SB Nation New York: All Posts by Jon Lane

Eli Manning missing starters, but gets work in with other receivers

2013-05-23T11:35:36Z

The New York Giants were missing Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz on the first day of OTAs on Wednesday, but that just opened the door for the other wide receivers in blue to receive increased repetitions with the first-string offense.

Rueben Randle and Jerrel Jernigan replaced Nicks and Cruz as starters in seven-on-seven and 11-on-11 drills, with newcomer Louis Murphy also seeing plenty of action. It was a chance for Murphy in particular to get acclimated with his new quarterback, Eli Manning, and while the reps were important to the replacements, Manning is going to need his starters back in camp sooner rather than later.

"You've still got to work on your timing," Manning said. "You've still got to work on the basics and everybody needs it. I need the basics. How many times have I thrown a hitch in my life? Or a curl route? I've still got to do it. I've still got to get those things and work them, but it is good to have other guys in there running routes and getting your timing down with other guys.

'You'd still like to have all your guys out there. We all need to work. We all need to practice. We all need to improve on things.' - Eli Manning

"That's how you look at it, but you'd still like to have all your guys out there. We all need to work. We all need to practice. We all need to improve on things."

Cruz is still trying to work out a long-term extension with the Giants, which explains his absence. The team would love to do the same for Nicks, entering the final season of his contract. Nicks had a minor scope of his knee done in the offseason, but that didn't explain why he wasn't accounted for, according to head coach Tom Coughlin.

"Yeah, sure I did," Coughlin said of whether he expected Nicks to attend. "I expect everybody here. Trying to get our team better here."

Until the big guns arrive, Coughlin is hoping increased reps equate to greater results in the passing game. Signed as a free agent in March, Murphy, 26, caught 25 passes for 336 yards and a touchdown last season for the Carolina Panthers. Drafted in the fourth round in 2009 by the Oakland Raiders, Murphy enjoyed his best season in 2010 with the silver and black, grabbing 41 passes for 609 yards and two scores His strengths are speed and stretching the field, on full display on Monday when he caught a 50-yard bomb from Manning behind the secondary.

Randle enters the 2013 season with expectations of an increased role. The Giants' second-round pick in 2012 caught 19 passes for 298 yards as a rookie. With the departures of Domenik Hixon and Ramses Barden, this summer presents a golden opportunity for Randle to secure the third wide receiver's job.

Jernigan, the Giants' third-round pick in 2011, will be under the microscope. He has just three catches for 22 yards in two seasons. For as long as Cruz is out, Jernigan will be the team's slot guy, but with an increased role comes greater responsibility.

"I think it's about time that he steps up," said offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride.

It's just one day into OTAs, but Manning is already impressed with the replacements.

"Yeah. I hit Louis on a deep one," Manning said. "I got Rueben in there. I got Jernigan some catches. We're getting everybody in there getting them a lot of reps, getting on time with them. We're always going to get better. Whoever is on the field, we're going to expect them to go out there and play at a high level. So I think the more guys you have who are experienced and ready to play different positions, the better off we're going to be.

The Giants are also breaking in a new tight end. Brandon Myers was signed from Oakland to replace Martellus Bennett. Myers had issues as a blocker, but also finished in the top six among tight ends in targets, catches and receiving yards. He'll also need to develop chemistry with Manning, a signal-caller who has a knack for turning his tight ends into big-play threats.

"Each year, you're going to have challenges," Manning said. "Each year you're going to have new guys in there you're trying to get up to speed or you're trying to get them to perform and throw as much at them and see how quickly they can adapt and grasp things and that's what makes it exciting. That's what makes it challenging. That's what keeps me going every year.

"I enjoy the challenges. I enjoy teaching our offense to new guys and getting them to when it finally starts to kick in and get them understanding and you start making plays. They kind of learn one part of it and then you kind of go into the next part and you get more advanced. Those are things I enjoy doing."

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Jon Lane wrote previously for SB Nation New York. He is also a veteran MMA writer and has covered the New York Yankees for YESNetwork.com. He will be contributing occasionally to Big Blue View.]

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

More From Big Blue View

Nicks' absence about the money?

Jerrel Jernigan knows his time is now

Louis Murphy 'here just to make plays'

Brooklyn Nets ‘not clicking,’ so Avery Johnson shown the door

2012-12-27T23:19:10Z

Go ahead and blame the owner, the Russian Bear who spent zillions, billions and trillions on a shiny new building, and a revamped NBA basketball team with a hip and fresh logo and black-and-white scheme. You can certainly reason that a ticked-off Mikhail Prokhorov felt ripped off, so he made the call to eighty-six his head coach.

