Billy King, in meeting with a group of season ticket holders in Brooklyn Tuesday and a a sports symposium in Manhattan Wednesday emphasized that the Nets are "rescaling with youth," and that includes fielding a summer league team in both Orlando and Las Vegas this July. The Nets haven't participated in both since 2008 when they had Brook Lopez, Ryan Anderson, Chris Douglas-Roberts and JayCee Carroll, who's now the Kyle Korver of Europe.
King spoke about player development in general as well at the Sport Business Summit, where he participated on a panel entitled, "Striving For Excellence: Building an Elite Sports Franchise and Team."
"[San Antonio does] the best job in the NBA in developing young players who come out of nowhere," King said. "We’re going to spend much time and energy on how we analyze our players, and then work with them individually – in or out of the weight room, whether it’s nutrition, whatever it takes to get them better."
However, the Nets have yet to make a decision on rejoining the D-League. For three years, the Nets had a partnership with the Springfield Armor in which the Nets supplied the players, the coaching and training staff while the team's owner handled the business side. When the owner, Michael Savitt decided to sell, he offered the team to the Nets and at the same time, the NBA offered the Nets an expansion team, as they did the Knicks. The Nets declined but are now considering buying an expansion team, at a cost of $6 million.
As for the summer league, one would assume Cory Jefferson and Markel Brown will be on the roster as well as possibly Darius Morris and whoever the Nets draft this yeaf with their two picks. Xavier Thames, who the Nets took at No. 59, is expected to play as well. The 6'4" point guard is currently with for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the D-League. The Nets retain his rights. However, two of the team's young players are unlikely to be available. Bojan Bogdanovic and Sergey Karasev will start training for the FIBA Eurobasket in mid-July,
- Nets notes: Two summer leagues - Andy Vasquez - The Record