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Billy King gives medical update on Brook Lopez and Deron Williams, answers questions from Nets fans

Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

Brooklyn Nets General Manager Billy King took some time on Wednesday to answer questions from Nets fans about the team, their new head coach and give injury updates on Deron Williams who had multiple ankle surgeries in May.

The questions were submitted by fans and then picked by the team for King to answer.

Here are a few of the highlights from the conversation, which were relayed to fans who were not able to attend the conference call via the Brooklyn Nets Twitter account.

Specifically, King said both are on target, "Brook is doing great, has good balance, his pictures look good."  D-Will, he said, should be able to resume basketball-related activities in early September which was the original plan.

Hollins, he said, "Lionel is gonna push them probably like they've never been pushed since they've been in the league."

King added that even though Pierce is gone, "the intangibles he left behind, the instensity and toughness" remain with the team.

"We will be good," said King, adding that a number of Eastern Conference teams will need time to adjust to off-season player movements both in terms of subtractions and additions.

Miami, Chicago, Charlotte and Indiana all have to adapt, singling out Lance Stephenson's departure from Indiana as a particularly big loss. New York, he said, has to adapt to a new coach and the triangle and that "will take some time." Toronto, on the other hand, is likely to be better because "everyone is back."

Plumlee, he added, needs to develop and offense and "rebound the basketball." If he can rebound consistently, he will have a "great great future" said King.

On another young player, Sergey Karasev, King said the Nets interest goes back before last year's draft, saying the young Russian is "excited" about playing in Brooklyn and has "great upside."  The Nets know that, he added, because "we did a lot of homework on him."

So, the good news is that Lopez and Williams are on track and that the Nets feel as if they're being overlooked this season, which is a much different place from where they were this time last year. No longer are people predicting 60 wins for the Nets, which is probably for the best, especially if it can take the pressure off the team in the early months of the season.