INDIANAPOLIS — The Nets entered last night’s game against the Pacers with losses in three of their previous four games and six of their last nine, the first slump the team had endured since interim coach P.J. Carlesimo took over for Avery Johnson in late December.
The NBA trade deadline is just over a week away (3 p.m. on Feb. 21), but Nets general manager Billy King doesn’t feel pressure to make a deal.
“I think we’ve had our peaks and valleys, our ebbs and flows, and right now we’re definitely in an ebb,” King said before last night’s 89-84 overtime win over the Pacers. “Can we correct it? Yes. Do I believe this group can regroup and play well? Yes.
“Are we going to make a trade? I’m not going to make a trade just to make a trade.”
The Nets will undoubtedly monitor the landscape of the league over the next several days until the trade deadline passes at 3 p.m. on Feb. 21. But they may lack the resources to land an impact player.
After their summer spending spree that committed more than $330 million in future salaries to upgrade their roster heading into the team’s first season in Brooklyn, the Nets have two primary assets to move: Kris Humphries and MarShon Brooks.
Humphries, who re-signed for a two-year, $24 million contract as a free agent last summer, likely would be more attractive as a trade piece either this summer or next season, when his $12-million salary would be expiring, and allow a team to shed future dollars. And though teams are interested in Brooks’ talent, his salary of just over a million dollars makes it difficult to use him in a package.
But that won’t stop the rumors from swirling up through the deadline.
“I don’t think anybody likes it,” Carlesimo said of the never-ending rumor mill. “If the question is, ‘Do you want to read about yourself being traded or not?’ everybody is going to say no.
“But it’s one of the things that goes with playing in this league. Very, very few players have not had trade rumors. If you’re picking up the paper and reading about Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, well then you’re pretty much going to read about every player in the league being open to a trade. It’s something you learn to deal with.”