Mikhail Prokhorov
Former World Wrestling Entertainment superstar “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase lived and died by his famous catchphrase that “everyone has a price” as he felt that he could buy whatever he wanted including the WWE Championship. For Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhrov the same can be said for him. Prokhrov purchased the Nets in 2010 and he immediately vowed to build a winner. At the time of Prokhrov’s purchase of the Nets, the team still called the State of New Jersey home with an eye on relocating to Brooklyn in 2012. Prokhrov immediately began a turf war with the New York Knicks as far as who would be the Big Apple’s basketball team. Prokhrov put up a billboard near Madison Square Garden in Manhattan while Knicks owner James Dolan would counter with one near the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn. Prokhrov was showing that he wasn’t going to stay away from controversy and that he was also eager to spend money.
After missing out on the floor LeBron James sweepstakes in 2010, the Nets sought to acquire small forward Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets in 2011. But Anthony chose the Knicks over the Nets. Undaunted by this, the Nets were determined to put the name of an All-Star caliber player on the marquee and they would acquire point guard Deron Williams from the Utah Jazz. The Nets wanted to build their team around Williams and in the summer of 2012 they re-signed him to a five-year, $98 million deal. The Nets were not done wheeling and dealing as they would acquire shooting guard Joe Johnson from the Atlanta Hawks. Johnson would join Williams and center Brook Lopez to give Prokhrov what he believed would be his championship core with the Nets.
Deron Williams
But in the Nets first season in Brooklyn, Williams began to show his true colors. After the Nets paid Williams, all of a sudden he wasn’t a fan of the system the head coach Avery Johnson was running in spite of the fact that this style of play had been in place ever since he joined the team. And after a 14-14 start to the season, Johnson was fired. The Nets would win 49 games that season but they would be eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
Billy King
In the summer of 2013, Nets general manager Billy King would be “Trader Joe” once more as he acquired power forward Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and shooting guard Jason Terry from the Boston Celtics. The Nets were also in search of a new head coach and they turned to former NBA point guard Jason Kidd who as a player led the team to their only two appearances in the NBA Finals. The Nets would advance to the second round of the playoffs last season, but they did it with an aging team.
The Nets would lose Pierce to free agency as he signed with the Washington Wizards while Kidd surprised many people when he left Brooklyn to become the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Kidd was replaced by former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins and the Nets have stumbled out of the gate this season with a record of 8-12. Now reports are surfacing that the Nets are shopping Williams, Lopez, and Johnson.
Since the Nets came to Brooklyn they have become one of the biggest spenders in the NBA. Last season the Nets payroll of $102 million meant that Prokhrov had to fork over nearly $80 in luxury tax to the league. That is an enormous number for a team that didn’t win a championship. This season the Nets have a payroll of $93 million and once again Prokhrov will be forking over luxury tax money to the NBA.
You must give credit where it is due as Prokhrov is willing to spend money as he gave maximum deals to Lopez and Williams while taking on the large contracts of players such as Johnson, Pierce, and Garnett. But when teams sign players to maxiumum deals regardless if they are big market teams or not, they must first determine whether or not the player is truly worth the deal as contracts such as these can put a bind on a team in the future. Lopez, and Williams were paid like superstars, but neither player is that. Since joining the Nets, Williams’ points per game have increased, but his assists totals have decreased along with his ability to remain healthy. The Nets selected Lopez tenth overall in the first round of the NBA Draft in 2008 and like Williams, he has been unable to stay healthy.
What the Nets must do now is what they should have done in the first place which is to show patience and attempt to build a team through the NBA Draft instead of opting for the quick fix. After selecting Lopez in 2008, former Nets general manager Rod Thorn missed an opportunity to select any one of a quartet of point guards that were available during the 2009 NBA Draft in Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, or Darren Collison. Instead Thorn and the Nets opted for swingman Terrence Williams who is no longer in the NBA while Holiday, Lawson, Teague, and Collison are all currently on NBA rosters. In 2010, the Nets had the third overall pick of the NBA Draft which they used on power forward Derrick Favors while passing on power forward DeMarcus Cousins along with small forward Gordon Hayward and Paul George. Favors would go on to be part of the trade that brought Williams to the Nets. In 2012, the Nets would acquire small forward Gerald Wallace from the Portland Trailblazers in exchange for their first-round pick that year. The pick would be the sixth overall pick of that draft which the Blazers would use on point guard Damian Lillard who would be the NBA’s Rookie of the Year the following season. Sandwiched in between these misses at the NBA Draft by the Nets, there was also the signing of swing man Anthony Morrow in 2010 by the team to a five-year, $35 million deal. And in his two seasons with the Nets, Morrow only averaged 12.6 points per game.
The Nets wanted to be a breath of fresh air to basketball fans in New York City that had grown tired of the Knicks act. But instead the Nets have fallen into the same “get rich quick scheme” that has befelled the Knicks for many seasons. Prokhrov has stayed out of King’s way and just let him spend his money. Prokhrov felt that spending money alone would lead to a championship, but what he failed to realize is that team chemistry is tough to build and once you spend the almighty dollar, the expecatation level for your team increases and unless you’re making a move to acquire a player the caliber of James (ala the Miami Heat in 2010), it doesn’t work. It won’t be easy for King, but the if the Nets are able to trade at least one of the bad contracts belonging to Williams, Lopez, and Johnson it would be a shot in the arm for them. It is always better to pay peanuts for a losing team as opposed to breaking the bank for a team that is nowhere near ready to claim a championship.
Sources: Basketball-reference.com. Sportrac.com
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