With a new billionaire owner and the move to the swanky Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Nets wanted to make a big splash. General manager Billy King went out and spent a fortune (ordered by Mikhail Prokhorov) to put together a championship contending team. What resulted was the most expensive roster in NBA history and trading away the team’s future picks to get that squad of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett which only made it to the second round of the NBA playoffs. The team has since made moves to lower the payroll and the overall age of the team. As they rebuild, King admits that championship window they had has now closed.
via ProBasketballTalk:
King: “We knew all along when we traded for Joe, traded for Paul & KG that there was probably a 2 to 3 year window. And that window closed.”
Pierce left, Garnett was traded, and this summer the big move was Williams agreed to a buyout at a reduced rate (which when stretched out will hit the Nets for just $5.5 million against the cap, for the next five years). The Nets listened to trade offers for Johnson, but he’s still on the team and likely stays for a while. They re-signed Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young.