Why not blame the superstar? Deron Williams complained about the offensive scheme and despite his best efforts to clarify his statements, it was clear he was unhappy with certain coaching decisions. And when there's a power struggle between star and coach, it's the coach that burns out and fades away.

Or maybe the firing of Brooklyn Nets head coach Avery Johnson was justified. At the end of November, Johnson was Eastern Conference Coach of the Month and the Nets were poised to wage war with the mighty New York Knicks for the basketball heartbeat of the Big Apple.

Then, just like that, Johnson's isolation-heavy offense became boring. Ball movement and fluidity had turned into a game of watching one player do all the work. And when you're the general -- or in Johnson's case the Little General -- of a team that at one point blew six leads of at least 13 points -- there's reason to suspect the message was falling on deaf ears.

You can spin it anyway you desire, and general manager Billy King told his side of the story during a Thursday afternoon press conference, but Johnson's second stint as a head coach is over thanks to a 3-10 December that followed up an 11-4 November. Basketball is a game where if you make your baskets the coach is a genius and if they're missed, he's a fool. Johnson could have used more time to figure out how to make more adjustments and work to fuse together a collection of new parts, a process that could have taken until the All-Star break.

But when one player, Williams, enduring the worst season of his All-Star career, calls out the system and a second, Gerald Wallace, who plays as hard as anyone in the game, lashes out at the team's heart and effort, King could only come to one conclusion. Something is wrong. Seriously wrong.

''We don't have the same fire now than we did when we were 11-4,'' King said. ''I tried to talk to Avery about it and we just can't figure it out. The same pattern kept on happening.''

Following a discussion with ownership, the call was made by Prokhorov and his cabinet. And whether it's fair or not, the 14-14 Nets have resembled jesters in their first season in Kings County. They're far behind the Knicks, a team they boldly challenged last summer for city supremacy, in the Eastern Conference. The final two games of the Avery Era were an embarrassing loss to the Boston Celtics on national television Christmas Day and Wednesday night's 15-point drubbing to the Milwaukee Bucks.

"For whatever reason we're just not clicking,'' King said.''With the direction we were going we felt we had to make a change."

After King built the team by convincing Williams to stay with the franchise in lieu of going home to Dallas and acquiring Joe Johnson in a six-player trade with the Atlanta Hawks, Prokhorov was expecting, at minimum, a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, the Nets saw a livid Wallace, who also re-signed as a free agent, unleash his frustrations in a postgame tirade on Wednesday night.

"We're a way better team than what our record is," Wallace said. "I'm [bleeping ticked] off about us losing, and especially the way we're losing.

"It's mind-boggling that we're in the situation we're in. As good of a team as we are, as good as started off ... you saw the potential we had as a team, and the talent we have as a team. And yet, still, instead of team, it's more of ‘I.'

"Right now, I just think we are playing selfish, selfish basketball. It's not about the team. It's about individual players and we've got to get back to playing within the team system. Trusting each other as coach says and doing the extra things for your teammate."

The beginning of the end for Johnson came more than a week ago Williams said he felt uncomfortable in Johnson's isolation-heavy offense. Williams' griping led to Jerry Sloan's retirement in Utah, and now Johnson has paid the price for underachievement in Brooklyn. It's now on interim coach P.J. Carlesimo, and if/when a new full-time coach is hired, to clean up the mess, one which Johnson exonerated Williams from any blame.

"I don't think it's fair for anybody to hang this on Deron. He's one player," Johnson said. "Being a coach is not always fair. For the most part, in this business, the coach always gets the blame. That's just the way it is."

It is what it is, and right now the Brooklyn Nets are a collective mess where blame is shared by everyone from owner, to players to the ousted coach. Yeah, Johnson deserved more time to turn it around, especially after the lean Newark years, but like it or not, the Big Russian spent much of his cold hard cash to field a winner. And because the Nets have been losing, he felt it correct to bring out a side that's ruthless and cold-blooded. Step one was eliminating the easy target, the head coach.

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

Avery Johnson makes big decision by benching Kris Humphries

2012-12-24T16:44:31Z

Avery Johnson's Brooklyn Nets, losers of nine of 10, needed a spark strong enough to light up Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree. So "The Little General" slapped life into his starting lineup by slapping Kris Humphries, being paid $12 million a year, to the bench for the foreseeable future.

The unveiling of a new starting five had Gerald Wallace at power forward and Keith Bogans at the three. The Nets responded with a crisp effort in defeating the Philadelphia 76ers, 95-92. Wallace finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and six assists, but Brooklyn's Backcourt reaped the most benefits. Joe Johnson scored a team-high 22 points and Deron Williams delivered nine of his 16 points in the final five minutes.

