Adrian Wojnarowski, in his weekly chat Thursday with WFAN's Joe and Evan, defended the job Billy King has done with the Nets by suggesting that the main culprit in the team's demise is its ownership.
After Evan Roberts noted that the Nets could give up four straight lottery picks (a cheery thought), asked "when is Billy King getting fired," Woj offered up a defense of the Nets GM...
In defense of billy King, he did what ownership wanted, which was 'we dont want to build around Derrick Favors and bring in a young nucleus of guys. We want star players, we want veteran guys and we want them now. That's a hard way to win in the NBA. to say we're just going to bring in stars because that's why your cap number is so big, your payroll is so enormous. That's a hard way to do it. They wanted a winner instantly.
If it was up to him, would he have done it that way? I dont know, but there's got to be a share responsibility here in that 'we want to put Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce up on the marquee and sell tickets and sell luxury suites here in Brooklyn. Fine, give away our picks.' It was as much an ownership mandate and to say, 'let's just fire the GM now,' because it didn't work?
Now you can say, can Billy reboot this thing, do it now in a different way going forward? Alright, that's a question you got to look at in management and decide, BUT to say that thing didn't work, you've got to fire him? I think there's a lot of responsibility going around.
Indeed, Dmitry Razumov, Mikhail Prokhorov's No. 2 and chairman of the Nets board, and King have both spoken about shared responsibility and it was ownership who pushed for the Boston trade, which remains at the core of the team's current and future issues. Woj also suggested that Prokhorov is likely to be waiting for the best offer rather than not selling. Meanwhile, Tim Bontemps looks at the Nets most pressing issue, its five-game losing streak and who's responsible for that. He quotes Lionel Hollins as saying the team isn't giving up, hasn't lost its fight.
- Adrian Wojnarowski Interview (Audio) - Joe Benigno & Evan Roberts - WFAN
- Trying to assign blame to Nets’ swift collapse - Tim Bontemps - New York Post
- When will Prokhorov say 'Hello, Brooklyn' again? - Stefan Bondy - New York Daily News
-
Woj defends Billy King’s failed rebuild of the Nets - Brian Erni - SNY Nets