Head coach Lionel Hollins is out in Brooklyn and general manager Billy King has been reassigned. Our NBA Insiders weigh in on if these are good moves for the Nets and what the franchise should do going forward.
1. Firing Billy King: Good move or bad move?
Amin Elhassan, ESPN Insider: Good move overall but awful timing. Firing a GM midseason doesn't have the same immediate impact as firing a coach. King hasn't done a stellar job, but many of the moves he's made have been capitulations to the demands of ownership, and so picking now as the time to fire him seems arbitrary.
David Thorpe, ESPN Insider: Good move. I've never been impressed with King as a GM, though it's unfair to judge him when I'm not sure who was really making the calls. Still, the owner won't fire himself, so ...
Kevin Pelton, ESPN Insider: Good move. The Nets need someone thinking about the team's long-term future to be in place before the trade deadline, not someone worried about improving the team in the short term to save his job.
Chad Ford, ESPN Insider: Great move. But about three to four years too late. King's in the running for the worst GM in the history of the NBA. That he survived as long as he did is a testament to how out of touch owner Mikhail Prokhorov really was, especially in understanding how to actually build a contender in the NBA.
Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Insider: Good move. You feel for King because he was told to win big and win soon by his owner. It's tough to build a title team that way. But the bottom line is that despite an unlimited budget, King built a roster with no championship upside and cashed in most of his organization's future assets in the process.
2. Firing Lionel Hollins: Good move or bad move?
Elhassan: Good move. Coach Hollins' no-nonsense style and old school Xs and Os philosophies increasingly made him a poor fit for the modern NBA. You have to be able to adapt to the times!
Thorpe: Good move. No reason not to start clean, letting management pick their own guy. We all remember how poorly Hollins handled the regime change in Memphis when he was still their head coach.
Pelton: Good move. I don't think changing coaches will make much of a difference, but it is clear that the job Hollins was hired to do -- win with a veteran team -- no longer exists. The focus now should be on developing whatever young talent Brooklyn has.
Ford: Does it really matter? Hollins didn't do anything wrong. The team he was given was, after the Sixers, the worst roster in the East. I think he had them playing up to their potential. But if you are going to shake up the organization completely, then it makes sense that Hollins would go as well.
Doolittle: Teams almost never do it this way, firing the exec and coach at the same time. I like it. It gives the next general manager a clean slate. He can pick his own coach without having the headache of having to fire Hollins himself or go through the pretense that he wants him around.
3. Where did the Nets go wrong, and who is responsible?
Elhassan: When the franchise decided it was more important to have flashy names for their debut in Brooklyn rather than building a sound team from the ground up. And by now, everyone should know where I typically place the blame for organizational mismanagement: the guy who cuts the checks, the owner.
Thorpe: The list is long, but it features horrible planning, poorly handled free agent acquisitions, terrible trades and a complete lack of vision for anything beyond the press conferences following deals, it seems.
There is a case to be made that they handled 95 percent of all of their decision-making badly. Ultimately it's on ownership to recognize its role in this mess, at least to help ensure the franchise won't make the same mistakes again.
Pelton: By constantly mortgaging their future to try to win now. King certainly bears responsibility given the poor value the Nets have gotten in most of the trades they've made, but that ultimately starts with Prokhorov's impatience and desire to buy immediate success.
Ford: It starts at the top. Prokhorov wanted the Nets to be instant contenders and empowered King to do what he did. He also refused to listen to the one person in the organization who seemed to understand that thing were going terribly wrong organizationally -- Irina Pavlova.
Still, that doesn't excuse King. He was charged with building a contender. Almost every choice he made turned out to be a bad one -- including trades, free agent signings and hires. Prokhorov hired King to be the expert and he was anything but.
Doolittle: The Nets' attempt to build an instant title contender was a twin case of bad design and bad luck. Brooklyn had a fine core in Deron Williams and Brook Lopez and should have built around those guys rather than dropping in a bunch of aging former All-Stars and blowing their flexibility in the process. But with the physical problems of Williams and Lopez, even a measured approach would have been doomed to fail.
4. What should the Nets do now?
Elhassan: Beats me! They have no top-of-the-lottery draft picks to look forward to before 2019, and no immediate way to improve this roster. My guess they will try to acquire a first-round pick at the trade deadline for one of their "good" roster pieces.
Thorpe: First: See if the Sixers will allow them to hire Sam Hinkie. Seriously. He will be the best guy to make deals to help them bring in young prospects.
Then: Challenge the GM to find someone who can shoot, via the draft, the D-League and trade. With the new coaches, develop better defensive strategies and inspire their guys to bring passion to the way they defend.
If they can make some progress, their players will attract better trade value. For instance, they don't have to move Brook Lopez now. They can wait for the best deal even if it comes in June or July.
Pelton: When you're in a hole, the first rule is stop digging. The Nets can't sacrifice any of their remaining picks or young prospects to try to be less terrible now, even if they won't really benefit from their lottery position in the next three years.
Ford: They can start by hiring a GM who knows how to build a team and a new culture. They can't just hire a talented scout; they need a basketball executive who will hire the people who can help him turn it around.
From there, they start taking some chances on some young players on short contracts that could be building blocks.
Realistically, it's going to be at least 2019 before this team recovers from all of this. But a lot can be done now to build the proper foundation.
Doolittle: Avoid retreads. Go with a young, progressive, 21st century NBA executive. Former Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks is a great prospect but that might be a tough sell in light of the goal to change direction. Boston's Mike Zarren, Orlando's Matt Lloyd and OKC's Troy Weaver are worthy targets. But given the timing, you might have to hire a stopgap veteran to oversee the trade deadline, then kick him over to an advisory role after the season.
5. Would you advise a coach or GM to take the Nets job?
Elhassan: Obviously, it's hard to turn down what is such an incredibly limited opportunity. There are only 30 such jobs across the league for both positions. But ultimately, if being successful at what you do factors in, this doesn't seem like the right place.
As long as ownership and his lackies continue to meddle, it's hard to "GM" this franchise effectively. And coaching a team with so few good players and none coming down the pipeline is a losing proposition.
Thorpe: Yes, as long as they felt great about how much control they had in decision-making. This should be one of the "sexiest' brand names in sports. We are talking about an incredible job in an amazing market. Of course, the GM should have a few years to build his team, after getting a year to properly take it apart first.
Pelton: Not over other alternatives. Brooklyn is unlikely to win any time soon, and I'm not sure Prokhorov is realistic about how bad things really are.
Ford: Yes. There are only 30 GM jobs (and 30 head coaching jobs). With Brooklyn hitting bottom, there is a lot a creative GM can do to build this team in his image.
It's a good market with an owner willing to spend. The team is depleted, but it could still be a good job with growth potential.
Doolittle: Heck yeah, at least for an executive. Massive resources, a solid draw for free agents (theoretically), beautiful facilities. With Joe Johnson's contract expiring, Brooklyn will have a ton of financial wiggle room. It stinks that the Nets don't have their first-rounder this June -- keeping them out of the Ben Simmons sweepstakes -- but there is a lot to like about that opportunity. For a veteran coach, however, there probably will be more ready-to-win teams looking this summer.