According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, Nets GM Billy King was asked on Tuesday if he would consider blowing up Brooklyn’s expensive roster amidst the team’s struggles and Brook Lopez‘s season-ending injury: “Not at this point…We’re not there.”
Despite King’s comments, Bondy thinks the team could still reach that point by the February trade deadline, regardless of whether or not King and/or Jason Kidd will still be around by then. There’s also the matter of Mikhail Prokhorov having the final say, and it’s worth noting from the above piece that the Nets’ billionaire owner has remained silent since sending an e-mail to the New York Times earlier this month in which he advocated patience.
Brooklyn hasn’t kept out of the spotlight this season as far as trade rumors are concerned, especially with reports about being in the running for Kyle Lowry not too long ago. Although those talks with Toronto didn’t seem to include anything other than young players, draft rights, and draft picks, the recent Nets’ discussions with the Rockets about a potential (but now defunct) trade involving Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik for Deron Williams suggests that Brooklyn has already considered being a big time seller.
The combined contracts of Williams and Joe Johnson alone account for roughly 68% of the team’s salary cap for the 2013/14 season, and considering that both are under contract with the Nets simultaneously through 2016 (as well as progressive increases in their annual salaries respectively until then), it’d arguably be in the team’s best interests to see what the market can offer this year if things don’t turn around soon.