There is no Jason Kidd, no Richard Jefferson, no top-to-bottom track record.
But, to Nets president Rod Thorn, there still should be no reason to expect anything less than the playoffs.
Thorn, making his first preseason appearance with the media after undergoing his second knee replacement surgery in 3 1/2 years, said he expects his re-made, re-tooled – and horribly young – Nets to be in the playoffs.
Those thoughts basically put him in a minority populated pretty much only by his re-made, re-tooled and horribly young Nets.
“I don’t think there’s been a year here since my second year that we weren’t expected to make the playoffs, if not have a really good team,” Thorn said. “I would think this year most would say we are probably not a playoff team. We still think we can. We have a lot of proving to do. It’s a different mindset.”
Thorn gave a simple, “Yup” when asked if he expects the Nets to be in the playoffs.
“Every year. Always,” he said. “We’re going to try to win as many games as we can. We hope to be competitive on most nights and we hope to build. We want our young guys to get better as we go.”
What does Thorn see for those warm and fuzzy expectations?
“We’ve got some size now. We’ve got more depth than we’ve had the last several years, more guys that can play, which is a strength,” Thorn offered. “We’ve got some young legs, legs that’ll go out and play every night.”
So the approach is to grow, learn and blossom. The Nets, with just three guys back from last year’s preseason, got an edge on the league as they voluntarily came together a few weeks ago to jump-start their situation.
With the NBA sending them to Europe, the Nets started camp Saturday. Non-Europe-bound teams started camps yesterday.
“Attitude’s been great, conditioning has been great, everybody is putting forth a good effort,” said Thorn, who suffered a scary moment during his knee surgery when he experienced an irregular heartbeat, for which he is on medication.
Thorn stressed the importance of the team’s attitude that at times is a cross between college rah-rah and Three Musketeers all-for-one stuff.
“With all the new guys we have, with the youth of our team, we need that,” he said. “You need to have a great attitude, you need everybody ready to go, everybody supporting each other. That’s going to be very imperative for us.”
Yi Jianlian did shooting after practice following his first treadmill stint. He has been out with a sprained left ankle.
But don’t get excited.
“He’s not ready yet,” coach Lawrence Frank said.
Devin Harris showed no evidence of back spasms that kept him out some of Monday.