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Speculation, rumors and other stories are following the Nets every day. That’s what happens when you’re as bad as they are.

Everyone's waiting for the next trade, coach's departure, controversial Tweet from some of the young players or lengthy losing streak.

The stories will continue leading up to next week’s trade deadline and beyond because there will be an ownership change at some point, with players unhappy if they’re still with the Nets after the trade deadline. And there’s always the chase for infamy -– the worst record in NBA history -– that will gain national attention.

Had the Nets won a few of the close games lately maybe some things would disappear. Certainly the race for the record and the coverage it will receive. But some of the others won’t go away.

Let’s start with trades: the Nets are open to trading just about anyone not named Brook Lopez. They’re 4-46. Just about everyone is available and understandably so.

In all likelihood, the Nets will keep Lopez and Devin Harris, but would do a deal for any of their other players, if the trade made sense. One that makes sense either gets them a proven player who will help them next season or something that won’t hurt their salary-cap room and flexibility for this summer.

The players the Nets would move first are guys that aren’t in their plans: Josh Boone, Bobby Simmons, Trenton Hassell and Tony Battie.

They’re tough to move because none of them are playing, but they also can be appealing because they’re all in the last years of their contracts. Some of those veterans might be able to help contending teams who need defense or another big man.

If the Nets can’t move them, it’s possible they could reach a buyout agreement and waive someone to let them go to a better situation.

Another recent story about assistant coach Del Harris’ departure, which was discussed during YES Network's pregame show Friday, doesn’t speak highly for the 72-year-old former NBA Coach of the Year. Harris wasn’t a head coaching candidate for the rest of this season or for the next. And if he was led to believe that, or misled for that matter, it couldn’t have been by team president Rod Thorn.

The Nets’ next coaching hire arguably is the most important one of their history, and it wasn’t going to be given to someone who didn't relate well to these players. This is not meant to disparage Harris, a good man and proven coach. But times are different now. He didn’t have the ear of these players, so it would have made no sense to let Harris finish out the season as the head coach or make him a candidate for next year when the Nets are going to pursue the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and other top-flight free agents. You want a coach that may appeal to them.

Another story that will gain steam is Thorn meeting with Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov this weekend in Dallas during the All-Star festivities. Thorn’s future is expected to come up during the meeting. The general feeling is Thorn will be back, but nothing is guaranteed.

Meanwhile, expect plenty of trade rumors from Dallas where Thorn and general manager/coach Kiki Vandeweghe will be. Things will heat up for the Nets and the rest of the NBA this weekend.

There has been a lot written already, but there’s so much more to come.

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The Nets hope to have all three of their players who couldn’t finish out Saturday’s loss in Detroit for Tuesday night’s game in Cleveland. But a more likely scenario is two of three will be available to play James’ team.

Jarvis Hayes plans to play on his improving bruised left shin. Chris Douglas-Roberts' back spasms weren’t an issue today. But Devin Harris, the other party involved in the collision with Hayes, still has stiffness in his shoulder and is calling himself a game-time decision.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -– Jarvis Hayes’ left leg was wrapped in ice as he limped toward the locker room. Moments later, Devin Harris walked in with his left shoulder taped heavily, unable to lift his arm without feeling pain.

The Nets didn’t just fall at the end of last night’s game. They literally fell apart, losing Hayes, Harris and Chris Douglas-Roberts to injury.

The health of Harris and Hayes was of more concern than the 99-92 loss to the Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills. Both men said it could have been a lot worse -– and they thought it was a lot worse -– so there was more relief than disappointment for another hard-fought loss.

Make that six in a row that the Nets had a chance to get if only they executed and hit shots down the stretch. They missed nine of their last 11 after taking a one-point fourth-quarter lead on Detroit.

Yet the Nets weren’t kicking themselves after this one like a few of the others in the last week -– Washington, Philadelphia, Detroit at the Meadowlands. There also wasn’t a somber feeling in the locker room, in part because the Nets are playing hard every night now.

The fact that Harris and Hayes walked into the room on their own strength and left that way, too, also helped matters. They survived a scary moment with about 30 seconds left in this one, colliding at midcourt while chasing a loose ball. The hit sent them both to the floor and in need of help.

Hayes looked to be worse. He was clutching his lower left leg. Harris was holding his left shoulder. They both got up around the same time and were assisted off the floor and into an X-ray room. Both turned up negative. Harris has a sprained left shoulder and Hayes a bruised lower left leg.

“They were negative so that’s good,” Hayes said. “Just bruised real bad.”

“I don’t think it’s bad as it could be,” Harris said.

Harris was talking about his shoulder, not the Nets’ season. It’s hard to imagine their season getting worse, but anything is possible.

