With the Nets season officially in the books, it’s time to look back at the year that was. We looked back at each player and the coach. The final entry in the series is on general manager Billy King.
Season recap
After the Nets’ 2012-13 season ended in a seven-game first-round playoff loss to the Bulls, general manager Billy King was seen as having limited options to improve the team’s roster in the offseason. Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace were signed through at least 2015 for close to a combined $60 million, and it seemed the only real trade chip King possessed was the $12 million expiring contract of Kris Humphries.
But it didn’t take long for King to prove everyone wrong. He went into draft night with just one pick, the No. 22 overall selection, and finished it having completed a blockbuster swap with the Celtics, sending Wallace, Humphries, a signed-and-traded Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks and Kris Joseph to the Celtics – along with three draft picks and the rights to swap another – for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry. It was an all-in move designed to launch the Nets into the conversation with the Heat, Pacers and Bulls for the top team in the Eastern Conference.
King wasn’t done there. He made what turned out to be a very savvy draft pick that night, taking Mason Plumlee out of Duke with the 22nd pick. He then made several good cut-rate signings in free agency, bringing back Andray Blatche on a one-year deal with an option for slightly more than he made in his first year in Brooklyn, while also signing Shaun Livingston and Alan Anderson – two players who became key contributors – to one-year deals for minimum salaries. He also made one of the most lauded moves of the summer by getting Andrei Kirilenko to sign a one-year deal with a player option for a second for the mini mid-level exception.
Things looked very bleak for King and the Nets at the start of 2014 after they went 10-21 through the opening two months of the regular season. Lopez was lost for the season, Williams had spent significant time on the shelf with ankle injuries and Kirilenko had only played four of the first 29 games. When the Nets began winning and climbing up the standings, most of King’s work was complete.
Still, he swung two trades over the final few weeks before the deadline. In January, a de facto three-way deal sent Tornike Shengelia to Chicago, Tyshawn Taylor and cash considerations go to New Orleans and Marquis Teague to the Nets. Teague remains on the books for next season, and after not showing very much in his brief time with the Nets, it’ll be a surprise if the former first-round pick’s fourth-year option is picked up this fall.
The other trade King made, on the day before the deadline, turned out much better. He acquired a depressed asset from the Kings, shooting guard Marcus Thornton, for a pair of aging veterans in Terry and Reggie Evans who had seen their roles with the Nets diminish significantly. Thornton went on to become a nice offensive sparkplug off the bench for the Nets, and should be able to fill that role again next season.
King also made a pair of free agent signings after the deadline. The most notable, of course, was Jason Collins, who made history by becoming the first openly gay player in any of the four major professional sports when the Nets signed him as an extra big man shortly after the deadline. King signed Jorge Gutierrez a couple weeks later after Teague failed to solidify himself as the team’s third point guard. After Gutierrez impressed on a pair of 10-day contracts, he was signed through next season for a nominal guarantee.
Outlook for next season
Like last summer, King heads into this offseason with what seems to be limited flexibility. Paul Pierce is expected to re-sign and Kevin Garnett is expected to return, which would leave the Nets with potentially only five free agents: Anderson, Kirilenko and Blatche, who all have player options, and Livingston and Collins, who are unrestricted free agents. On top of that, the Nets don’t have a single pick in the draft.
But King likely find a way to trade for a pick, and after last summer’s draft night dealings, don’t put it past him to shake things up with another bigger deal.
In free agency, King has said his top priority is Livingston, whom the Nets would like to have back, an indication the team isn’t overly worried about Pierce bolting. If Livingston winds up finding a more lucrative offer elsewhere – the Nets only can offer him the mini mid-level, a three-year deal worth roughly $10 million – a possible fallback option could be 2011 second-round pick Bojan Bogdanovic, who will be a free agent this summer after spending the last three years with Turkish power Fenerbache Ulker.