Former NJ Nets assistant Del Harris left team after president Rod Thorn shot down possibility of Harris becoming head coach

The agent for former Nets assistant Del Harris, right, shown earlier this season with Nets GM/coach Kiki Vandeweghe, told Nets president Rod Thorn the team would be better off letting Harris take over and moving Vandeweghe back to the front office.

NOTEBOOK

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — The departure of Del Harris Tuesday night came only two days after his agent, Warren LeGarie, approached Nets president Rod Thorn about the possibility that his client become the team’s head coach.

This exchange, according to two NBA officials privy to the conversation who requested anonymity because they are friendly with both sides, took place at Izod Center.

LeGarie, one of the game’s heaviest hitters, told Thorn the Nets would be better off letting Harris take over and moving Kiki Vandeweghe back to the front office, if only to begin preparation for 2010-11.

According to one of the officials, Thorn interrupted LeGarie with this door-slam: “Hold it right there,” he said. “All due respect, he will not be the next head coach here. So if he has any delusions about that, you should let him know it’s not going to happen.”

LeGarie relayed the conversation to Harris, who immediately decided to leave New Jersey, a decision that was reported during Tuesday night’s game.

So now Devin Harris goes back to the trainer’s room to nurse a sprain in his left shoulder, suffered in a harsh collision with Jarvis Hayes with only seconds left in the Nets’ 99-92 defeat against the Pistons.

It was last March 15 against the Clippers in L.A. when Harris had another tough spill that cost him a lot of floor time, when Marcus Camby caught him on the forearm in mid-flight as the point guard tried to jam on the 7-foot Clipper.

Harris landed flat on his left rib cage and armpit, and the resulting damage — a sprained left shoulder and strained left deltoid — forced him out of seven games.

Harris has already missed 16 games this year.

“I don’t think ... it’s bad as it could be,” said Harris, who could raise his arm only three-quarters of the way above his head. “Better than it was in L.A. last year.”

Still, he wasn’t in a position to give any timetable.

“Like I said, it’s not as bad as the one I had last year,” Harris said. “I expect to be well enough to play. We’ll see how it is (Sunday).”

Hayes, who suffered a bruise to his lower left leg, said his injury “is going to be black and blue in the morning. But I don’t plan on missing any games — hopefully.”

Both players had X-rays, and both came back negative.

The good people of Michigan have wondered for two years why Chris Douglas-Roberts wouldn’t work out for the Pistons prior to the 2008 draft, because his only answer to that question (“Too close – too close to home”) really was no answer at all.

“Everybody knows why I didn’t,” Douglas-Roberts said Saturday night.

That’s news. Do share.

“Not the day of the draft. I wasn’t about to do that,” he said. “I mean the night before? I already did 12 workouts. I just wasn’t gonna do it. Too last minute. But that was three years now. It’s over. They shouldn’t be worried about me. They got a team over there.”

Douglas-Roberts got to play only nine minutes Saturday night before family and friends before calling it a night because of back spasms

There’s an old theory that says general managers should be coaches – just for a while – because it could actually help you become a better GM.

Vandeweghe, who was coaching his 32nd game Saturday night against Detroit, gives it credence.

“No question about it,” Vandeweghe said. “I was on the bench 10 years ago (in Dallas), and the game is very different – game preparation is very different. You see exactly what a coach has to do, you can understand how to help him better.

“You see it all from a different perspective, which really helps. You also see your players and other players from a different perspective. It’s extremely valuable for any GM to do something like this.”