FanHouse Lawrence Frank

PHILADELPHIA -- They just made a stop in Philadelphia, so why not be the first to throw it out. Can the New Jersey Nets make a run at the 1972-73 76ers' all-time futility mark of 9-73?

The Nets are the NBA's only winless team at 0-6 after Friday night's 97-94 loss to the 76ers and every day another player seems to get hurt. Call them the New Jersey Gnats the way they're dropping like flies.

OK, so it's way too early to think these Nets are going to make history for basketball badness. And, besides, Nets guard Rafer Alston gets upset when somebody calls his team the NBA's worse.

"That does (hurt) because you know you have a lot of pride,'' Alston said. "It hurts to be considered the worst ... when you know you have a lot of basketball and life in your game and there's a lot of pride in each man.''

Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?

Training camps are opening, so here are five coaches likely to start feeling the heat if their teams don't get off to good starts.

Mike Dunleavy, L.A. Clippers: The Clippers head into the season with expectations, which might not be the best news for Dunleavy. He's got to figure out a way to reconfigure his relationship with Baron Davis so that the veteran point guard once again can thrive. If Dunleavy and Davis aren't on the same page, there's no hope in L.A.

In an announcement overshadowed by the playoffs on Wednesday, Nets boss Rod Thorn confirmed that coach Lawrence Frank will return for the 2009-10 season. Frank was under contract already, but Thorn had been publicly hedging on whether he'd return.

Never mind the lame duck status -- Thorn rightfully dismisses that potential issue, which always hovers in the NBA but rarely bites. (Coaches get canned in the middle of a contract just as frequently as in the final year of the contract.) But there is a problem here: Thorn's declarations last week that the players might have tuned out Frank. Admission is the first step to acceptance. Does this mean the Nets accept that Frank's voice isn't getting through to everyone?

Of the limited coaching carousel, few spots held actual uncertainty. One of these mysteries can be found in lovely East Rutherford, where the Nets coach Lawrence Frank continues to await his verdict.

This is not a situation in which mysterious anonymice appear in the New York media suggesting that Nets management might make a play for Avery Johnson or some such all while giving Frank the doomed "vote of confidence" in public. No, Nets boss Rod Thorn is quite transparently on the fence about whether to retain Frank. It's a bit refreshing, really. Refreshing and, in the end, irrational.

Rod Thorn (sorry, Rod, we'll get 'em next year) gave Lawrence Frank a pretty strong vote of confidence (though I suppose those things are never too strong) yesterday. Addressing Frank's job status, Thorn had this to say, via the New York Post:

"Lawrence is doing fine," Thorn said. "There's still a long way to go in this season and he's doing everything he can to get us in (the playoffs). But we have put ourselves in a tenuous situation."

Thorn clearly stressed that if the Nets do not reach the playoffs, it would have "no impact" on the decision whether Frank returns.

No impact? Well, then what would have an impact? If you're in the Eastern Conference, and you don't make the playoffs ... forgive my bluntness, but you suck. You really suck. If you can't crack the Top 8 in the East, you better be in rebuilding mode.

The Nets are not. They're in the East, with two superstar players ... how do they not make the playoffs? I know Jefferson and Krstic have been injured, I know that they start Mikki Moore, but again ... it's the East. If you have Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and a few warm bodies, you should be making the playoffs. I don't think that's asking too much. At the very least, the Nets shouldn't be as boring as they are.