It's All on Avery Now

The man of the Nets hour from this point forward is not Billy King, Mikhail Prokhorov or Jay-Z. It's the coach, Avery Johnson. The GM has made the deals, the principal owner has paid for them, the minority owner (and "cultural icon") has marketed them. Now it's up to the coach to make sense of them, mold players into a winner, a contender.

Johnson is popular with his players. Deron Williams has said that his relationship with the coach was crucial to his decision to stay with the team. Friday, Marshon Brooks praised him. But as Gregory Hrinya writes, Johnson has put the onus squarely on himself, noting what he said in July. "It's kind of like when I told you guys early on," Johnson said. "I thought it was going to take us about two years just to become relevant, and that's where we are."

• Avery Johnson now accountable for Nets - Gregory Hrinya - Examiner