more p.t. for this guy since the pre-season. He can plain get by his defender and into the paint. Problem was, was he didn’t always make great decisions after his first move. Now he’s doing better w/ the pick and roll and kick outs. Just patting my back for my Planinic observations. 2) How is our project, 7 footer from Croatia or Serbia (I don’t remember) doing in the Euro league? Can we realistically rely on him for next year or is he 2 years away?
Rich Wong
Hey, Rich: The second Euro is Mile Ilic (he™s Serbian), and Ed Stefanski™s brief update can be found here. The emerging consensus is that he™s a better athlete than Krstic, but his upside can™t be gauged until they bring him over and work him out. I asked Krstic about him yesterday, and he gave one of those what™s-the-use gestures: œIt™s the same as me, he said. œThey won™t play him, and they won™t give him the ball. But if a buyout can be done, Ilic will be spending his summer in East Rutherford. As for Zoran, the Nets should be very proud of him “ not only because the light finally went on in terms of recognizing that he has to drive the damn ball, but because he never bitched and moaned during the dark days of January and February. And don™t forget, it was his energy boost at New Orleans that got this nine-game winning streak started, just as it was Scott Padgett™s five 3-pointers that blasted them off on that 10-gamer. He was looking at the stats last night, and I told him, œDid you ever think you™d play a game in which you had more assists than Steve Nash? And he replied, œI still haven™t taken my eyes off the 1-for-9 yet.