Revisiting Mikhail Prokhorov's debacle of branding the Nets – CBSSports.com
The business side and the basketball side of an NBA franchise should overlap quite a bit, in theory. Good teams should be able to sell tickets, jerseys and other merchandise. It behooves an owner and management to put a good product on the floor because the returns should be quite valuable.
However, there is a patience involved in making sure you build that product responsibly, value assets, and don’t put yourself in a potential wasteland for years. During the bright lights and indulgence of the Mikhail Prokhorov era, that patience was never there. The gamble was simple for the Nets under Prokhorov: make a splash in the New York area and try to wrestle control of the city away from the New York Knicks. If you could make a dent in that market, you could make a lot of money.
As soon as the Russian billionaire assumed control of the franchise in 2010, the plan was to get them out of New Jersey and into Brooklyn. Of course, you have to bring a team with some credibility in order to make a splash in that market.amd in a post-Jason Kidd era for the Nets, the cupboard was pretty bare in the star department. Their young assets were Brook Lopez, Derrick Favors and Terrence Williams.
Shortly after the sale of the Nets to Prokhorov was approved by the NBA owners, the Nets hired Billy King as the general manager. King helped run the Philadelphia 76ers during most of the Allen Iverson era. He was fired at the end of 2007 — a year after dealing Iverson to Denver. He hadn’t been in a front office in three years, but he was going to bring the glitz and glamour to the Nets that Prokhorov was seeking.
Sacrificing Assets For Glory
A few months after taking over as general manager, King traded Terrence Williams, Joe Smith, and two second-round picks in a three-team deal with the Rockets and Lakers, which netted him Sasha Vujacic, a first-round pick that would become JaJuan Johnson in 2011 and a first-round pick that would become Shane Larkin in 2013. I mention this because it may have been the only move during King’s tenure with the Nets that he seemingly valued assets in any way.
Three months later, King sent Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, a 2011 first-round pick (that would become Enes Kanter), a first-round pick that would become Gorgui Dieng in 2013, and cash considerations to the Utah Jazz. In return he got Deron Williams. The heavy leveraging had begun.
At the time, it was a surprise deal because it came 18 months before Williams would become a free agent, and the Jazz had just dealt with the departure of Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan. It looked like the Jazz would cater to the All-NBA point guard.
It was a heavy price to pay for Williams, but he was often in the conversation of possibly being the best point guard in the NBA. Faulty ankles (and a few other things) eventually led to the demise of D-Will, but at the time he was worth the bounty. Now it was time to build the team around Williams, so they sent Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams, and a top 3 protected 2012 first round pick to Portland for Gerald Wallace. Wallace was going to be the veteran to bring in and help Williams out while the Nets needed a break in the lottery to keep their pick.
Instead, they received the sixth pick, which meant Portland had two lottery picks. They took Damian Lillard with the Nets’ selection. This wasn’t ideal for the Nets, but they also didn’t want to have to wait to develop their next star. They were looking for established veterans. King and the Nets committed $201 million to Lopez, Williams, and Wallace that summer. They added in another $90 million when they traded Anthony Morrow, Jordan Farmar, DeShawn Stevenson, Johan Petro, the first round pick that became Larkin, the right to swap first round picks in 2014 and 2015, and a 2017 second-round pick to Atlanta for Joe Johnson.
The core was now Williams, Johnson, Wallace, and Lopez, and they were committed to an average of $67 million per season for just those four players. There wasn’t any cap space in sight for the next few seasons — having been sacrificed to players not quite good enough to challenge for a title. But they were good enough to sell that new merchandise as the Barclays Center in Brooklyn became the new home of Nets basketball.
A few months into that first season in Brooklyn, they fired Avery Johnson the month after he won Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. He wasn’t their guy and he wasn’t going to be a big enough name to keep selling this new brand. The Nets couldn’t wrestle control of the city away from the Knicks with their 49-win season because New York exploded for 54 wins. However, they were poised to keep pushing forward.
They ceremoniously brought Jason Kidd in to coach the team before the ink dried on his retirement papers. They drafted Mason Plumlee with the 22nd pick, signed Andray Blatche, Andre Kirilenko, and Shaun Livingston as a veteran-fueled bench, and then sacrificed the rest of any remaining asset in the hopes of catching championship magic.
