The NBA runs an “Annual GM Survey” before each season, anonymously polling the league’s 30 general managers to get a sense of what the people that run the teams think about their league. For example, 46.2 percent of GM’s think the San Antonio Spurs are due for their first repeat title ever, while 15.4 percent think that LeBron James will finally bring a title home to Cleveland.
But after featuring prominently in the list last season thanks to some major offseason moves, the Brooklyn Nets have taken a step back from the spotlight this year.
GM’s were not allowed to vote for their own team or personnel, so all Nets votes didn’t come from within the organization.
Here’s what the league thinks of the Nets:
- 19.2 percent of GM respondents believed that the Nets would win the Atlantic Division, down sharply from 75.9 percent last season.
- Though Gregg Popovich was the overwhelming favorite as the league’s best coach, one GM voted for new Nets coach Lionel Hollins. (The vote didn’t necessarily come from San Antonio, either.)
- Brook Lopez got one lone vote from a GM as the player most likely to have a breakout year in 2015-16.
- Kevin Garnett earned a vote as the player with the highest basketball IQ, the toughest player in the NBA, and got 10.7 percent of the votes as the NBA’s best leader.
- At least one NBA GM thinks highly of Bojan Bogdanovic, ranking him as the most underrated player acquisition.
- Jarrett Jack got 6 percent of the vote as the active player who will make the best head coach someday.
