The Nets may be miles away from the lottery when they pick 22nd in tomorrow's draft. But they feel like they already have a lottery pick.

Last year's first-round pick, Yugoslavian center Nenad Krstic, has developed nicely into what many say would have been a lottery pick this year. Even better news for the Nets is that the 7-footer feels he is ready to join them immediately. The problem is whether his club, Partizan, co-owned by Vlade Divac, will allow Krstic to come to America.

"If he could, he would be over here tomorrow," Krstic's agent, Marc Fleisher, said yesterday. "I know he is quite eager to do it. Really the issue is in the hands of Partizan who I think is somewhat reluctant. I have had some discussions with Vlade before he left for Europe and I expect we will probably talk about it after the draft."

Fleisher also represents Divac. After Milos Vujanic, the Knicks' second-round pick last year, left Partizan to join a club in Spain, Partizan feels it might not be able to survive the loss of Krstic. The Nets are ready to pay the maximum of $350,000 allowed to Partizan to get Krstic. But Partizan wants a bigger buyout, possibly somewhere in the neighborhood of more than $1 million, according to a source. Krstic would have to pay the rest of that buyout out of his own pocket.