For the Nets, Good Things Come in Threes

Hall of Famer and former manager of the Baltimore Orioles, Earl Weaver, claimed the key to winning baseball was pitching, defense, and the three-run homer.

Successful NFL teams mesh offense, defense, and special teams that complement one another. But an owner will admit that having a guy like Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, or Tom Brady around certainly helps your chances.

In the NBA, a winning formula at the front office level is no different, and there are also three legs to that stool. Sure, it helps to have a loaded roster like the Celtics, Lakers, and now the Miami Heat. But if you want to build a winner you have to start at the top. And that’s precisely what the Nets Organization has done by hiring Avery Johnson and now Billy King.

Since we’re touting a true top-down approach to building towards a championship, let’s start with the top of the totem pole with team owner Mikhail Prokhorov. A successful front office triumvirate usually starts with an owner like the tall, young Russian. He’s a savvy business man that knows when to roll the dice and knows when to keep his powder dry. The dice rolling came by buying a franchise that was 12-70 last season.

Mikhail then doubled down on the pass line by predicting a championship in the next few years. Craps players in Atlantic City would lament that bold proclamation as being “a cooler” since the Nets promptly defied NBA Lottery odds and crapped out by falling to the third slot in the draft, losing a shot at the two sure players in this year’s lottery pool—John Wall and Evan Turner.

With input from old ranch hand Rod Thorn, Prokhorov took a shot of Stoli and made the first shrewd move in his young career as Premier of the Nets. He eschewed analysis from pundits and grabbed the player with the highest ceiling left on the board–Derrick Favors–instead of safer, “win now” picks like Demarcus Cousins or Greg Monroe.

That’s keeping your powder dry.

For a franchise that needs to build for the future, it makes sense to draft the player with the most “future” value and that’s precisely what Prokhorov and the Nets did. But the departing Rod Thorn’s role in all this can’t be discounted.

Enter the second leg of a championship front office troika – the GM. Thorn had done as much for the franchise as he possibly could during his ten years and graciously stepped down, opening door for an up and comer like Billy King.

The standout defensive star at Duke is used to seeing the game through a big picture prism. Not blessed with a tremendous amount of skill in college, Billy King had to work to find his niche as a defensive stopper on some talented Duke teams. He then had to reinvent himself as a player personnel man for the 76’ers with a rapid ascent to Team President from 2003 to 2007.

As a GM, King is a hybrid because he knows the ins and outs of the game and played at a high level but he’s also got some “Moneyball” economics game in his bag like personnel stars Darryl Morey of the Rockets and Sam Presti of the Thunder. Hopefully it’s the best of both worlds for Nets fans. King knows a player can ball by looking at him but he’s also willing to punch in the data and run the algorithms that help make GM assumptions more definitive.

Call it Old School meets New School.

To tie it all in, you have to have a conduit between the front office and your roster who not only communicates between the two tiers of the organization but commands respect from both factions. Avery Johnson is precisely that guy. He commands respect from both players and front office executives, and perhaps more importantly, also speaks their language. The players absolutely loved Johnson in Dallas and Avery was still able to get along relatively well with enigmatic and overbearing owner, Mark Cuban. Pairing him with a great communicator and fellow high level player like Billy King in the GM’s role is a solid match.

With these three pieces in place, the only thing left is acquiring the personnel to implement the change in the organization. Favors is a terrific asset to help lure future lottery picks if the Nets can showcase his high ceiling in the coming season or two. As for the rest of the roster, the Nets boast one of the youngest teams in the NBA, so their options are certainly favorable to make moves in free agency and the coming draft.

So yes, good things do come in threes, and the Nets will need a lot of those in the short term until these front office maestros have some time to work their magic.

Article Tags:

Avery Johnson, Billy King, Darryl Morey, Demarcus Cousins, Derrick Favors, Evan Turner, Greg Monroe, Its Raining Threes, John Wall, Mikhael Prokhorov, NBA, New Jersey Nets, Sam Presti, Three-legged Stool

15 Responses

Sailor Ripley said:

July 27th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
Longhorn_Seminole said:

July 28th, 2010 at 12:55 am

“The players absolutely loved Johnson in Dallas and Avery was still able to get along relatively well with enigmatic and overbearing owner, Mark Cuban.”

You mean until all the players decided they couldn’t stand him anymore and Cubes ran him out of town?
Biznesstime said:

July 28th, 2010 at 6:52 am

Mmmm, that’s some good sarcasm right there. Don’t see much of that on the internet these days.
jc25 said:

July 28th, 2010 at 7:58 am

Kevin, is this sarcasm? I honestly can’t tell.

John Hollinger’s take:

“The Nets had all that cap space, and the new Russian oligarch owner, and they were coming to Brooklyn to make a big splash. Everybody was talking about them. Two months later, they have Billy King as their GM, Travis Outlaw as their big free-agent score and a lot of questions about whether new coach Avery Johnson is really the one calling the shots.

Outgoing GM Rod Thorn called it quits and almost immediately hinted he wouldn’t mind working someplace else, a sure sign that Mikhail Prokhorov’s regime isn’t engendering great morale. It’s equally puzzling why Prokhorov didn’t push for a change; instead, he allowed the architect of a 12-win team to execute the Nets’ draft and free-agent strategy before heading out.

