Nets Are Scorching

The main reason why the Nets hired King was the way he handled Brown and I think they see Avery being the same way.

It is actually Billy Kings team. He will listen to Avery but King will make the final decision. King knows how to build a champion Avery knows how to coach one.

@Big Daddy;
Speaking of movies, I think I've seen this one before. But I admire and respect your insights and enthusiasm for the Nets. It will be quite interesting to see how Billy King and AJ handle Proky and his cohorts. For obvious reasons, King and AJ will want to see results a bit quicker then the Russians. I believe this team is not a playoff team yet and any injuries to certain key players can set us back even further. I still don't understand why Proky let Thorn make so many crucial decisions knowing that Thorn was going bye-bye. Unless of course Thorn was just a go between when hiring the coach and G.M., draft, and acquiring our free agents. I feel we were in a crucial battle the last few months, and came up short. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.

I think a movie and a sports team are completely different. A movie is a done and finished commodity. A sports team is in constant flux. I'm not a cheerleader at all, I am not the type and don't believe the hype. But I feel that I know a bit about life and sports and I feel the Nets have done very well under the circumstances. Right now the Nets are still the joke of the league even though we went to 2 finals. It could be because the seats were empty. If things went right we would have LeBron and Bosh on the roster, they did not want to come here. No matter what Proky and Avery did and all the money in the world including a huge brand new arena in Brooklyn did not attract them. That might change once the mentality of the Nets changes as well as the move to Brooklyn. And that's what I want to see a mentality change first and foremost. That means competitive games to the last whistle, something we haven't seen in some time. That's all I ask, play from the first second to the last second like every game is game 7 of the finals. That's what a young team must do, having a good solid bench will make that happen a lot easier. So that's what we did, we built a deep solid young athletic team. So in my mind there is nothing to be negative about. If in fact the braintrust did screw up or do screw up I will be the first one who points it out and lays it on them like a hammer.

Being a cheerleader has it's merits I suppose. I love going to the movies but if the movie is bad or disappointing I will let my opinion be known. You call it negativity, I call it the way I see it. What I have seen in the last couple of years confuses me. We play it slow and safe and still manage to hire second or third tier talents. I try to be positive, I have been a Nets fan for more years then I would like it to be known. I was a Nets fan long before Dr.J. played for us. I keep hearing that these are the new Nets, but only for a few briefs years have we had any real success. This team makes all the wrong moves, for the "right" reasons. Now I keep hearing the same song and dance from Proky, AJ and King. "It's going to take time". That is why I'm down. But don't worry. The first win in pre-season and I will be proclaiming "playoffs here we come". Once a Nets fan always a Nets fan.

Why the negativity Mike? I too was in the service, US Army. You have to have a passion for good basketball and believe that's what Prokhorov, Johnson and now King have. I believe they do and I have hope that we will see at least a competitive hardworking team that plays the right way, that's all I ask for now and a good start. The reality is with all the rules of player acquisition it's very difficult to put together a team in the NBA. One misstep and it screws you for years because of guaranteed contracts and difficulty trading players. So it takes years to build a team and years to tear it apart and start over. So far the Nets have done it the right way, Trades, good drafts(not everyone was) and good free agent signings. We have kept cap space yet added some good players with youth and upside. What more could you ask for? Yeah, LeBron and Bosh but that didn't happen. I'm OK with that and looking forward to watching this team shock the NBA world and make the playoffs. No more easy wins in New Jersey!!!! When you come to Newark you'll be in a battle. GO NETS!!!

I thought we have been rebuilding the last two years. Nobody seems to be in a rush. Add 5 more years and that will be seven years of rebuilding. Sounds like the WTC rebuilding plan. "Hurry up and wait". I feel I'm back in the service.

@Big Daddy - mostly agreed. The "empty suit" idea is being perpetuated to spread drama. Thorn is revered by the press and by the league so the whole situation with his leaving and King's hiring is going to look off regardless if there's sound logic behind it. As a Mets fan who read a lot of crap about that team last winter, let me just say, *they're* not right and *you're* not right until the season gets started and we see results. So expect to see a lot of this back and forth until then.

I think this is a man who is still young for this position. He obviously knows he made mistakes and he knows why. As far as being an empty suit, no way, he will have a lot of things to do with the every day operations. As far as this team being his vision, no way, it's Prokhorov's vision. It seems people keep underestimating this man, he did not become a billionaire because he's some clueless egotist. He's not Jerry Jones of the Cowboys nor little jimmy Dolan of the Knicks. He's more like the Bill Parcells of the international trade world. Avery Johnson is an extension of Prokhorov, Avery put in the missing pieces for Proky because of his NBA experience as a player and coach. They saw the same vision. The same one I see also and that's why I'm a Net fan. The vision is of a team patterned after the Boston Celtics, go back to them in the 1960's, maybe add some of that era's Knicks too. The Nets vision is of a team of athletic skilled players who play as a team without relying on any one player at any time to win for them, although that might happen. It's a true team effort, play defense, help defend, pass the ball(No ball hogs) and pass it efficiently not when you're up in the air and in trouble out of control. That's the right way to play as Larry Brown always says and Pop with the Spurs teaches, same for Sloan with the Jazz. Phil Jackson is a great coach with the Triangle offense but Avery is old school and I expect to see a throw back to the old championship teams, with a traditional point guard as a facilitator. Team play, unselfishness and defense. Billy King will be the facilitator not the creator. That's plenty of work finding players who fit this mold, they don't grow on trees and are very hard to find these days. So no, this team is not built from King's vision but he will be an integral part of the process and maybe it's better that way. Look at what so many GMs have done to teams in the NBA. So many mismatched players that never mesh well, firing good coaches left and right, over the salaty cap and in the luxury tax yet an under .500 team. The vision was Prokhorov's, Johnson painted the picture and Thorn got the paint. It will be King's job to continue to get the paint for Avery. The idea that he's an empty suit is ridiculous and shows a bit of ignorance about the complete process in the making of a championship caliber team. GMs that can build a team and win a championship can be counted on one hand. It's usually the coach who is the chef and the GM who buys the groceries. When the GM just buys some stuff and says to a cook make a meal you have the bottom feeders of the NBA.

Hard to know how much control King actually had as a young GM and then President in a dysfunctional situation that seemed to be all about keeping AI happy and building around him. Not forgiving all of the over the top contracts, but clearly that was a different situation and presumably the guy is smart enough to have learned from the experience.

It'll be interesting to see how his relationship develops with Avery. Presumably, the 76er experience taught him not to place his manhood and his future entirely in the hands of someone who is supposed to be working for him. We shall see.