Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is primed to spend about $186 million on his roster next season, and that’s just the players alone. It doesn’t include the projected $2.5 million he’ll owe to coach Jason Kidd, or what he’ll pay to Kidd’s assistants. Sure enough: according to reports about Kidd’s lead assistant Lawrence Frank, the bill keeps growing.
According to ESPN New York, the Nets will pay over $4 million to Lawrence Frank in his four-year contract, a little over $1 million per year. That’s peanuts to Prokhorov at this point, but it’s the highest salary any assistant will make this season, and may be the largest ever for an assistant coach. Last season’s highest-paid assistant was former Golden State Warriors assistant Mike Malone, with a salary reported at $750,000.
The Detroit Pistons still owed Frank $4 million this season, but will now owe him just a little under $3 million thanks to the deal.
Kidd pursued Frank relentlessly after signing on as head coach to the point of desperation, telling Frank he needed him on the sideline to help with the learning curve of being a player-turned-coach without experience. Frank, who has a past working relationship with Kidd, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Brook Lopez, and assistant Roy Rogers, will likely be the “coach in the shadows,” helping Kidd devise game and practice plans while working on the team’s defensive schemes.
ESPN New York — Source: Frank gets $1M-plus per year