As the Nets await tonight's NBA Draft with the No. 22 pick, they have a plan formulated. They'll draft a shooter or a point guard or a big man. They want someone who can help right away or someone with upside who might be ready next year. They're going to keep the pick or they'll trade the selection.

Nothing like a precise, immutable plan, huh?

"We're trying to figure out - which we're not having a lot of success - as to how people are going to go in the draft," Nets president Rod Thorn said. "After you get past [pick] four, it's a really mixed up draft as to who is going to go where.

"Most people feel there's not a whole bunch of difference in a lot of guys. So it depends on your needs, it depends on - everybody views players a little bit differently - how you view certain players, because talent-wise there's a bunch of guys that there's not much difference in," Thorn added.

Expect trades, but any dealing the Nets do will be to go down or out, not up, Thorn said. The Nets, who last year picked a prize, Yugoslavian Nenad Krstic, who stayed overseas to develop, have been approached about dealing their pick. There are always "ifs," Thorn said. Teams want the pick "if" so-and-so is available.