East Rutherford, N.J. -- Walking in to the Nets practice court this morning before shoot around, there was a new Net player on the near court working on plays with Assistant Coaches Brian Hill and Bill Cartwright.

The player was wearing the number 6 on a blue Nets practice jersey. He was a very early lottery pick in the 2000 NBA Draft who plays with sweeping athleticism – on defense and offense - and can knock down a jump shot out to 17 feet.

Sounds like someone very familiar to Nets fans.

No, it was not Kenyon Martin but the newest addition to the team, Stromile Swift, a 6’10” forward who was officially traded for Jason Collins on Monday.

Swift got to New Jersey yesterday, met with the coaching staff, and then began a crash-course in the Nets playbook beginning last night.

“Went over some of the plays, got a CD of some of the playbook, just stuff like that. Hopefully with a lot of repetition I’ll catch on pretty quickly.”

The 28 year-old is certainly not new to the Nets. Back before the NBA Draft in 2000, he worked out for the team, who had the Number 1 pick which eventually was used on Martin. Swift went Number 2 to the then Vancouver Grizzlies and played all but one season – he signed as a free agent with Houston in 2005-06 before being traded back to Memphis a year later – with the Grizzlies’ franchise. It was that one summer as a free-agent where Swift talked with the Nets again. They were interested in the free-agent.

“I did a lot of talking with them,” said Swift.

“I went and met with them in Vegas. We talked for a while and my agent was mostly in contact with them and I think they really wanted Shareef (Abdur-Rahim) too. After he signed, I felt that I would go the other way. He ended up not passing the physical and at that point it didn’t work out. But I’m here now.”

“It always feels good to know that somebody wants you and they’ve given me that feeling before and I feel that now. I’m happy to be here.”

He will need to get used to new coaches, new scenery, and new teammates pretty quickly.

“It’s difficult, moving around and coming into a new situation. I’m trying to adjust but that’s a part of the business so I have to do the best I can to adjust as fast as I can. And when I’m out there, just go out there and work hard until I get things down pat and learn how everything works around here.”

Swift said he will miss some of his friends back in Memphis but looks forward to playing with his new squad.

“It’s a great opportunity to play with guys of that caliber and I’m looking forward to it, getting back in the swing of playing basketball. I’ve been out for about a week now with the trade and everything. I’m just looking forward to getting back into the swing of things and I think it’ll be fun playing with them.”

Asked when Swift could see his first game action, Coach Lawrence Frank said the acclimation process may take some time.

“We’ll start him inactive until we can get his feet wet a little bit,” said the Coach.

“We’ll go from there and I think it’s going to be good healthy competition but I think he has a very good opportunity to play here. I think Josh (Boone) has been the one guy who has been fairly consistent and then I think we’ve had really good moments from the other guys when things are going well for us. So I think it’s open forum.”

And, for Swift, hopefully a lot of open court; he can really play in transition.

“I think his ability to run the floor (is a major skill),” said Frank. “He’s a better shooter than people probably know. He can shoot it around 16-17 feet. But he’s a big energy guy that has to bring energy on a nightly basis. He probably shares some traits of Sean (Williams). His skill level may be a little bit better but only opportunity and time will tell.”

The Nets say they will give the athlete a “clean slate.” Swift gets a new change of scenery and a new chance to impress.

“I think I have to be more consistent with what I’m doing,” he offered.

“I think once I get that everything else will fall in place and it’ll be good to go.”

Notes

- Nets fans will see Swift making a sign with his arms after big dunks or a big energy-raising play. He told the media today the genesis of the sign.

“It kind of started in High School. We started playing on TV and some of the guys back home just wanted a signal. When I got to LSU, then they started calling me the “stro show” so it just kind of stuck from there.”

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