And it came at the expense of Humphries. It was a player and people management decision Johnson had no choice but to make in an effort to get the 14-12 Nets winning again.

"You know (Humphries) wasn't thrilled," Johnson told reporters. "But I did explain to him where I was and what I saw on the court. He's been here with us, with me since (I was hired as a head coach). I really respect him and I really do like him. He's worked hard. You know, I've gone to bat for him in a lot of different situations. Since Day 1. I just think that it's a tough situation for him, so it wasn't like he was jumping up and giving me a hug and was really excited about it. But I just told him, this is the way we've got to go and we'll see where we go from here.

Refreshed after a three-day break between games, the Nets snapped a three-game losing streak before a sellout crowd at Barclays Center with a small and fast lineup that blitzed the Sixers with an 18-0 run in the first quarter and a 17-9 run in the fourth, all with Wallace at power forward. The isolation-heavy offense that had Williams grumbling and Johnson's seat getting fireplace warm was few and far between. Even Bogans flourished under the new system, scoring a season-high 13 points in 35 minutes.

"It helped us. You saw the way Gerald ignited the break for us. Basically over 60 percent of the league is playing this way (with a small lineup)," Johnson said. "We've had spacing issues, we've had a lot of issues where we went back and looked at our offense over the first 25 games. No matter who they started at four, Gerald was going to start at four."

As for Humphries, he'll have a year-and-a-half on his contract by January 15, when he's eligible to be traded with rumors sure to be a hot topic in Brooklyn. Time will tell exactly how limited Humphries' minutes will be, if he even gets on the court, but if one game is any indication, the Hump better get comfortable, and perhaps prepare to relocate.

"We had some great looks today, and the new offense that he did put in, it was almost 100 percent [successful],'' said Joe Johnson. "We got a couple of back doors, a couple of easy layups, a couple of wide-open jump shots. It gives us a variety of options, and when the ball is moving like that, it's hard to guard teams."

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

Brooklyn Nets are broken after 25 games

2012-12-20T15:43:22Z

Hello Brooklyn? The way things are going Kings County may want to say adios, Brooklyn Nets. That swagger and bluster entering the season as the new kids in the big city with the hip colors, rebuilt, expensive roster and promises to emerge as a serious title contender has dropped eight of its last 10 and stand one game over .500.

Deron Williams and Joe Johnson are far from what Johnson proclaimed as "the best backcourt in the NBA." Want some proof? In last Sunday's nine-point loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at Barclays Center, the Bucks' backcourt of Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis outscored Williams and Johnson, 50-24, and made the critical plays Brooklyn's duo failed to produce in the final minutes. The Nets offense has lacked creativity and defensively has been more generous than Santa Claus following a sizzling 11-4 beginning.

And what usually follows losing are fissures within. Williams said on Monday he wasn't a good fit in head coach Avery Johnson's isolation-heavy system. For all the proclamations of how Brooklyn was going to paint all of New York City black and white, all Wednesday's 100-86 loss to the New York Knicks proved was glaring differences between contenders and pretenders.

The Knicks move the ball with fluidity, which unlike the Nets doesn't result in forced shots and stagnant isolation sets. The Knicks play defense with verve while the Nets defend the paint with the generosity of the holiday season. Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov spent $330 million on people in the summer. The return investment has been epic second-half collapses and open season for opposing sharpshooters.

This team lacks finishers, Joe Johnson's game-winning bucket in last Friday's win over the Pistons not withstanding. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Nets have lost six games in which they've led by at least 13 points, including blown opportunities last week against the Knicks (17) and on Tuesday against the Utah Jazz (13). Even in victories over the Pistons and Toronto Raptors, the Nets blew respective leads of 17 and 15.

"It's just bad habits," Williams said. "It's a bad habit that's forming. We can't keep giving leads away. We have to be mentally tougher than that."

Right now, the Brooklynites are broken at 13-12 and trailing the 19-6 Knicks by six games in the Atlantic Division.

"We're frustrated," Williams said. "We gotta change some things. We've gotta get better. It's on us. ... We've lost a little bit of our toughness, so we've gotta get that back.

"It's surprising. Especially with how we started. It seemed like we were rolling pretty well, and then we kind of just hit a snag and we can't figure out how to get our confidence back, and we're looking to do that."

The Nets are 2-8 in December following their stellar 11-4 November and are left hoping Wednesday in Manhattan was rock bottom. The Knicks outscored them 48-38 in the second half, scored seven straight points in the fourth and sealed the Nets' fate when J.R. Smith's three pointer followed up by four consecutive Carmelo Anthony points boosted the Knicks' lead to 18. One can argue that more time is required for the Nets to fully jell, and that's a fair point, but given their preseason boasts and swagger, time for the Nets, despite what the calendar indicates, may be shorter than it appears.

