Bruce C. Ratner, the 59-year-old president and chief executive officer of Forest City Ratner Companies, is going to take over control of the Nets in a few weeks.  To this point, he has been silent about his plans for the team.  

But in individual meetings with reporters from several newspapers yesterday, Ratner addressed the recent speculation in the media that CEO Rod Thorn was under strict cost-cutting guidelines from him.

"The cost-cutting is totally exaggerated," he said. "Look, every team makes decisions as to what are the best players for this particular group to work together, play together, and how do you do that in a cost-effective way? Sometimes that means trading someone much more needed by another team, you know, and saving some money so we can keep other players."

Outlining his plans, Ratner said he hoped to retain head basketball man Rod Thorn and Kenyon Martin without losing Jason Kidd or Richard Jefferson.