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The draft should bring quality. Trades are tricky, but they will be explored. And the Nets are armed with enough exception money to make more than a window-shopping appearance in the free-agent market.

When you win just 34 games and fail to make the playoffs for the first time in seven years, you have to figure change will be a steady offseason companion.

"We'll look to make some changes," team president Rod Thorn acknowledged yesterday at the start of his annual postseason, state of the Nets summation. "The ways to change your team are the draft, free agency or trades. We'll be looking at all three."

Thorn said Vince Carter is almost certainly headed for arthroscopic ankle surgery, management wants to keep the team's three key free agents and Kiki Vandeweghe is on the verge of a GM-type position. Thorn supplied little that hasn't been pretty much common knowledge even before the Nets completed their horrific season that contained the trade of Jason Kidd. So change will be forthcoming, but Thorn stressed it doesn't mean a complete, total overhaul. He said he would be "comfortable" if the four main offensive pieces - Carter, Richard Jefferson, Devin Harris and Nenad Krstic - returned en masse.

"I'm comfortable with it if that's what we end up with," said Thorn, giving high praise to Carter for excellent leadership after the break plus statistics that were bettered only by LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

Carter and Jefferson would be tough to trade, if the Nets want to go that route, because of their contracts. Krstic is an unrestricted free agent, so the Nets can match any offer (within reason). And Harris is signed through 2013.

The draft, a good, "deep" one, Thorn said, is impossible to forecast now. But the Nets, with picks at 10, 21 and 40, will find help. The 10th spot "historically" is a good pick, Thorn said.

As for free agency, the first scenario is addressing their own guys.

"Our three free agents we would like to, if we can, sign them," Thorn said.

Bostjan Nachbar and DeSegana Diop are unrestricted free agents. The Nets want to keep Nachbar without overspending, but they expect to see competition.

"A lot of teams in the league like Boki. I think there will be a marketplace for him," Thorn said.

The same scenario could apply for Krstic, the restricted free agent. The Nets can match, but they are not likely to go to a full mid-level exception. Thorn seems to prefer breaking up the mid-level for several guys.
Regarding areas to be addressed, start with defense, continue to shooting.

"We had a major problem on the defensive end of the court this year, not being able to guard the basket and not being able to keep wing players in front of us," Thorn said. "We need one other guy who can make a jump shot because we struggled a lot of nights when teams zoned us or loaded up on the strong side."

Improvements must come, because a 34-win, no-playoff season is unacceptable.

"Whether it's what we have or whether it's with some additions - and I think it's a combination - we need to get better because the league is getting better," Thorn said. "Look at some of the teams that are starting to have some success in the East or who have not had a lot of success. They're getting better. So from both within and without we have to try and get better."