Avery Johnson: Nets Looking to Get Into First Round

Avery Johnson spoke to reporters today at the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine and dropped some quotes on the Nets prospects in the upcoming draft.

On the first round:

We are preparing like we are still going to be in the first round. We have an unlimited amount of resources within the rules, so you never know. We probably could get into the first round, end of the first round.

So we’re here evaluating all of these kids, we’re going through the interview process just like all of the other teams. So even though we’re at 57 now, my general manager is Billy King, and Mikhail Prokhorov is the owner so you never know what they may pull off. So we’re anticipating that we could move up.

On how they could get there:

There are a variety of ways to get there. Can’t give you any of our secrets, but we have some opportunities. We’re talking to teams like everybody else and we have our eyes on some players that if we end up getting in the first round, there’s some guys that we like.

On Williams, Wallace and Lopez:

Hopefully we’ll get that one resigned in terms of Deron Williams. We’re also excited about Brook Lopez, he hurt his foot last year. But we feel if we get Deron Williams resigned, get Gerald Wallace resigned, Brook Lopez, we feel we have the one, three and five positions covered.

We have some other spots that we need to upgrade but we feel like we have an opportunity to really put together a team that when we open in Brooklyn in the latter part of October with our first regular-season game we could really be an exciting team.

Full article can be found here.