New Jersey did one thing right: All its free-agent dollars went on players age 25 or younger, an admirable piece of restraint from a franchise that realistically is a couple of years away from doing anything noteworthy. In one case in particular (sharpshooter Anthony Morrow), the Nets got unbelievable value. Unfortunately, the deals for Outlaw ($35 million for five years) and Johan Petro (three years, $10 million) are ridiculous.

As a result, there will be no quick fix in New Jersey. The Nets have a decent foundation with Devin Harris, Brook Lopez and rookie Derrick Favors, and they’ll at least double their win total, but Prokhorov’s arrival as a power player appears to have been wildly overstated.”

Hey, did you know that Billy King sucks?

http://housethatglanvillebuilt.blogspot.com/2009/08/hey-billy-king-stfu.html
Petey said:

July 28th, 2010 at 11:03 pm

I like Avery Johnson and think Damion James will play better than advertised.
Kevin Berger said:

July 29th, 2010 at 7:08 am

Guys, this is a team that won 12 games last season. It was certainly a glass half full article. I’m doing a roster break down right now and that article will be similar. That’s all I have to say about that.
Hiphopopotamus said:

July 30th, 2010 at 6:05 am

I usually say you can spin anything into a positive. Except for hiring Billy King as your GM. There’s just no way to spin that.
Prince Tae said:

August 2nd, 2010 at 12:37 pm

A TEAM LIKE NEW JERSY WHO BASICALLY WASTED THEIR CAP SPACE AFTER NOT ACQUIRING LEBRON JAMES SHOULD HAVE MADE THERE OWN BIG THREE…TRACY MCGRADY, ALLLEN IVERSON, AND SHAQ (A NEW JERSY NATIVE) WOULD PUT FAN IN THE SEATS AND GIVE THE FANS SOMETHING TO PONDER ABOUT. I FEEL SOME TEAM IN THE LEAGUE SHOULD ACQUIRE THOSE THREE GUYS ON THE SAME TEAM BEAUSE IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT SHAQ IS THE ONLY ONE WHOSE REALLY UP THERE IN AGE T-MAC IS ONLY 31 AND ALL THOSE GUYS ARE HUNGERY AND I BELIEVE WILL PUT ON A SHOW AND TAKE A TEAM TO THE PLAYOFFS. IF I WAS A GM I WOULD DO IT AT THIS POINT IN THE OFF SEASION, WHY NOT? I MEAN IF YOUR NEW JERSY YOU WON ONLY 15 GAMES SO WHAT DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO LOSE THE GUYS THEY GOT NOW CAN BE GREAT BACK-UPS TO THOSE THREE FUTURE HALL A FAME PLAYERS. THINK ABOUT IT THE STARTING LINEUP:
CENTER: SHAQ
POWER FORWARD: BROCK LOPEZ
SMALL FORWARD: TRACY MCGRADY
SHOOTING GUARD: ALLEN IVERSON
POINT GUARD: DEVIN HARRIS

I MEAN COME ON GIVE IT A TRY AND IF IT DON’T WORK OUT YOU STIILL HAVE A GOOD YOUNG CORE GROUP OF GUYS. THAT YOUNG CORE CAN GAIN KNOWLEDGE FROM THOSE 3 PLAYERS. THE LEAGUE IS NOT THINKING LOGICALLY.
Drew Dunlevie said:

August 2nd, 2010 at 3:58 pm

< Marv Albert > YES! < /Marv Albert>
jc25 said:

August 6th, 2010 at 9:16 am

Wow, loud noises.

Where has baller been lately? Some fightin’ words are being spewed between the Sun-Times and UK over the alleged $ recruitment of Anthony Davis. Wonderin’ some thoughts.

Also, news that Selby is not yet eligible to play? Probably nothing but maybe something.
maninblack said:

August 8th, 2010 at 9:44 am

Speaking of Moneyball I saw the cast for the movie last night and that’s going to be an epic pile of shit.

Billy Bean = Brad Pitt
Art Howe = Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Paul DePodesta = Jonah Hill
Trips Right said:

August 8th, 2010 at 1:01 pm

ballerjunkie’s Weekly Whispers will re-debut tonight.
maninblack said:

August 8th, 2010 at 3:21 pm

nice!
maninblack said:

August 11th, 2010 at 12:53 pm

Picking up Murphy from Indiana was a shrewd move. That will allow them to bring along Favors at a more comfortable pace.
Randy Santulli said:

August 30th, 2010 at 6:53 pm

Sick of obtaining low amounts of useless visitors to your site? Well i wish to let you know about a fresh underground tactic which makes myself $900 on a daily basis on 100% AUTOPILOT. I could be here all day and going into detail but why dont you just check their site out? There is really a great video that explains everything. So if your seriously interested in making hassle-free money this is the website for you. Auto Traffic Avalanche

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For the Nets, Good Things Come in Threes

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15 Responses

Sailor Ripley said:

Longhorn_Seminole said:

Biznesstime said:

jc25 said:

Petey said:

Kevin Berger said:

Hiphopopotamus said:

Prince Tae said:

Drew Dunlevie said:

jc25 said:

maninblack said:

Trips Right said:

maninblack said:

maninblack said:

Randy Santulli said:

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