Brooklyn Nets’ Dim Future
If Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov had a magic 8-ball, what would it say? If his question was something like, “How does the Nets’ future look?” the 8-ball might reply, ‘Better not tell you now,’ or more definitively, ‘Outlook not so good,’ or more to the point, ‘You’re screwed.’ And the 8-ball would be right; the Nets are rather screwed.
Back in 2013, striving to contend immediately, the Nets bet their future on Celtics’ Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry. In case you didn’t know, none of them are on the roster anymore and the Nets are by far the worst team in the NBA at 11-52. Now, they face the most difficult situation in the league. Because of their gamble (which obviously failed) the Nets find themselves without their much-needed first overall pick in the coming draft. That pick now belongs to the Boston Celtics. (As if the Celtics need any more help; mock drafts have Boston taking KU freshman Josh Jackson first overall). And as if that’s not enough to sink the Nets into a hopeless pit of existential despair, the Celtics also own the rights to their first overall pick in 2018–which, at this rate, will probably be a top five pick.
So what’s next for the Brooklyn Nets? We’ve seen other teams use losing to their advantage. The Philadelphia 76ers have capitalized on a multi-year process of losing and drafting. The Lakers, too, find themselves drafting high and landing somewhere near the bottom middle of the league. But the Nets do not have that… um… safety net to fall back on. As Miami Heat President Pat Riley said years ago, Brooklyn Owner Prokhorov “jumped in and went right to the roulette wheel and put it all on 00.”
It was an audacious move by an audacious man. But the long shot failed and now the Nets are paying the price. In an open letter published February 2016, Prokhorov said, “we went with the idea that no money was to be spared. Get high-value star players, whatever it takes. Bet on the quick win and throw everything we’ve got at it. This got us to the playoffs three years consecutively, but not far enough,” he continued. “And, as the person who signed the checks, lemme tell you, it cost a boatload. We had been told that you can’t buy a championship. Truer words were never spoken.”
Because of their big moves, the Nets set unfortunate records for team salaries and costly luxury-tax payments. In 2013-14, Pierce and Garnett helped the Nets to 44 wins and a playoff berth, but nothing came of it. Now they’re busy trying to figure out how to build a winning culture amidst non-stop losses. And the keyword here is trying. Later in the same open letter Prokhorov said, “Getting everyone pulling in the same direction, working toward a single goal is not easy.”
That task now falls on the shoulders of Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson. “I’ll be quite honest with you,” Atkinson said in a recent interview. “There are people I really respect who told me, ‘You’re insane if you take this job.'”
But since joining the team, Atkinson has been fairly surprised (not by the team’s results but by the front office’s willingness to humble themselves). “There was a humility to the ownership group when I met them,” Atkinson says. “They put up their hands and said, ‘We did it this way, and it didn’t work. We’re going to do it another way.’ That’s got to be hard, especially for a billionaire who has been extremely successful.”
Yes, and while Prokhorov’s business formula has worked in other ventures, the NBA is a different monster. It takes time, vision, strong management, and commitment across the board to win in this league. You can’t just throw money at a problem and expect it to go away in professional sports. Nor can you reasonably expect a band of aging vets to bring home a title in a league dominated by young players in their prime.
At this point, with no winning traction in sight, the keyword in Brooklyn is ‘patience.’ It’s hard for a team (especially in New York City) to admit that winning is a distant goal. For now, it’s about being in the moment, tending to the team’s current players, while keeping an eye on future talent. Without top picks in the coming drafts, it may be a few years before anyone cares to speak of the Nets as a championship contender. Sure, they’ve showed flashes this year. But flashes won’t cut it. They need consistency. They need players to buy into something they can’t readily observe.
Author Tom Robbins once wrote, “Keep your eye on the ball, even if you can’t see the ball.” Wise words from a wise man. And everyone in Brooklyn could stand to heed his wisdom, otherwise instead of cheers we might hear nothing but sad grumbles coming from Brooklyn for years.