There are still 32 games left, plenty of time for the Nets to learn finally how to turn all of these close games into some wins. But there’s also plenty of time for them to regress. And the one fear around the team is how they would survive a significant injury to a key player. Not that the Nets are going to make the playoffs, but they badly want to avoid the all-time mark for losses in a season (73).

There’s a good chance they could get there at full strength. If a key player is out for an extended time, it’s almost a lock it will happen. This was the Nets’ 46th loss, and the Cavaliers are their next opponent. If they don’t get No. 47 on Tuesday, it would be a stunner.

After what we’ve seen the last seven games, it’s easy to predict the Nets will play hard, but it’s hard to know who will be available for that game. Harris and Hayes will receive treatment for the next couple of days, and the good thing is that they have just one game after Cleveland before All-Star Weekend. So regardless of whether they play in one or both, they will get plenty of rest of after that.

If ever a team needed to refresh physically and mentally, it’s the Nets, owners of 46 losses and counting.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)

The Nets can go a few ways after Friday night's loss and pointing to the fact that they played the Celtics to a near standstill for three-plus quarters as a reason for optimism could be dangerous.

The Nets can’t let up Saturday night in Detroit.

The Celtics weren’t sharp on either end, didn’t have Paul Pierce, and other than the profanities he shouted and some menacing glares didn’t have Kevin Garnett at his best. Yet they were good enough to pull out a 96-87 win.

The Nets played well; no question about it. It was their sixth straight game where the outcome was in the balance in the fourth quarter.

It appears they’re turning the corner and just need to learn how to play 48 minutes, close out games before their hard work turns into something. They need to continue to play with hunger.

But there have been a few occasions this season, when the 4-45 Nets played an elite team tough, that it appeared they were close to enjoying success and all they felt was disappointing.

Think back to a close game against Boston on Nov. 7 when the Nets were just 0-7. The next game, the Nets were outplayed late by the Sixers and lost.

After coming from an embarrassing effort in Toronto six weeks later to battle the Lakers for a little more than a half, the Nets felt so much better about themselves. They sleepwalked through the next game and lost to Minnesota.

Then there was the close game at Cleveland that resulted in a blowout loss to the Jazz the next night. Another close loss to the Cavaliers in the first game after the calendar turned to 2010 preceded a blowout loss to the Bucks in New Jersey.

In these cases, the Nets lifted their games to the level of the good teams -- who to a certain extent found it difficult to get up for playing New Jersey. And then let up in the next game, often against teams that will be in the Lottery.

So, here we are again.

Tonight in Detroit, the night after the Nets put a legitimate scare into the Celtics and their fans. The Pistons are no longer the Pistons. Detroit basketball doesn’t have the same meaning or carry the same weight.

The Pistons had an awful night, losing by 24 at Indiana. That score, the fact the Nets played Boston in Boston tough and that they almost beat -- and should have beaten -- the Pistons in Meadowlands on Tuesday has to be irrelevant.

It has to be about tonight and tonight only. It doesn’t matter what happened last night or last week. History has proven that and especially with the Nets.

“I thought we played very hard,” coach Kiki Vandeweghe said after the Celtics' loss. “It was the effort level that I liked. The effort was there. That was very important to me.”

It should be important to the Nets tonight when they play in the Palace of Auburn Hills.

They’re playing better and they should feel good about that. But they have to keep working hard to go forward. This team can’t afford to go backward again.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.).

TORONTO - The Nets are feeling a different type of frustration these days. They’re playing better, but have nothing to show for it.

They’re in games now in the fourth period – marked improvement from some of their games a couple of weeks ago when they were out of it before the dance team made its first appearance of the night.

You would rather play competitively than not at all. But a loss is a loss and each one weighs heavily on this team that is hoping for a breakthrough.

Once again they thought they had one, but left the Air Canada Centre after their 108-99 defeat to the Raptors with the same expressions.

There were the predictable head shakes, the stares down at the floor, the looks around the room to hear what some of their teammates was saying about this latest defeat and many of the same words spoken.

After Brook Lopez said something he seemed to have said a 100 times this season, he uttered, “I’ve rehearsed this a lot.”

As the losses mount – the Nets are up to 44 now or 11 for every one win - the players run out of things to say. They are encouraged by their effort lately, but it doesn’t matter if it comes in a loss.

This was a game that could have been much worse. The Nets trailed by 40 the last time they were in Toronto and were down 11 midway through the first last night. That could have turned to 20 and 30 and then 40 very quickly.

It didn’t because the Nets took a stand and eventually and predictably they fell.

