In an interview with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN Radio, Billy King talked about patience and its value ("not just rush things"), how there's no need to emulate the Knicks (who he admitted are "ahead of us in their acquisitions"), the prospects of keeping Deron Williams ("I'm just going by what he said") and Brooklyn ("It's very attractive").
His major message was patience as the team heads for Brooklyn. "I wanted to be patient and not just rush into things", he said, echoing comments he made earlier in the week about overpaying while 76ers GM. With $26 million in projected cap space (NOT including Deron Williams' contract or Jordan Farmar's player option) next summer, King said the Nets should be in a very competitive situation.
"The way I look at it, we're going into a major market, going into a billion dollar building, and we've got cap space and the best point guard in the NBA so I think it's very attractive," King argued. He declined to talk about Dwight Howard, but in talking about stars in general, he noted, "If they want to leave, they're going to leave."
- Billy King Interview (Audio) - Stephen A. Smith - ESPN Radio
On Patience in Free Agency:
"I wanted to be patient and not just rush into things. We're trying to build a championship team."
On Competing with the Knicks:
"I don't worry about the Knicks. They've done a good job in adding some pieces. Go back and look at what my mentor Donnie Walsh said when he got there, 'Gotta clear cap space and build it'. And they built it by adding Amare and next, then they added Carmelo and then they added Chandler. So they didn't do it overnight and just because they're ahead of us in their acquisitions doesn't mean I've got to compete with them. As Mikhail Prokhorov said, we're trying to compete with the Lakers and their championships and no knock against the Knicks, we want to be the championship team."
On Deron Williams:
"We've get a great relationship. We spend a lot of time together, have lunch and he has input on how we bring people in. I look at it like having a great quarterback who wants great receivers.
So as we go along this process, looking towards next year, we'll max out at $26 million so he knows that we're gonna keep building, that we're not locked into the roster we'll finish the season with.
On Brooklyn:
"We want to be headed in the right direction going into Brooklyn, not going sideways ... the way I look at it, we're going into a major market, going into a billion dollar building, and we've got cap space and the best point guard in the NBA so I think it's very attractive.