The Nets won’t be able to move forward as a franchise and avoid making similar roster errors until the front office and ownership admit to the mistakes they have made in the past, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report writes. Much of the blame for the state of the team should fall on the shoulders of owner Mikhail Prokhorov, whose bold prediction of winning a championship within five years of purchasing the team influenced a number of unsuccessful personnel moves, Beck notes. For his part, Prokhorov declines to acknowledge the flaw with mortgaging the team’s future for an opportunity to make a quick turnaround. “Frankly speaking, I deserve championship now much more than six years ago,” Prokhorov said, according to NetsDaily. “I think we have been really bold and did our best in order to reach championship. And I still believe with some luck, our results might have been more promising.”
Here’s more from Brooklyn:
- No franchise in the NBA has a worse long-term outlook than the Nets, whose lack of talent and future draft picks could prevent anyone the team hires to replace GM Billy King from making an impact, Tom Ziller and Paul Flannery of SB Nation opine. The two scribes note that Prokhorov is responsible for much of the mess Brooklyn finds itself in, but King does not escape the blame, and the duo point to the lack of protections placed on the franchise’s traded first round picks as examples of how the former GM failed in his duties.
- The Nets sorely need for Prokhorov to maintain a more prominent presence around the team physically, and the owner’s absentee style has created a disjointed and dysfunctional organization, Ben Golliver of SI.com writes.
- One strategy that the Nets would be wise to emulate going forward is that of the Sixers, who have acted as a clearinghouse for numerous player-friendly contracts over the years, and have acquired a number of future draft picks by doing so, Danny Leroux of The Sporting News posits. This strategy would be practical if the team were to strike out in free agency this summer and find itself left with a plethora of leftover cap space as a result, Leroux adds.