The stand came in the form of a run that turned the Nets’ 11-point deficit into a 12-point lead in the second period. They played defense, executed well on offensive and most importantly hit their shots.

The bench – Terrence Williams, Kris Humphries, Chris Douglas-Roberts and Chris Quinn - was a big part of the run as they played with energy and didn’t want to go out with another humiliating defeat.

But the 12-point lead, that took the Nets 6:40 to earn was gone in about three minutes and 30 seconds. Their energy lessened. Their defense stopped playing and the shots stopped falling.

Many of the starters were back in the game at this point and they couldn’t sustain what the bench produced.

But in the third, the starters got it done on the offensive end, but couldn’t on the defensive end. The game was back-and-forth, but the Nets didn’t wilt – until the fourth period.

The inevitable happened when it has lately, in the final quarter. But this one was different than the last three that came down to game-tying shots in the closing seconds. Not coincidentally, the level of competition was better.

Those three narrow losses came against the Wizards, Sixers and Pistons, at home. The Raptors are much better, more versatile, tougher to guard and they were playing in their loud confines.

The Nets were down four early in the fourth but it became double-digits pretty quickly. And with Devin Harris missing 13-of-17 shots and Lopez having a ho-hum 12-point, three-rebound game the Nets didn’t have the firepower to come back, even on a night when Chris Bosh was almost as pedestrian as Lopez.

He scored 20, on 8-of-20 shooting, and had nine rebounds – both well below his season averages. But the Nets couldn’t capitalize.

They’re at the point now where they can play hard and competitively for longer, but they still don’t know how to win games. So the frustration continues.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)

This was the kind of game, and it ended the type of homestand, that teams could look back at as the season winds down and point to as the reason they missed the playoffs.

The Nets may be pointing at Tuesday night, and the past five days, as the reason they own the worst record in NBA history. They still need six more wins to avoid that humiliation.

Win No. 5 on the season was staring right at them, if only. That really is the story of the Nets season, if only.

If only they were healthy for the start of the season, if only they had better players, if only their coach called plays that lead to wins.

The latest disappointment was a 97-93 loss to the Pistons in a game where the Nets were the better team for most of the night.

This is the third straight game the Nets had matched the other team or outplayed them and third consecutive time they walked away shaking their heads.

“We let it get away late,” Jarvis Hayes said.

“We just have to close out the game a lot better than we’ve been doing,” Devin Harris said.

This is what it comes down to at this point: The Nets seem to have figured out how to compete for 48 minutes; now they have to learn how to execute late and close out teams.

Each of the three losses on this homestand -- by a grand total of 10 points -- were different yet similar. In the end, it was late-game execution.

The Nets led by four as the clock was about to strike two minutes remaining, but three straight misses, giving up a defensive rebound, an alley-oop dunk on an out-of-bounds play led to them losing the lead and the game.

It’s late-game executions that the Nets have to learn now, which is step up from where they were a couple of weeks ago when late in games their faces were covered in towels and they were wondering where they were going to after the other team finished bludgeoning them.

The late-game execution is something the Nets must learn as a team and something Kiki Vandeweghe is still learning as a coach.

“It’s all of us together,” Vandeweghe said. “We all have to learn that. It’s execution. It’s making sure that we have everything set the right way. It’s closing out games. It’s chasing down loose balls.

“I thought we played very hard tonight. I thought we worked for 48, though we had a couple lapses.”

For the second straight game, Vandeweghe may have had a lapse with the winnable game in the balance. With the Nets down two and Richard Hamilton at the line with 17.7 seconds left, Nets’ players were expecting to call timeout.

But after Hamilton missed the second, Vandeweghe wanted the Nets to try and run a play before the defense was set.

In fairness, if Harris hits the shot, it’s a great play and a great decision, although it leaves about 10 seconds of clock for the Pistons to win. But Harris’ shot from deep beyond the arc hit nothing.

Players admitted there was confusion on that play. But again, if they make the shot it’s a great play and a great call.

It didn’t work out. Just like it didn’t work out last game when Hayes missed a three that would have tied the Sixers in the closing seconds on a play Vandeweghe wished he had back.

The amazing thing is the Nets started this home stand with three wins and they had a chance to match that total or surpass it on this homestand, if only.

***

Despite his critical air ball, Harris played a great game in his return from a wrist sprain. He had 24 points and a season-high 14 assists coming back from a four-game absence.

***

The Nets lost assistant coach Del Harris, who left the team for personal reasons after the game. He’s returning home to Dallas.

Harris, 72, joined the Nets to help Vandeweghe after he replaced Lawrence Frank. Now assistant John Loyer will assume Harris’ role as lead assistant.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.).