EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Looking to bury a turbulent past in the New Jersey swamplands, the Nets resisted the temptation Thursday night to add a power player with the haunting initials, D.C. With the third pick of the N.B.A. draft, they still landed another Derrick. Derrick Favors, who will turn 19 next month, became the first player addition of the Mikhail Prokhorov-ownership era. A 6-foot-10 power forward, Favors averaged 12.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season at Georgia Tech. “I’m open to learning Russian,” he said, letting everyone know what he didn ’t study during his one year in college. Favors worked out for the Nets on Monday with Kentucky’s DeMarcus Cousins, who many believed to be the most talented big man in the draft. But Cousins, who went fifth to Sacramento, had similar red flags — attitude and work ethic — that accompanied Derrick Coleman when the Nets made him the overall No. 1 pick in 1990. More than any player during their years in the New Jersey Meadowlands, the multitalented Coleman was symbolic of franchise instability and player insurgency, infamous for a quote — “Whoop-de-damn-do” — that summed up his reaction to repeatedly being fined. Rod Thorn, the Nets’ president, was also reluctant to take Cousins because he wasn’t convinced Cousins, who played center in college, could be a complementary power forward on the frontline with center Brook Lopez. By choosing Favors over Cousins and two other forwards under consideration — Syracuse’s Wesley Johnson and Georgetown’s Greg Monroe — the Nets opted for the most athletic frontcourt player available but the one considered the least N.B.A. ready. They also wound up with a player with the surname of James — Damion, a 6-7 senior swingman from Texas, not LeBron. James was acquired from Atlanta, which picked him 24th, in exchange for the Nets’ 27th pick of the first round and the first pick of the second round, 31st over all. Favors was the Nets’ prime catch, comparing his skills set to a mix of the All-Stars Dwight Howard and Amar’e Stoudemire. For the glass-half-empty crowd, the comparative selections would be Stromile Swift, taken second in 2000, and Tyrus Thomas, the fourth pick of the 2006 draft. Both proved to be high-octane athletes but average players, if not all-out busts. Favors promised much more than running and jumping. “They just think I’m an athletic guy who just dunks all the time,” he said of critics. “But I can face up, shoot the jumper and drive.” The question is how much of that he will do while the Nets are still in New Jersey for the next two or three seasons, or before the Nets get to Brooklyn. “He shows you skills, a good body and spurts of being electrifying athletically,” Gregg Polinsky, the Nets’ player personnel director, said of Favors. “But we’ve all had guys who we thought would be really good at 18, and it takes a while to make their mark in the N.B.A. So with Favors, you have to be willing to take a leap of faith.” Thorn, who still hasn’t signed a new contract to assure his return to the organization despite Prokhorov’s eagerness to have him, said: “The only question with Derrick Favors is where he is in his development. You have to figure out how long it will be before you have someone who is a finished product. Because he is in every other way a prototypical four — in body frame, skills, and athletic ability.” Knowing that the guards John Wall and Evan Turner were likely to be taken by Washington and Philadelphia with the first two picks, Favors said he was rooting hard to land in New Jersey, despite growing up in Atlanta. He set records at South Atlanta High School in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots, and as a senior was named the most valuable player of the McDonald’s All-American game and the Jordan Brand Classic. “I feel that it’s a great opportunity,” he said of the Nets. “Young, rebuilding team, good head coach, a new owner, they’re going in a new direction, and I hope I can be a part 4of it, to help them accomplish what they want to accomplish in the next few years.” He said he loves the idea of playing alongside Lopez and having him as a mentor, as he tries to lay claim to the tough rebounding position that will apparently be vacated by the faltering Chinese import Yi Jianlian, sooner or later. The problem in projecting what the Nets’ lineup will look like at the start of next season is that free agency could have a domino effect on the roster, to the extent that no player except Lopez is assured of locker room space at the Prudential Center. If the Nets are able to sign one of the premier free-agent power forwards, like Stoudemire or the Knicks’ David Lee, there might be little incentive to develop Favors at the same position, and Favors could become trade bait. Prokhorov has made one thing clear: he wants the Nets, who were a league-worst 12-70 last season, to make an accelerated run to the playoffs and to be a championship-caliber team within five years. “This is strictly business,” said Favors, who stands to earn $19.3 million over four years, according to the rookie salary scale. “He’s trying to move forward and win a championship.” All Favors can do is get in the gym, work on his jumper and hope whatever free-agent money the Nets get to spend this summer is not at the position he plays. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/sports/basketball/25araton.html --

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