Tom Hevezi/Associated PressThe Nets' Yi Jianlian had 17 points in the victory over the Heat.

The Nets and their coach return home from Europe Monday morning with a 2-0 preseason record, a renewed esprit de corps, a healthy and voluble Vince Carter, and a suddenly bulging stable of young big men who all performed well during the two-game trip across the pond.

The latter development was undoubtedly the most encouraging, as Yi Jianlian and Brook Lopez upheld the promise of the offseason shuffle by helping the Nets score a 94-92 victory over the Miami Heat Sunday at the O2 Arena in London.

Three days after Ryan Anderson and Josh Boone fared well in Paris, Yi hit his first four shots and finished with 17 points against the Heat; and Lopez shook off some early jitters - perhaps as a result of a well-timed lecture from Carter -- to contribute eight points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Fernando Medina/US PresswireChris Douglas-Roberts takes a lot of "tricky" shots.

He brings to this level a rhythm that is all his own, so much that the veterans on the team have a phrase to describe the style of Chris Douglas-Roberts.

"Chris has an old man's game," Devin Harris suggested.

"An old man game," Vince Carter agreed.

The throwback label comes from Douglas-Roberts' college teammate, Derrick Rose, but he isn't exactly sure about its accuracy. Douglas-Roberts admits only this: "I just move differently," he said, before doing a shoulder shimmy that was right out of the Mark Jackson playbook.

It took only 12 minutes for the Nets to encounter their first crisis of the season, and now it's up to Vince Carter's recuperative powers to determine the severity of it.

The shooting star strained his left hamstring while scoring on a runner in the second period of the team's preseason opener at Bercy Arena in Paris yesterday, when the Nets scored a 100-98 overtime triumph over the Miami Heat.

It has been a coach's conundrum since time immemorial: What do you do if you have so many new and young players, all jammed into the starting gate, and there isn't enough difference in their respective skill levels to justify benching anyone?

It is a situation that just might force Lawrence Frank to do something very bold.

For the third time since camp opened, the Nets coach invoked the name of Hubie Brown Wednesday, specifically with regard to the legendary Jersey product's fondness for using a two-unit platoon.

And Frank sounds as though he is giving it serious consideration.

This is the kind of cultural experience they're supposed to carry with them for the rest of their lives, but you wonder whether any of the Nets actually care about Paris, care about London, care about being ambassadors for a global enterprise that is starting to think seriously about expansion into Western Europe.

Maybe they'll get a better understanding after a stroll down the Champs-Elysees, or after inhaling the bus fumes around Marble Arch and Oxford Circus. Maybe they'll relish the opportunity to make new fans there, and make an earnest attempt to embrace a new culture.

Or, perhaps they'll sit in their hotel room for most of the day, until the bus leaves for the gym.

George McNish/The Star-LedgerJosh Boone and a cast of thousands will be battling for quality minutes for the Nets all season long.

In short order, they learned that this group provided virtually none of the above. By midyear, the power rotation was a mystery, half of them were ex-Nets and two of the survivors weren't even playing.

And now, almost the entire group has changed, except for one thing: As the team begins its exhibition schedule this week, no one has a clue who will get to play the power forward and center positions.

Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerSean Williams (51) wasn't happy with how his rookie year went, so he dedicated himself to improving his game for his second NBA season.

Sean Williams may have flaws, Garrett explained, like anyone else. But regardless of how his life is going, whatever time zone he is in, the Nets forward calls Houston and talks to his younger brother and sister every day. For at least one hour, often two.

So it was no small matter that Williams, in the middle of remaking himself as a player in early June, asked GM Kiki Vandeweghe if he could skip work for a few days.

"He said his brother is having surgery, and asks if it was okay if he went back home," Vandeweghe recalled. "And I kind of laughed and said, 'Sean, are you kidding? Of course.' But it was very interesting that he felt he even had to ask. That's how dedicated Sean was to training this summer."

Usually, he suffers from "source amnesia" when he spouts his stuff, that memory lag in which you can remember a statement without recalling where you heard it, or whether the source was even credible.

