The phone is ringing in New Jersey. Ohm Youngmisuk of the New York Daily News reports that six teams have contacted the Nets about their first-round draft pick. There are some other teams that have inquired about some core players on the Nets roster. And there's a chance the Nets could trade their pick for another player.

Of course team president Rod Thorn could keep the pick and use it to select one of the 7 to 10 players they have targeted. "Right now I don't know what I am going to do," Thorn said yesterday.

Thorn, who said it is "50-50" that the Nets will trade the pick, has spent much of the last two nights at the Nets Champion Center with his staff going over their options. Thorn says if there isn't a player from his list available, he is 85% sure he would trade the pick for second-round picks. The Nets also have the 54th selection.

Trading down is appealing since second-round players ? unlike first rounders ? do not receive guaranteed contracts, which would allow Thorn to keep a roster spot open to sign a free agent this summer with his $4.5 million or $1million salary-cap exceptions. Thorn has 12 players under contract after picking up the one-year option on Brian Scalabrine but he is hoping to get the injured Jamie Feick's contract off the cap by appealing to the league for a medical exception.

An NBA general manager said yesterday the Nets and Jazz could revisit a trade discussion both teams were rumored to have had last summer involving Keith Van Horn.

"I think they would like to trade him but it is going to be very hard," the GM said of Van Horn, who is set to earn $12 million next season. "At the end of the day, I think one deal that might work for them is if something happens with Utah. Don't rule Utah out somewhere down the road ... sign-and-trade, something that might involve Donyell (Marshall) and (Bryon) Russell, something to that effect."

Both Marshall and Russell are free agents, so a sign-and-trade would have to happen.

The Nets are thinking about their roster. When the new season starts, they will have 11 guaranteed contracts, 2 exceptions and the #24 pick. Steve Adamek of The Record reports that they know that the odds are against them finding a serviceable player with their first round pick, so the Nets are trying to trade out of the first round to avoid another guaranteed contract.

Team officials plan this week to begin working out players who might be available June 26 if the Nets keep their first-round choice. But trading out of the first round will allow them some roster flexibility if they choose to use their $4.5 million and $1.4 million exceptions.

Although players such as point guards Jamaal Tinsley and Tony Parker were drafted last year after the 24th overall pick and Andrei Kirilenko, a member of this year's All-Rookie first team, was drafted 24th by the Jazz three years ago, this year's draft isn't considered terribly deep. So, rather than lock themselves into the three-year guaranteed deal for a first-round pick who might not be much help next season, the Nets might just gamble in the second round, where contracts aren't guaranteed and they already have the 54th pick.

In order to keep Jason Kidd happy the Nets might need to package forward Keith Van Horn for a legitimate low post threat that could draw double teams, Adrian Wojnarowski from ESPN.com is reporting.

Fresh off their 'coming out party' type of season the Nets fairytale might be short lived.  The catalyst for the miraculous turnaround was undoubtedly Jason Kidd, but Kidd has hinted that he'd like to play with a legitimate low post player and has mentioned Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs as a possibility.

"You don't have to worry about me," Kidd said. "I'm happy. (Management) has to worry about ? what will make this team better." What would that be? Surprise, surprise: "Rebounding, a low post player," he said.

Desmond Connor of the Hartford Current writes that the Nets should trade Keith Van Horn, but will there be any takers?

The Nets had a great season and it?s up to GM Rod Thorn to keep the forward momentum going by making the right decisions. The first thing Thorn must do is unload soft, inconsistent forward Keith Van Horn.

Sure, Van Horn helped get the Nets past the Celtics, but he was pretty quiet after that. Van Horn seems to lack enthusiasm some of the time and heart a lot of the time. And he has four years remaining on a six-year, $74 million contract. Seventy-four million! The Nets need more consistent production fro their small forward position. The question is, given his weak overall performances at critical times, who is going to want him?

So, the Nets need a small forward. They need a point guard to relieve Jason Kidd. But most of all they must keep Kidd. Simply put, he was their savior. And unless the Nets want to have a modern day Dr. J situation on their hands, they should find a way to keep him. Kidd has said he likes New Jersey. He also has said he will test the free agent market after next season.

Thorn brought Kidd to New Jersey. They love him in the Garden State for that. They'll love him even more if he can keep Kidd and dump Van Horn.

Kyle Ringo of the Rocky Mountain News reports that the Nuggets will have a head coach in place by July 19th if everything goes as planned. Denver GM Kiki Vandeweghe interviewed ex-Nugget Alex English for the job yesterday.

English interviewed Thursday night in Denver for the position and said he came away feeling confident about the experience. He also said Vandeweghe told him he planned to have a coach in place before the beginning of the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league, which runs July 19-27 in Salt Lake City.

Ohm Youngmisuk of the New York Daily News reports that Vandeweghe just received permission from Nets? president Rod Thorn to talk to New Jersey assistant coach Eddie Jordan.

Vandeweghe said he plans to call Jordan next week but likely will not bring the Nets assistant in for an interview until after the June 26 draft. Sources say the Nuggets are strongly considering Jordan for the job. They are also looking at Dallas assistant Donn Nelson, Clyde Drexler, Alex English, Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins and Milwaukee assistant Terry Stotts, among others.