Ownership wanted a championship-worthy team and the loyalty of a championship core in Boston was on its way out. The Celtics agreed to send Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, and D.J. White to Brooklyn in exchange for Wallace, Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks, Kris Joseph, Keith Bogans, the right to swap picks in 2017, their 2014 first-round pick (became James Young), their 2016 first-rounder, and their 2018-first round pick.
The Nets essentially eliminated themselves from the draft from 2014 to 2018 in the hopes of being a title contender. If you can get a legitimate shot at the title then I think you can justify doing it.
However, what the Nets put together turned out to be anything but a chance at the title. They had Williams on paper ankles. They had Johnson as a very solid player but one at a cap-crippling price. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett at 36 and 37, respectively. The hope of Lopez being healthy and the reality of him playing 17 games. They were worse than the previous season, dropping to 44 wins. Their offense went from eighth to 14. Their defense went from 17th to 20th.
And after a year of the experiment, a historic luxury tax bill, and the mortgaging of their future, Pierce left for the Wizards and a power play by Kidd led to him moving on to coach Milwaukee. Garnett would be traded halfway through his second season with Brooklyn.
For two years of relative notoriety, here was the price of putting together a water gun of battling for a title:
– Rotation players: Derrick Favors (again, it is justifiable at the time for Williams), Devin Harris, and Anthony Morrow
– Seven first round picks
– Favorable draft position in two drafts
What’s Left For The Nets?
This summer, the Nets re-signed Lopez to a three-year, $60 million contract. They agreed with Thaddeus Young (who was acquired for Garnett) on a four-year, $50 million deal to keep him. They moved Plumlee to Portland for Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and eventually bought out Williams’ deal so he could return home to Texas and play for the Mavs.
What’s left is the shell of a former team that was supposed to be competitive, and now will be fortunate to compete for the 8-seed in the pitiful East. The contracts to Lopez and Young were justifiable because there is no incentive for the Nets to be bad and try to build through the draft. Their pick goes to the Celtics no matter what in 2016. There is no protection. They’ll swap picks with the Celtics in 2017 because it would take a miracle for the Nets to project better than Boston. In 2018, it won’t do them any good to be bad and go for a high draft pick again because there is no protection on that picked owed to Boston, as well.
The hope for the Nets lies within a couple of big free agents really wanting to move to Brooklyn some time in the next couple of years. With Johnson’s expiring deal and the salary cap jump making the Lopez and Young deals pretty friendly, the Nets could have roughly $45 million in cap space. But how much is that cap space really worth to them? They’d sport a core of Lopez, Young, Hollis-Jefferson, Bojan Bogdanovic, and maybe Markel Brown (depending on how much you believe in him). Is that enticing? What about when coupled with the prospect of playing in Brooklyn?
Big market teams have struggled to draw big names just by being big markets in this latest collective bargaining agreement. The Knicks and Lakers have both struck out on grabbing the attention of big names. What makes the Nets different, especially when they don’t have a real start to offer as a teammate? This is where they have to hit winning shots on every free agent signing and second round pick they can pilfer.
How the Nets didn’t have the leverage to fight and win for draft pick protection in their deal for Pierce and Garnett is baffling. How they’re left with no real young prospects that project to be a possible star nor do they have the chance of cashing in on their own awfulness over the next three years is baffling. And it was all in the name of marketing, branding, and business that leaves the future of this team in shambles.
Prokhorov turned them into a house of cards and it doesn’t even feel like it was built with a full deck. The fans will suffer. The roster won’t see significant growth. The future looks bleak. The only person who walks away from this debacle a winner is Prokhorov. He purchased the team in 2010 for $200 million, which gave him controlling interest in the team and 45 percent of the arena in Brooklyn. He assumed nearly $200 million in team debt and spent $100 million on bonds to help finance the arena.
In January, the Nets’ franchise was valued at $1.5 billion by Forbes. While being completely mismanaged over a five-year stretch, the Nets’ value has roughly tripled, if not more. By the way, there are rumors that he’s looking to sell what’s left of the team.
You want business and basketball to overlap in the NBA, but not like this.
What’s left in Brooklyn? (USATSI)
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