So the giant quote Lawrence Frank had painted across the locker room wall this preseason has no credit line under it: "You can't get much done in life," it reads, "if you only work on the days when you feel good."

Sounds familiar.

"Actually, that one is Jerry West," Frank explained. "They just forgot to inscribe it. I got another one: 'If what you did yesterday looks great, you didn't do much today.'"

Good one. Yours?

The NBA released a report yesterday that found no further evidence of illegal activity among its referees other than Tim Donaghy, who is serving a 15-month prison sentence for betting on games.

The report, the result of a multimillion dollar, 14-month investigation by former federal prosecutor Lawrence Pedowitz, also recommended fundamental changes in the league's officiating program to monitor events on and off the court and ensure the integrity of the game. Pedowitz called for closer inspection of referees and more transparency to eliminate the perception of secrecy.

He said the league needed to create a "culture of compliance" that would hopefully highlight potential suspicious activity. NBA commissioner David Stern pledged to implement all of Pedowitz's recommendations, including making referees available to members of the media after controversial calls or calls that require a rule interpretation.

Mike Derer/Associated PressJosh Boone in a rare moment of relaxation during Nets camp.

Josh Boone, who is usually as genial as Wally Cleaver, took a seat after practice Wednesday and immediately put on the game face.

It was a new look for him: Scowling and petulant, he didn't look like a guy who had just helped a team of subs (Julius Hodge, Awvee Storey and the like) to a victory in an eight-minute scrimmage.

He quickly explained why: "I hate losing," the Nets center spat. "We lost four out of five games. We played a bunch of (shorter sessions) early on, and it's just frustrating -- we're losing off of stupid things, miscommunications, and they just keep adding up."

John Munson/The Star-LedgerRod Thorn has no plans to retire.

It was a few days into August, under a hot Westchester sun, that Rod Thorn picked out a driver, teed one up, and heard something crack. And it wasn't the sound of club hitting ball.

"Something snapped in my leg -- like a bone spur broke off," the Nets president recalled Tuesday. "And that told me it's time."

Time to have that knee replacement surgery, he meant. An arthritic condition in his right knee brought him face to face with a decision he had been dreading for two years, because the same surgery -- on his left knee in March 2005 -- had led to a significant heart scare.

Four months ago, Goldman Sachs assured all financing would be in place for a $950 million professional basketball arena in Brooklyn by today.

Bruce Ratner, owner of the New Jersey Nets and developer of the ambitious, $4 billion Atlantic Yards project, said he was "inches away from completing the deal."

That was before prestigious investment firms started to fall and credit markets went into full-scale panic, triggering a financial crisis on Wall Street unseen since the Great Depression.

John O'Boyle/The Star-LedgerBobby Simmons is confident he can become a third scorer behind Vince Carter and Devin Harris.

Perhaps this didn't come out precisely as he intended it, even though Bobby Simmons usually has a pretty good idea of what he wants to say and how to say it.

So when the question of replacing Richard Jefferson came up Monday, his response was worth a double take:

"I'm more of a complete player," the Nets small forward said. "Meaning, me and Richard are two totally different players. The way Bobby Simmons plays basketball, it's more complete as far as (being) a guy who can do a lot of things out on the floor."

Okay, go with that.

His reputation is that of a post behemoth, but if you want to pigeonhole Brook Lopez -- age 20, with a short resume that includes but 1,500 college minutes -- he'll beg your pardon and say, "Try again."

Yes, the Nets expect a lot out of their 7-foot rookie -- eventually -- and he wants to live up to his stature as a top-10 draft pick. But you're looking at him from the wrong side of the court.

"I want to be a player that the team can anchor themselves around defensively," Lopez declared yesterday, when asked about his primary pro ambition. "That's what I've really been concentrating on in this training camp: being down there, learning rotations, relearning it, just burning it in my mind.

You can list the number of deficiencies the Nets have until the last ding-dong of eternity, but the one asset they know they can rely on -- the one area where they beat the world -- is speed at the point guard position.

And since the first rule of coaching is that you exploit what you have, Lawrence Frank is basing much of what happens this season on the skinny turbocharger handling the ball.

All of which is just fine with Devin Harris.