See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
The Brooklyn Nets’ “blueprint for greatness” is looking more like a diagram for disaster.
Team owner Mikhail Prokhorov put that slogan on billboards back in 2010, and said he expected to win an NBA championship within five years.
Instead developing a team, the Nets tried to buy one.
I warned in this space back in July when the mega trade with the Boston Celtics was made official that the Nets were taking a huge risk with the deal. Credit Prokhorov and general manager Billy King for having the finances and guts to give it a try, but so far, everything that could have gone wrong has.
The Nets stood at 6–14 as of last week, including an embarrassing 113–83 loss to the crosstown rival New York Knicks on Dec. 5. The ancient ones Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry have all missed time because of injury. Star point guard Deron Williams has played just nine games because of an ankle injury.
It has exposed the Nets’ lack of depth outside of its stars. You can say let’s see what happens when the team is healthy, but the problem is that injuries could be a persistent issue with an older roster. Defense is another problem. Opponents are averaging more than 100 points per game against Brooklyn.
The Nets put all of this in the hands of rookie coach Jason Kidd. The future Hall of Fame point guard may eventually become a fine leader, but he’s not off to a good start. He lamented in late November that his message wasn’t getting across to the players. There was the infamous soda-spilling incident that was as much genius as it was desperate.
Most recently there was the reassigning of assistant coach Lawrence Frank. He is someone Kidd could have learned a thing or two from by having him by his side, not reading his “daily reports.”
The Nets, despite the inauspicious start, may not be out of the hunt for a playoff spot and a division title. The Atlantic-leading Celtics and the Chicago Bulls are both under .500. All is certainly not lost, but a lot must change.
Unfortunately there isn’t a history of success together for this group to fall back on. Brooklyn needs to get healthy and stay that way to finally learn to play together under a head coach who is learning on the job. A poor season won’t even help the Nets earn a high draft selection. Those were also traded away.
The construction of this team hasn’t moved the Nets any closer to the title Prokhorov had hoped for. Only time will tell if it was a giant step back instead.