Billy King: We'll know championship window midway through season

In an interview with Ian O'Connor on ESPN Radio, Billy King said the Nets will know their championship window "midway trough the year." Refusing to say if the Nets can challenge the Heat for Eastern Conference supremacy, all King would say is "we've got a good teams ... we still have to play the games."

King also told O'Connor that the Nets have become a "destination" for NBA stars, much like Miami and Dallas have been.

The Nets GM explained how the Celtics trade and Andrei Kirilenko signing came together. On the Celtic trade, King admitted he was surprised everything got done, particularly that Danny Ainge was willing trade Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett inside the Atlantic Division.

As he's said before, the Nets and Celtics initially reached a deal for Pierce --Kris Humphries and the 2016 first rounder-- then moved on to Garnett. "Once both sides felt comfortable (with the Pierce talks), we started pushing to put Garnett in the deal." King told O'Connor there was some initial resistance on the Boston end of the phone calls, but "at the end of the day, Danny got what he wanted." King described he and Ainge as "two willing partners."

He told O'Connor that he believes Pierce and Garnett "have a lot left" and with the Nets depth, they "wont have to do as much as they had to do" in Boston.

On Kirilenko, King pointed out that Kirilenko was that the Nets third call at small forward, after Kyle Korver took a bigger offer than the mini-MLE and Bogan Bogdanovic "tried to get his buyout reduced, but couldn't." It was the first time King reported what had been rumored, that the problem was Fenerbahce's refusal to lower the Croatian's $2 million buyout.

King said he called a "couple" of other players --who he didn't identify-- before pursuing Kirilenko, who was willing to take less money because the Nets have "made Brooklyn a destination to play" like Miami and Dallas. "It starts with ownership and fan base," he added.

After the interview, O'Connor pointed out that Mikhail Prokhorov isn't just spending money on players, but on coaches, again stating that Lawrence Frank, with a salary of more than $1 million, maybe the highest paid assistant coach in NBA history.