Matthew Futterman of the Newark Star-Ledger reports that Jason Kidd is everything to everyone. To teammates, Jason Kidd is the floor general. To fans, he is the franchise's savior. To Nets owners, he is the $26 million man.

That?s how much added revenue it is estimated that the Nets received this season with Kidd leading the way. Kidd, who made $8.44 million this season, can be a free agent after next season. The Nets were likely to offer him the maximum contract of $11.5-$15 million even before he turned around a team that won just 26 games last year and limped home to a $25 million operating loss. Now, however, signing Kidd may be the most important transaction the Nets make since the franchise traded Julius Erving.

Here's how Kidd generated that extra $26 million:

REGULAR-SEASON ATTENDANCE ($14 Million)

The Nets averaged 9,197 fans at home games during the first month of the season. But that number was just 6,284 fans if you knock out two games against Philadelphia and the Knicks, when fans for the visitors traditionally outnumbered Nets faithful in Continental Airlines Arena.
Attendance, of course, started picking up once the team started winning. After 41 regular-season home games, the average climbed to 13,761 and fans were coming out to see even the worst teams in the league. And unlike previous years when the team gave away thousands of tickets each night, the Nets sold almost every ticket this year. As the Nets took off under Kidd, attendance jumped by nearly 6,000 fans. Factor in an average ticket price of $50, plus spending on concessions and parking, and the Kidd factor is worth roughly $14 million.

PLAYOFFS ($11 Million)

The Nets hosted 11 playoff games this spring, an unheard of figure for a franchise that's usually on vacation by May. The NBA takes 45 percent of all playoff ticket revenues. But increases in ticket prices and concession sales during the premium games still left the Nets with an average of about $1 million a night. Without Kidd, most basketball minds say the Nets would have been back in the lottery for a fourth straight year.

SPONSORSHIPS ($1 million)

Success on the court makes it easier for the team to sell itself. Industry experts say the Nets should get a 10 percent -- or almost $750,000 -- in their sponsorship revenues next year.

Futterman adds that NBA franchises are structured to lose money. It's a nice tax write off for owners, who recoup the losses when they decide to sell their teams. Whether Kidd has risen the overall value of the Nets franchise -- estimated at $159 million by Forbes Magazine in February -- won't be known unless the team is put up for sale. But a surprise run to the NBA Finals led by a superstar guard certainly didn't hurt Philadelphia last year. In December 2000, Forbes said the 76ers were worth $233 million. This February, the value jumped 20 percent to $279 million.

A 20 percent increase in the Nets value would add another $30 million to the increased revenues.

After being swept by the Lakers, Kenyon Martin said what he felt. He felt that some of his teammates didn?t give their all and didn?t play with heart. Fred Kerber of the New York Post reports that he wishes now he had zipped it.

"I said some things [after Game 4] that I probably shouldn't have said. I was a little disappointed so the emotions got over me a little bit," said Martin after the Nets break up meeting yesterday - the latest ever that a Net team met to go separate ways. "But we had a great year. We had a good run. It's been fun."

While Martin didn?t name names, it is assumed that one of the teammates he was talking about was Keith Van Horn. Asked if he felt the need to apologize, Martin said, "Yeah" and promised, "I will, I will."

Van Horn, who has suffered from at times dreadful inconsistency, tried to wave off the incident. "I'm not surprised [the comments were made]. You're upset after every loss. It's expected," said Van Horn, who undoubtedly will be the object of trade rumors again.

As for Martin apologizing, Van Horn said, "I don't care at this point." He stressed that the Nets should view the positives of the season.

"I don't think you can turn a couple of comments into a damper on such a great season," Van Horn said. "I don't look at it as a big deal. It was a frustrating loss, but you have to look at the whole picture. The whole picture is that we had a great season."

Even though the ratings for this years? NBA Finals were up in Los Angeles, they were down nationwide. Larry Stewart of the LA Times reports that the series produced good numbers in LA (Game 4 got a 34.0 rating with a 54 share) but nationally the Lakers' four-game sweep of the New Jersey Nets was a bust.

The four game series produced a national average rating of 10.2 which is the lowest rating for an NBA Finals since the league went to a live, prime-time format 20 years ago.

Not since the Celtic beat the Rockets in 1981 have the ratings been this low. For that series, CBS tape-delayed the weeknight broadcasts until 11:30pm and received a 6.7 rating for the six game series.

This year's 10.2--with a 19 share--is down 17% from the first four games of last year's five-game series with Philadelphia, which averaged a 12.3/23. The five-game average last year was a 12.1/22.

The four games averaged a 31.8/51 in Los Angeles, which is slightly lower than the 33.2/54 for last year's Finals against Philadelphia but higher than the 31.2/50 for the six-game series against Indiana two years ago.

So, wait a minute. The New Jersey Nets want to trade for the Jazz's Karl Malone?

Somebody has been watching too much soccer.

Malone going to the Nets, as the latest popular rumor suggests, is about as likely as Sherman trading blue for gray.

In case you forgot, the Nets are the team run by former league disciplinarian Rod Thorn, whom Malone believes has been out to get him for years. They are coached by Byron Scott, who taunted last season that Malone has "no heart." And they are significantly propelled by Kenyon Martin, who tried to take Malone's head off with a clothesline foul last December.

Yeah, that would work.