Nets Taking Control Of The Springfield Armor?
I might be a little late on this, but I still want to give my opinion on it. Al Iannazzone reported it at the tail end of is May 5th article:
When Prokhorov takes over, the Nets’ coaching search will heat up, Thorn is expected to get a new contract and there will be other appointments and announcements, including the purchase of an NBA D-League team to serve as a training ground for players and Russian management types.
When thinking about the benefits of having an owner willing to spend, taking full control of a NBA D-League team slipped my mind. Don’t let it fool you though, this is something that if the Nets’ do, can pay off big time for the team. I mean let’s look at the teams that have sole control of a D-League team; the Lakers, the Rockets, the Thunder, and the Spurs (the Mavs will have their own when the new Frisco team starts play). The Spurs, Rockets, and Thunder have been able to do great things with the D-League, and a lot of it is because they are able to not only stock the team with their own players, but they are able to put their people in charge of the team.
Hearing that is what Prokhorov plans to do (bring his own front office/coaching) people couldn’t excite me more. Here is what Ridiculous Upside has to say on the subject:
What about executives? As with pretty much everything in this post, this is pretty speculative, but it’s possible that Prokhorov and the Nets could use the Springfield Armor as a training ground for Russian basketball executives. And you know what? That’s fine. In fact, D-League affiliates ideally shouldn’t be just about the players, but about every level of basketball operations. If a team wants someone to get more scouting experience by having him or her spend time scouting D-League players, so much the better. The same goes for those on a general manager-track. Gersson Rosas in Rio Grande Valley, Brandon Barnett in Tulsa and Dell Demps in Austin all seem to be benefiting from their teams’ NBA affiliation.
What I really want to see though is the Nets bring this team closer to New Jersey. For one, it could be fun to be able to watch some D-League games, but if you can get a D-League team close to you, it is easier to call-up/send-down players without worrying about the logistics. Maybe when the team gets into Brooklyn have the D-League team set up shop in Newark at the Prudential Center?
Either way, this is exciting news and another benefit of having an owner who is concerned about winning rather than making money.
[...] for Nets’ fans and he hasn’t even taken over yet. There is talk of taking over a D-League team in a hybrid deal (something that some of the best run teams do), talk of throwing money at a big name coach, and [...]