Nets general manager Billy King said all along he didn’t think there was more than a 10 percent chance he would make a trade before Thursday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline.
So, the deadline came and went and the Nets, despite their wishes to upgrade at power forward, wound up deciding to sit tight.
“The percentage never changed,” King said before Friday night’s 106-96 loss to the Rockets. “I just felt with the conversations going that there wasn’t going to be a lot of major movement. When you have these conversations, they tend to heat up or you get a sense [it might happen].
“Last year there were a lot more outbound calls, while this year there were more inbound and you’re saying, ‘That doesn’t make sense.’ I was prepared at 3 o’clock to get in the car to go see a college game … [and] at 3:01 I was out the door and headed out scouting, so I had everything packed by then.”
With his work now largely done for the season — outside of possibly filling the team’s final roster spot with a player waived before March 1 and thus eligible to play for the Nets in the postseason — King is content with the team he has assembled for Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo.
“I like our depth, I like our size, I like the playoff experience of some of our guys. ,” King said. “Everything looks good, but, on paper, we’ve just got to play the 27 games and see how it unfolds.”
* Because the Nets didn’t make a move, that meant both MarShon Brooks and Kris Humphries — the two players most prominently mentioned in trade talks leading up to the deadline — no longer had to worry about changing teams.
“It’s good, huge. Sigh of relief. It’s a good feeling just knowing where you’re going to be,” Brooks said. “Just that sense of security is a great feeling.”
Humphries said he has heard so many rumors, he virtually has grown immune.
“Was I getting traded? I’ve been doing this a long time. I don’t really think about it,” he said Humphries, who found a positive in the wake of the annual rumor fest. “As a team we know these are the guys we’ve got and we move forward and finish strong. It’s not really a relief. It’s just part of February.”
* The Nets found asking prices way high on some players. For example, several sources claimed the Celtics wanted two future first-round picks along with Brooks, Humphries and Mirza Teletovic for Paul Pierce.