If there was ever a time to have a big season and take over New York, with the Knicks on their way to maybe the worst sports season this city has ever seen, it’s been right there for the Brooklyn Nets in this NBA season.
But here are the Nets, losers of seven straight games and barely hanging on for the final playoff spot in the East at 16-23, with just about everyone underachieving and team owner Mikhail Prokhorov starting to think it’s time to sell and get out of the NBA while the getting is good.
The Nets aren’t as bad as the Knicks. They actually might be in worse shape. Yes, you read that right.
That’s why the Nets are actively trying to move Brook Lopez, with a deal to Oklahoma City or Charlotte in the works and perhaps happening in the next day or so. League sources also tell NBC 4 New York that Brooklyn’s Lance Stephenson, a bad fit with his new Charlotte team, could be heading to the Nets as part of a deal.
The Nets will be reminded of just how bad things are tonight when they meet up with Paul Pierce in Washington in the first time The Truth has faced his old teammates this season. When the Nets made their bold move to bring in Pierce and Kevin Garnett two summers ago, they told everyone they were all-in in trying to go for their first NBA title. In the deal they sent Boston a boatload of future first-round draft picks for the two championship veterans, and so the game-plan was to win now.
Fine. But they didn’t win last season and as it turned out, the grand plan to compete for the title was for only one season. It’s crazy, because they gave up so many assets. But Prokhorov decided that Pierce was too expensive to retain as a free agent last summer. And so now the Nets are stuck with a bad team filled with veterans making huge salaries, giving them the NBA’s No. 1 payroll for a second straight season... and they don’t own their own first-round draft pick until 2019.
No wonder Garnett used his head as a battering ram when he went up against Houston’s Dwight Howard the other night when the Nets were quickly heading for another defeat in the Barclays Center.
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“It might have been the heat of battle, but there might be some frustration going on for Kevin now, too,’’ the Rockets’ Jason Terry, who is very close to Garnett from their playing days in Boston and Brooklyn, told NBC 4 New York afterward. “You have to remember, Kevin takes these losses very personally. He takes this stuff home with him every night. When his team is losing and not having success, he gets very upset by that.’’
For his actions, Garnett was suspended for one game, another loss, to Memphis, and he’ll be back tonight when he goes up against his old buddy, Pierce, who has found a new home with the playoff-bound Wizards. Meanwhile, all Garnett can hope for is a trade to a contender, or perhaps a buyout to get his release, so that he can latch on to another team and get perhaps his final shot at a title. Because it’s become obvious that he won’t be getting that shot in Brooklyn. The Nets’ lack of athleticism on the perimeter is exposed on an almost nightly basis, along with the fact that they always struggle to score.
“We have an identity,’’ coach Lionel Hollins said the other night during his press conference. “We can’t make shots. That’s our identity.’’
In his first season in Brooklyn, Hollins has lived up to his reputation. As his aforementioned comment indicates, he is unsparing in his criticism of his team. We have no trouble with his direct approach, which is similar to how other veteran coaches, including the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich and the Pistons’ Stan Van Gundy, handle their teams.
As one other NBA head coach told NBC 4 New York, “You ask Lionel a direct question, you get a direct answer.’’
But Hollins’ tough-love approach has clearly not worked with Lopez, the team’s struggling center. League sources said the Nets are actively trying to trade him, with Oklahoma City the top potential landing spot. In a Thunder trade, the Nets could wind up with a package of center Kendrick Perkins and perhaps guard Reggie Jackson. They could then deal off Perkins for an established player.
The Nets, who were 16-16 at one point, are also considering a deal involving Charlotte in which Stephenson would come back home. But the Nets are leery of the former Pacer’s on-court antics and have reservations about acquiring him. In any event, the Nets want to shed Lopez’s contract ($15.7 million this season and $16.7 mil next season) and start getting cap relief.
The Nets are just as interested in moving point guard Deron Williams, who has been sidelined recently with a rib injury. Sacramento and Houston are considered the most logical places for Williams to land, if the Nets are lucky enough to get out from under the remaining $43 million on his contract.
The Nets hope to make those moves, if not others, to get start getting cap relief for the future. They won’t be able to match the Knicks when it comes to potentially reversing their fortunes because the Knicks could have $30 million under the salary cap this summer to make runs at the premier free agents available, starting with Memphis center Marc Gasol and Portland power forward LeMarcus Aldridge. But the Nets have to start somewhere, since this team might not even make the playoffs in a weak Eastern Conference.
When they lost to the tanking Philadelphia 76ers at home recently, that was the season’s low point. But it also signaled to New York basketball fans that, like the Knicks, the Nets are capable of losing to any team.
When that happens, it’s time to make major changes. Starting with Prokhorov and the potential sale of the team, as first reported this week by Bloomberg, those changes could soon be coming.
Longtime New York columnist Mitch Lawrence continues to write about pro basketball, as he’s done for the last 22 years. His columns for NBCNewYork.com on the Knicks, Brooklyn Nets and the NBA, along with other major sports, will appear twice weekly. Follow him on Twitter @Mitch _ Lawrence.
