Nets minority partner Bruce Ratner isn't happy with the way assistant general manager/interim head coach Kiki Vandeweghe was sent packing earlier this offseason.

"He didn't go out the way he should have," Ratner said now of Vandeweghe. "The team is in a really good position and he was instrumental in putting it there."

New Jersey has $30 million in cap space and Ratner claims that Vandeweghe created $27 million of it.

"Kiki did a lot of the negotiating," Ratner said.

Ratner says Vandeweghe hurt himself by agreeing to be "a good soldier" and serve as interim coach after an 0-19 start prompted the firing of Lawrence Frank.

"There was no upside," Ratner says. "Kiki did it because Rod asked him and Kiki thought it was best for the team. A lot of people complained that he wasn't a good coach, but he'd never coached before and the truth is, we were playing better by the end of the season. His decision to coach the team was one of the most selfless things done in sports management. It was courageous. It probably hurt his career."