The Nets don’t have enough dissenters within the organization to offset the prevailing opinion, leading the team to make too many ill-advised decisions, as NetsDaily argues. The team hired few people in recent years without some sort of connection to former GM Billy King, and the recent consolidation of ownership that gave Mikhail Prokhorov 100% of the team doesn’t help, NetsDaily adds. Those at the top of the chain of command for the Nets were generally the ones most convinced within the organization that the team would be competitive this season, NetsDaily tweets. Brooklyn is 11-31, which is the league’s third-worst record. See more from the Atlantic Division:
- Jared Sullinger triggered the starter criteria on Monday to increase the value of his qualifying offer from $3,270,004 to $4,433,683, as Bobby Marks of “The Vertical” on Yahoo Sports points out (Twitter link). Monday’s start for Sullinger was his 82nd over the past two seasons, meaning he’ll average at least 41 over that span, enough to bring the starter criteria into play. The Celtics now have to tender that higher qualifying offer to retain the right to match competing bids for him in free agency this summer.
- DeMar DeRozan is a fan of former Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo, to whom the Nets are apparently giving strong consideration as they search for their next GM, notes Brian Lewis of the New York Post. DeRozan has made it clear he prefers to stay with the Raptors, though the Nets had reportedly been expected to make him one of their primary offseason targets, at least before they removed King from the GM role. “[Colangelo] gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, you know? And I credit a lot of my success to him,” DeRozan said Monday, as Lewis relays. “[He’s] one of those stand-up honest guys. [He’ll] work extremely hard, and wants the best for whatever organization and players that he’s working for.’’
- Kristaps Porzingis has the potential to become the sort of player whom marquee free agents want to play with, and that changes the timeline for the Knicks to return to contention, argues Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders. Instead of going for broke this summer to find someone to pair with an aging Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks can afford to wait until 2017, when a much better free agent crop of point guards will be on the market, as Beer details.
Billy King is such an easy target. The truth is that he makes money for his owners. He signs marquee names past their primes so that the marketing department can eat off the casual fan. He’ll get another job, quickly.
In Philly, he had Iverson, and did everything possible to make sure the fans thought the Sixers were a real contender, even though the serious fan knew adding Chris Webber, Jamal Mashburn, etc., was purely for ticket sales.
At least in Brooklyn, the diehard Nets fan knows King was under orders to make a splash when they moved into the Barclay Center. The Nets felt they had to seize New York from the Knicks, and they did just that with the short sighted acquisitions of Garnett, Pierce, Wallace and Williams.
They are paying the price now. But since when have the Nets gone to the playoffs three years in a row?
Moreover, Joe Johnson still has a (very) little something left, and Deron Williams’ demise and apparent resurrection apparently have little to do with King’s talent evaluation skills, and more to do with Deron being a headcase.
The Nets’d actually be half-decent right now with a healthy and willing Deron Williams.
Billy King also drafts well when given mid-first round picks. King drafted Kyle Kover, Lou Williams and Willie Green in the second round.
He’s struck oil again with Rondae Hollis Jefferson. And Chris McCollough might even be somebody. McCollough is basically their first round pick for next year.
They will also have the cap space to sign a point guard this summer, when the cap goes up to $95M. And the cap goes up again in 2017, giving the Nets another opportunity to improve.
All this is to say, the Nets are really not that worse off than before he arrived. And during his tenure, Prokhorov made a bunch of dough!
I know I sound like his agent. If he wants to hire me, I’d take the job! Lol.