''We have a lot of season left. We'll get it turned around,'' said Avery Johnson, whose team has three days off to figure out exactly what's been happening. ''We're going to get back in the lab on Friday and work on some parts of our game and get this bad taste out.''

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

Brook Lopez practices in full as Brooklyn Nets return to full strength

2012-12-18T14:09:03Z

The Brooklyn Nets received good news to begin their week when center Brook Lopez went through a full practice on Monday. Although he still might have a minutes limit, head coach Avery Johnson said Lopez will play more than 24, his cap in the Nets' last two games, on Tuesday against the Utah Jazz at Barclays Center. It's a positive sign that Lopez, who missed seven games with a sprained right foot, played in consecutive games last Friday and Saturday with no setbacks, and seems poised to do the same against the Jazz and on Wednesday night against the New York Knicks.

Lopez is averaging 17.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks with his .523 shooting percentage is in the league's top 20. The Nets are 1-1 since Lopez's return, needing Joe Johnson's game-winner in the closing seconds of a second overtime to defeat the Detroit Pistons and falling apart down the stretch in falling to the Chicago Bulls. It's clear the Nets are a different team with their big man and have fingers crossed that he can finally stay healthy for a long period of time. Lopez's presence among the starting five returns chemistry and cohesiveness to the 'Bench Mob.' The second unit has missed Andray Blatche's energy and Reggie Evans' grit. The former started in place of Lopez and the latter has relegated Kris Humphries to the second string.

In 33 combined minutes over the weekend, Humphries scored six points -- all against the Bulls. Perhaps a return to starter is in line at least for Humphries' peace of mind and for the Bench Mob to be at full strength. With the Nets are optimum capacity for all but six games missed by Gerald Wallace, they raced to an 11-4 start. Wallace is healthy and has been excellent, and it's clear Lopez is back in a groove, so a short week with games against the Jazz, Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday afternoon is a prime opportunity to at least take two out of three.

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

Giants vs. Falcons analysis: Studs and Duds

2012-12-17T12:39:12Z

On the second play of the game, New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning attempted to hit Hakeem Nicks on a short pass. In the way stepped Asante Samuel. who returned the ball to the Giants' 16-yard line. Four subsequent runs by Michael Turner gave the Atlanta Falcons a 7-0 lead and the hammer was dropped.

The Giants were dominated physically, mentally and emotionally in a 34-0 drubbing in Atlanta, their worst performance of a season slowly slipping away and the worst shutout loss by a defending champion in NFL history, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

For good measure, each time the Giants gambled, they lost and lost big, going 0-for-3 on fourth down.

"Atlanta was very, very good. We were very, very bad," Giants head coach Tom Coughlin said. "There's no excuse for what happened here."

And there's every reason why this edition's Studs are Dirty Birds and Duds are Little Blue.

STUDS
Matt Ryan: Finished 23 of 28 for 270 yards and three touchdowns. This season, Ryan has thrown for 4,202 yards and 27 touchdowns to break his own franchise records for completions and passing yards.

Julio Jones: Caught six passes for 74 yards including a 40-yarder that torched the Giants secondary for a score.

Tony Gonzalez: It's not so much his six grabs for 49 yards, it's the mere presence of this ageless star and future Hall of Famer. Ronnie Lott would have had no chance defending his 12-yard TD reception in the second quarter.

DUDS
Eli Manning: Finished 13 of 25 for 161 yards and a dismal 38.9 rating -- his worst since a Dec. 23, 2007 win at Buffalo. There is a trace of good news, Giants fans. Manning passed Phil Simms for the most completions in franchise history with 2,585.

David Wilson: Take away a 25-yard run and Wilson flamed out in his first career NFL start.

Giants Front Four: The supposed strength of the team, the invisible men in blue and white managed not one sack of Ryan and was barely heard from all game.

Lawrence Tynes: Missed a 30-yard chip shot and has missed one field goal in each of his last three games.

TURNING POINT
This game was over once Manning was picked off on the second play.

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

Giants vs. Falcons: Big Blue steamrolled by Dirty Birds

2012-12-16T20:49:49Z

This was a first-round knockout and no smelling salt was able to awaken the New York Giants. It started with an Eli Manning interception on the game's second play. From there, the Atlanta Falcons dropped the hammer and the Giants resembled anything but a team poised to defend their Super Bowl Championship.

