Brooklyn Nets general manager Billy King earned two second-place votes and one third-place vote for Executive of the Year, the NBA announced today. The three votes earned him 11th place in the GM rankings.
King was metaphorically handed a blank check to field a competitive team in Brooklyn by owner Mikhail Prokhorov, and he did just that; after five consecutive losing seasons, King helped reshape Brooklyn’s roster by re-signing Deron Williams (five years, $98 million), Brook Lopez (four years, $61 million), Gerald Wallace (four years, $40 million), and Kris Humphries (two years, $24 million), as well as trading for six-time All-Star Joe Johnson and eventual starting forward Reggie Evans. King was also instrumental in re-signing backup guard Keith Bogans, signing backup center Andray Blatche, and signing backup point guard C.J. Watson to veteran’s minimum contracts.
King gets flack for handing out large contracts, but he had free license to, and his job was to put a team on the floor Brooklyn would come out to watch. That he did.
After seasons of 12-70, 24-58, and 22-44, the Nets went 49-33 in their inaugural season in Brooklyn, losing to the Chicago Bulls in seven games in the first round.
