Rod Thorn Quotations

We are pleased to bring Cliff back. He is a seasoned player who defends well in the low post and can also step outside to make a three-point shot.

We are pleased to add a veteran of Shareef's caliber to our roster. He is a proven low-post presence who will enhance our frontcourt rotation and add needed depth to our team.

We're in a real fight here. We need to pick it up and play at a much higher level that we've been playing lately.

We were anticipating adding Shareef to our roster. However, during the course of his normal physical examination, some questions arose that gave us cause for concern. After consulting with several noted specialists, we feel that rescinding the trade is our best course of action. We will now look in other directions for ways to improve our team for the upcoming season.

We've started looking at other options because players that we may have an interest in are either signing every day or they are about to sign.

Obviously, we had a list of guys and he was at the top of our list. When we made the deal, we were very happy with it. It ended where it ended. We had a lot of discussions to the possibility of amending the deal, but we weren't able to come to any mutual agreement.

I don't have any indication one way or the other right now, but I assume that he will join the team, ... As far as I'm concerned, he's property of the Nets. Obviously, he has the prerogative of retiring, but we're going to have a conversation with him and see what transpires. I don't think he wants to retire.

Barring injury, barring something crazy happening, I definitely think we're a playoff team. I think we're a team that certainly has a good chance to get home-court advantage in the first round.

From where I'm sitting, I don't see him getting traded.

He had a knee operation when he was in high school. He's never missed a game with the knee problem in the N.B.A.; never missed a practice or game. The only thing he's ever missed any games for in the N.B.A. was for an elbow operation.

He's a good shooter, he's a force down low and draws a lot of fouls. We feel he's a player who can play in our rotation and help us.

He's a good athlete who has had some moments in the league. We're hopeful he can give us some help on our bench.

Unless we get very fortunate, ... we are not going to be a championship contender.

He was a big piece to our puzzle and a quality player. So if it works out that we don't complete the trade, then we've lost a quality player.

Kidd can defend the best wing player at the end of the game, make the big pass, get the big rebound. That takes the pressure off the players.

It became evident to me that it wasn't going to turn around. We have not played to the level we anticipated playing.

I think with Dajuan, he's obviously a very talented young man,

I think we have proven that we can beat anybody on any given night. Now, can we do it four out of seven times?

I think we've just played very solidly. And when you play solidly, you tend to do well. We have some talented players. If we're doing the right things on both ends of the court, then we're going to be successful over the long haul.

Lawrence has a track record here. Nobody works harder. He has terrific game plans. We just need to execute our plans better and play better. Lawrence can't go out and play for guys.

Jason's attitude about our team is as positive as I've heard him since his second year when we were coming off the Finals. When your better players think you have a good team, I think that's a very positive thing.

Jason is so unselfish, doesn't care if he ever scores, knows where to get other guys the ball. Everyone knows they're going to get their shots playing with him. He's still one of the best one, two or three point guards in the league.

Jeff definitely will be here. It's just a matter of how he is signed.

Our first 20 games, we didn't play very well. We weren't playing very well defensively at all, and offensively, it seemed to me that ... Vince was kind of waiting on Richard, and Richard was kind of waiting on Vince. The mesh wasn't as good as we anticipated.

Our bench has played better, ... Our starters can play with anybody. But when our bench is going, we're a very good team.

I think he's one of the top two or three candidates for Coach of the Year.

Wilt scoring 100, to me, that's the greatest thing ever done as far as an individual achievement in the game. I don't think you ever take anything away from that. But what Kobe did in the modern day era is unbelievable to me.

We hope he'll be back later this week, and hope that things go well. I know this: he's pretty excited.

We ended up improving our team, it's just a little bit different way than when we anticipated,' ... From where we ended up last year, on paper we have a better team than we had last year.'

We had a lot of question marks at this time last year. When Kenyon left, that really hurt, and there was a question as to what was going to transpire with Jason.

We never fined anybody. How do you prove it?

We need to stay healthy. I think we play pretty well, but we're thin. So I think staying healthy is the key.

Those are the areas we obviously have to play well if we want to get deep back in the playoffs. We've got to do it. We've got a very good defensive coach (Lawrence Frank). I'm sure our schemes will be fine, but we have to have players who will do it. And that's the key to our team.'

We will get what we have to get. We're not going to trade those three guys.

With players, everybody wants to play, ... Everybody would like to get playing time. You've got to be able to do what you need to do in order to play. Obviously, from the coach's standpoint, he's going to play guys he thinks are going to help him win the game.

There are always extraneous things that come up every year, off-the-court things, on-the-court things, ... Those type things are more excuses than distractions.

There is always a risk and a reward, and we felt the reward was worth the risk,

You have two guys who, when you put them on the low post, both demand a double team and they pass the ball, which means you can get good open shots with no one contesting. And when they don't do that, both of them draw a lot of fouls. We should be able to get to the foul line a lot.

You have to have somebody to deal with, and it took a long time to make a deal with Portland. In this case, the time frame would be much shorter.

Don't have any plans to trade him. I'd never say we wouldn't trade anybody but I don't have any plans to trade him. We have indicated (to other teams) that we probably are not going to trade him.

(The trade) gives us the ability to remain under the luxury tax and to sign a player ? whoever that player may be, if there is a player that would fit our needs.

So much of this game is about confidence. It's about feeling good about your teammates and yourself. I think Lawrence does a good job of recognizing that. He started giving players extra time on the court even when things weren't going great. Our bench has become an asset to us.

After consulting with several noted specialists, we felt that rescinding the trade is our best course of action.

Something came up that nobody had any idea about. There is a time frame in which this will play out in the next couple of days. Shareef is a pro. He's a good guy. He's going to continue his career no matter what. Hopefully he'll have a long career. He's under contract (to the Nets). Hopefully that's the way it will stay, and he will play long time for us.

No, we're not getting rid of our coach. I think our coach does a terrific job. I'm very happy with our coach.

As he pointed out, there's a history of things with him - not just the fight. But I think there will be a lot of teams that will have an interest in him at some level.

As far as we were concerned, we had a good season, with a real nice run at the end. But now, things start over.

There was a transition period going on at the time. The new ownership was in place, but parts of it were changing at the exact time Kenyon had to be dealt with.

It was a shock. We had scheduled a press conference. We did not think there was going to be anything wrong whatsoever.

It was a shock. We had scheduled a press conference. Obviously, we did not think there was going to be anything wrong whatsoever.

It's sort of been a frustrating year for him. It hasn't worked out the way he envisioned it. It's just one of those things that up to this point it hasn't worked out the way both he and we envisioned.

It just wasn't working out here for (Jackson). The two players that we lost weren't playing.

It just wasn't working out here for him. In assessing it, I don't think it was going to work out for him here. That was part of it.

It was a confidential conversation, and I don't really want to comment on it.

I'm sure that the league will attempt to find out who the official was.

Before, teams would load up on (Carter). Now it is much harder to do that.

He probably won't play until after Christmas. We want him to be 100 percent.

All things being equal, you want people that want to play for you. The determination is, what does he have left in his game?

And if you talk to our three best players, they all think we have a good team,' ... If you talk to Jason, his attitude is as positive as I've heard since then. When your better players think you have a good team, that's a very positive thing.'