LONDON — The streaking Nets soon could be getting reinforcements.
Deron Williams sat out the last five games — including staying home rather than traveling with the Nets for Thursday’s 127-110 win over the Hawks — following the latest issues with his troublesome ankles. But both general manager Billy King and coach Jason Kidd said Williams’ return to the lineup could happen as soon as Monday’s Martin Luther King Day matinee against the Knicks.
“Yeah, I think we’re going to wait and see how he feels when we get back,” King said in an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio on Thursday. “That was the goal, to try to give him two weeks off and see how he feels. I know he’s been working back at home.
“The goal would be if he’s ready to play then, if not Tuesday [against the Magic] and if not, then Friday [against the Mavericks]. Like we did with [Andrei] Kirilenko, we wanted to give Deron as much chance to get as healthy as possible because we have a lot of season to go.”
Williams has not played since Jan. 4 because of problems with his left ankle, which has cost him 16 games this season after three separate sprains. After undergoing an MRI exam, Williams received a round of cortisone shots and platelet rich plasma injections in both ankles to try and finally get over the issues that have plagued him since he sprained his right ankle during a September workout in Utah.
“When we get back, we’ll see how his health is,” Kidd said. “We’ll take it day-by-day, but hopefully he can practice on Sunday and see if he’s ready to go sometime next week.”
Because of the large number of teams considered to be “tanking” this season in order to secure as high a draft pick in this summer’s loaded draft, the subject of whether changes need to be made to the NBA’s draft lottery system has come up.
In what likely was his final press conference as commissioner before his 30-year tenure ends on Feb. 1, David Stern both defended the current system and admitted changes might have to be made.
“I honestly sometimes don’t even understand the commentary,” Stern said. “It’s as though a generation has forgotten why the draft lottery was implemented. … The draft lottery is responsible only for ameliorating the possible side effects of having the same kind of draft that others have.
“We have tinkered a bit with the draft lottery … and it’s maybe time to look at the lottery and maybe tinker a little bit more. But we’ll see what [incoming] commissioner [Adam] Silver wants to do about that.”
Silver confirmed he’s going to be naming a deputy commissioner in the next few weeks.
“Our constitution and bylaws of the NBA call for a deputy commissioner, so we will be naming a deputy commissioner at some point, so this model will continue,” he said.
“It won’t be the same [as working with David], and it’s a long distance between this seat and that seat, and I’m feeling it already. But the league will continue.”
As for Stern, he said he has some “relatively significant announcements in the not-too-distant future” to make about his plans after he steps down, but said he has one thing he wants to do first.
“I’m planning to do some skiing before I get to that,” he said with a smile, “and then we’ll see.”