Matt Ryan threw for three touchdown passes -- two to Julio Jones including a 40-yard bomb -- to lead the Falcons to a 34-0 win over the listless Giants. The loss dropped New York to 8-6 and combined with the Washington Redskins' victory over the Cleveland Browns has its playoff hopes in big trouble. The teams are tied at 8-6 -- with the 7-6 Dallas Cowboys playing a late game -- but the Redskins took over first place in the NFC East due to a better division record.

Manning's pick led to the Falcons' first touchdown and set the table for a miserable afternoon for the Giants quarterback and the entire team. He was intercepted twice and threw for 161 yards on just 14 of 26 passing while completely out of sync all game long. Manning's passes either sailed high, dove low and there was no cohesion with his wide receivers. What made life worse for the Giants were two failed fourth-down conversions, one at the Falcons' 32 and the other at the 11 with a missed Lawrence Tynes field goal from 30 yards in between.

Conversely, Ryan was effective and efficient. He threw a perfect TD strike to Tony Gonzalez in the second quarter to bump Atlanta's lead to 14-0 and finished a tidy 23 of 28 for 270 yards. Although an injured knee limited top gun Roddy White to two catches for 16 yards, Harry Douglas (3 catches, 83 yards), Jones and Gonzalez each stepped up with Jones leading the way with six catches for 74 yards and two scores.

Domenik Hixon led the Giants with five catches for 80 yards and David Wilson ran for 55 yards on 12 carries, but as a whole the Giants offense suffered a complete breakdown from the machine that put up 52 points against the Saints last week.

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC

Analysis: Brooklyn Nets must close with consistency

2012-12-16T14:59:39Z

Joe Johnson knew it. He had the sweet stroke going on Friday night at Barclays Center, so when the Brooklyn Nets' sharpshoooter let go of the basketball in the waining moments of the second overtime against the pesky Detroit Pistons, the swagger that's been missing for much of his first season wearing black and white translated into a game-winning buzzer beater.

The play was total Iso-Joe: Inbound the ball to JoeJohn and watch him dribble, gain separation, pull up and release with time running out. Nothing but net to seal a statement victory over the Pistons.

"The coaches and, like I say, my teammates have the confidence in putting the ball in my hands down the stretch, then I have to come up big for us," Johnson said.

Joe Cool was back and the Nets earned themselves a big win that left his head coach beaming.

"Joe closed the door for us, and that was really exciting," said Nets coach Avery Johnson.

Avery Johnson went on to discuss how such a moment can lift a team to greater heights. Perhaps the Nets will go on another run similar to what got them off to an 11-4 start prior to that five-game losing streak. Or the road could be filled with more potholes like Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls. The Nets were poised to win their third straight when they opened the fourth quarter with a 15-4 run, but they were outscored 12-5 over the final 5:37 in suffering an 83-82 loss that amplified two of their biggest issues:

Consistency and the lack of a consistent closer, a cold-blooded assassin like Jason Kidd -- who plays across the Brooklyn Bridge for the New York Knicks -- who's always there to drive a stake into an opponent's heart. While the Nets (13-10) were shooting 38.7 percent from the field and turning the ball over 18 times -- none more damaging than Joe Johnson's throwaway with 1:01 left that led to Luol Deng's fast-break dunk -- Kidd shook off a 3-for-14 shooting night to come up with big steals, pinpoint passes and a conversion of clutch buckets during crunch time to lead the 18-5 Knicks to another win.

The Nets, on the other hand, have a maddening habit of making it hard on themselves. Even in the win over the inferior Pistons, they blew an 17-point lead, struggled to put away an even worse Toronto Raptors team on Wednesday and allowed the Knicks to rally from down 17 Tuesday night in Brooklyn -- which set up Kidd's game-winning three-pointer with 24 seconds left.

"We had a couple of costly turnovers and I was the biggest culprit of it, me turning the ball over at crucial points of the game," Johnson said after Saturday's setback. "They started doubling every time I had got the ball, and I knew they were going to trap me coming off the pick. But I was going to try to beat Joakim [Noah], and once I saw that I couldn't, I didn't see an outlet. I should have called timeout and I didn't."

The coup de gras was the men in black standing and watching a wide-open Marco Belinelli drive uncontested down the late to put Chicago ahead 81-79 with 21.1 seconds left. Avery Johnson's Nets floundered late -- again -- and those "statement" wins are being offset by losses of Brooklyn's own volition.

"This is definitely a tough one," said Joe Johnson. "Any time you can be up six points with [six] minutes on the clock or seven points and have control of the game on the road, you are in a great position. Tonight, we blew one."

Follow Jon Lane on Twitter: @JonLaneNYC