Hooped Up

Instead of heading into the season surrounded by familiar faces such as Richard Jefferson and Jason Kidd, Vince Carter will have to get accustomed to seeing Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson and Chris Douglas-Roberts — the rookies — and Eduardo Najera, Jarvis Hayes and Keyon Dooling — the veteran additions — as well as Yi Jianlian and Bobby Simmons. Because he’s on the backside of his career and still has not won a championship, Carter was asked whether he has had any second thoughts about his desire to stay with the Nets, who are in a rebuilding mode. But he said he would not be pulling the kind of move Kidd did last season, when his early season trade request sabotaged the team’s chances of winning. He also said he has no intention of questioning the moves that team president Rod Thorn and GM Kiki Vandeweghe have made. “I’ve never questioned what they’re doing and I definitely want to be here,” Carter said. “It’s the way it goes. It’s the business of basketball.”

New York Daily News

Multiple sources told ESPN.com that talks with the Indiana Pacers regarding a Carter-for-Jermaine O’Neal swap were dormant, but not dead, after the Nets spent nearly a week devoting their attention to the Kidd deal with Dallas. Another source said there had been preliminary discussions on a three-way trade that would include, among other things, Carter going to the New York Knicks, Eddy Curry to Miami and the expiring contracts of Jason Williams and Ricky Davis to New Jersey. Speaking with writers at the team’s headquarters Tuesday, Thorn was asked if the continued delays in the Kidd trade — first agreed to last Wednesday but not completed until Tuesday — had impacted him on other trade fronts.

ESPN.com

Multiple sources confirmed the Pacers approached the Nets about a week ago, asking about Carter ($13.3 million). To make it work, the Nets would need to add Marcus Williams ($1.08 million) and Jamaal Magloire ($4.0 million) to match O’Neal ($19.728 million). That’s the Indy point of view.

NY Post

A story out of Sacramento and noted on a local website said the Nets New Jersey Nets offered Vince Carter Vince Carter to the Knicks New York Knicks and were rebuffed. Not so, insists one Western source who claimed knowledge of the talks but spoke on the condition of anonymity. His take was that in cursory talks the Knicks offered Zach Randolph for Carter and the Nets said no thanks. “Happened about a month ago,” he said.

NY Post

The New Jersey Nets will play most or all of the 2009-10 NBA season in New Jersey instead of Brooklyn, a team spokesman said Thursday.

The Nets had planned to play at its new arena in New York starting in 2009. But spokesman Barry Baum said the move to Brooklyn wouldn’t happen until sometime in 2010.

The Nets could possibly begin the season at the Izod Center in East Rutherford and move to the new arena, to be called the Barclays (NYSE:BCS) Center, in the first half of 2010, Baum said.

In October, Nets principal owner Bruce Ratner told The Associated Press that the new arena probably would not be ready by the start of the 2009-2010 season.

Under terms of their contract with the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which operates the Izod Center, the Nets have to give 18 months’ notice before they leave to avoid paying a penalty, Baum said.

The Nets haven’t broken ground on the new arena, which is part of the Atlantic Yards development that is also set to include office space and as many as 6,400 new apartments. The $4 billion project has faced legal challenges from local residents and environmental groups.

CNN