The Brooklyn Nets have officially signed General Manager Billy King to a contract extension, the team announced today. Per team policy, the official terms of the deal were not disclosed, but an earlier report by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports alleged that the Nets were close to completing a multi-year extension for King.
King, who was in the final year of a three-year contract, had reportedly been working on a new deal with the team since the fall, and according to Wojnarowski a formal announcement should come shortly.
King took over as general manager on July 14th following a 12-70 season, starting his tenure with a four-team trade that sent guard Courtney Lee away for forward Troy Murphy, who played sparingly due to back injuries. King’s most notable accomplishments include trading Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, and two first-round picks for Deron Williams, convincing Williams to re-sign with the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2012, and swinging a trade of flotsam for six-time All-Star Joe Johnson. Critics can say that King threw a bunch of money at a good-not-great team, but as I’ve argued before, King did what he could under the circumstances: with Orlando reportedly unwilling to deal Dwight Howard to the Nets, King re-structured his plan to bring a winning team to Brooklyn.
King’s next major job will be to solidify this team’s coaching position, whether that means re-signing P.J. Carlesimo (who has no assurances), or finding another candidate.
One interesting tidbit from the Wojnarowski report: former Nets coach Avery Johnson was reportedly upset about the fact that the team refused to enter contract negotiations with him, but Wojnarowski reports that they’d entered discussions with King — who was hired at the same time as Johnson — in the fall, when Johnson was still the team’s coach.
Though the report says that King’s hiring all but removes Phil Jackson as a front office candidate, it’s possible that Jackson could join the team in some another front office capacity. Jackson said that of his plans, “none of them involve coaching.”
After two losing seasons (24-58, 22-44), the Nets had their first winning record since the 2005-06 season, going 49-33 as Brook Lopez earned his first All-Star appearance.
Read More: Yahoo! Sports: Nets finalizing contract extension for GM Billy King
