Nets cancel practice due to trade speculation

As you've probably heard by now, the NBA trade deadline is Thursday afternoon. It's a hectic time for many teams around the league as they try to sort of their short-term and long-term futures. For the most part, though, these teams go about their regular business as best they can, maintaining regular preparation rituals like practices and shootarounds.

Apparently no one told that to the New Jersey Nets, who canceled practice Tuesday to deal with ongoing speculation surrounding Devin Harris and others. From Ryan Jones at SB Nation New York (via Eye on Basketball):

With the front office trying to regroup from their failed attempt to reel in Anthony, the Nets canceled practice on Tuesday.

The team doesn't want to return to the court until they know where their players stand, specifically point guard Devin Harris, who has been mentioned to be going everywhere from Atlanta to Portland. [...]

While they don't play before the trade deadline, the Nets are still planning on practicing Wednesday, pointing to a deal involving Harris going down within 24 hours.

The Nets don't play until Friday at San Antonio, so giving the team a day off three days before their next game isn't the most controversial choice in the world, even for one of the league's worst teams. But there does seem something a little odd about canceling practice to accommodate awkwardness related to just one player, albeit a very important one.

On the other hand, this is a weird day for the Nets: They lost out on their top target of the last few months, Carmelo Anthony, and nearly half the team has been involved in trade rumors of some kind during that period. Perhaps everyone just needs a moment to rest up and prepare for the rest of the season.

Of course, many of those same players could be dealt before Thursday's deadline. If you're going to cancel one practice for a soon-to-be-dealt player, why not cancel them all? They haven't seemed to help that much up until this point.

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