SAN ANTONIO — After seeing the Nets pick up victories over the hapless Bobcats and Cavaliers in their first two games with P.J. Carlesimo in charge, general manager Billy King Sunday again threw his support behind his interim coach.
King said the Nets haven’t contacted any other candidates, and Carlesimo is going to get a chance to coach the team and see what he can do.
“We’ve put our support behind him, and we’ll look at things and evaluate them later,” King said while appearing on ESPN 98.7 FM. “I know people have been throwing lists together and things like that, but we have not contacted anybody.
“We have not sat down and said, ‘What about this guy?’ We made the move, and we’re going to let P.J. coach.”
King’s comments echo the sentiments owner Mikhail Prokhorov expressed when he met with the media during Friday’s win in Brooklyn over the Bobcats, when he repeatedly said the Nets need to support Carlesimo, who took over for Avery Johnson after his dismissal on Thursday.
During the interview, King said several variations of “P.J. is our coach,” and in addition to saying the Nets have yet to contact anyone, refused to even address any of the names that have been floated out there.
The most notable of the names is Phil Jackson, whom Prokhorov playfully said he had never heard of Friday before saying, “Now P.J. is the coach … and if [a search] becomes necessary, you know [who] the usual suspects are.”
When King was asked about Jackson, he simply reiterated his support of Carlesimo.
“I don’t know how many times I can say it or Mikhail can say it, but P.J. is our coach,” King said. “We’re going to let him coach and re-evaluate things later. I know Mikhail said it about 10 times when he was asked, and I’ve been saying it, and I think people keep dismissing what we say.”
One thing King was willing to address were the season-long struggles of star point guard Deron Williams. After the Nets signed him to a five-year contract for just under $100 million this summer, making him the cornerstone of the franchise’s first few seasons in Brooklyn, Williams has underperformed, averaging 16.6 points and 7.8 assists while shooting just over 40 percent from the field and just under 30 percent from 3-point range.
But King, who said Williams might be worn down after spending the summer preparing for and playing in the Olympics, said he’s confident Williams is going to get his game back on track.
“He’s not playing well, but we’ve seen it,” King said. “We know who he is. I remember a player across the river last year in Carmelo [Anthony], people were doubting him and wondering what’s wrong, and sometimes when guys change or you get a system change like that, it takes them awhile.
“But he’s going to be fine. I’m not worried.”
With a pair of expected victories under their belts in the first two games with Carlesimo in charge, the Nets now head into a pair of road games that will present much stiffer tests — first tonight against the Spurs, followed by a game Wednesday in Oklahoma City against the Thunder.
Both games, ironically, will be homecomings of a sort for Carlesimo, who spent several years working under Gregg Popovich with the Spurs as an assistant before getting his last head-coaching job with the Thunder, where he worked for parts of two seasons.
More than anything, though, King is hopeful that the Nets, after a hectic several days, can begin to get back into a regular routine.
“There’s been some tumult around us with the replacement of Avery, and so I think more than anything you need to calm the waters and let guys breathe as a group, and try to gel,” King said. “If we’re in the middle of a search and people are talking names, then you bring another guy in, the turmoil just continues. So we need our guys and P.J. needs our guys to just focus on now and San Antonio.“The great thing with P.J. is it is San Antonio, but he worked there for a long time so he understands them, and then going to Oklahoma City he was the head coach there so he understands those guys a little bit. It’s a great challenge, but I think our guys will be up for it.”