Since trade talks are “officially” over with Denver, we’re going to avoid mentioning a certain player’s name in this post. With that said, as Al Iannazzone reports, just because one rumor may be dead, doesn’t mean Nets players should have job security right now.
“We are an 11-win team,” coach Avery Johnson said. “Management has a right to talk. The general managers have discussions every day. That’s their jobs.”
Bam! You tell ’em Avery.
Everyone should expect the Nets to be active. The chip to watch in all of this is Troy Murphy. We know he wants out, he’s an expiring owed a lot of money. I don’t think he’s worth a lot in a straight up one-on-one deal, but he was a kay component in the Denver talks because he helps salaries match-up. If the Nets send him elsewhere before the deadline, then everyone can stop doubting whether Prokhorov’s presser was just a ploy.
Al also talks about strategies moving forward and when mentioning building from within, suggests “you can’t win a championship through the draft.” I’m disappointed in this Al. No, you’re not going to be able to compete with Superfriends in Miami with just a bevy of draft picks, but if you pick wisely and get some solid foundation players, you can either trade them for a superstar, or become a competitive team that will attract superstars. That’s part of the reason there was a lot of pushback from Nets fans on this one trade rumor the past month – because by adding more picks and young players, the Nets were essentially saying it was all coming down to one specific player, and I’ve never heard of an NBA team winning anything with just one player (even Jordan had Pippen).
