Pretty stupid. It will be extra stupid if the Knicks have a successful offseason and the Nets continue to suck next year. The poster seems to also exemplify why Knicks > Nets. Knicks represent NY and the Nets will simply represent a borough that is not even the best. Jay-Z owns like 0.5% of the Nets, too.
If the reports are true, Knicks will barely represent NY anymore. It's starting to seem highly likely that the top free agents will shun the Knicks. That poster is just the beginning. The Nets are taking over. Just a matter of time before Knicks fans start rooting for that other NY team.
What reports? Chris Broussard? Please. The Knicks have no better of a chance of getting shut out than the Nets.
^Speculation. The Knicks actually have a better team a long with more opportunities than the Nets, I would argue.
The Knicks have more cap room and a legendary franchise. We have a better, more likable coach. We have a GM. We have some of the most supportive fans in all sports. There are more financial opportunities in NY than they are in NJ, and probably a lot more if he can resurrect the Knicks than if he can resurrect the Nets. How are the Knicks not the better team when they won 17 more games, which is a lot.
I don't want to steal the argument for cap space, so I'll just quote this. I'm not the biggest fan of Avery Johnson, But I'll take him over Mikey. D'Antoni is an offensive coach that seems to tell his players to take the ball and run with it. Defense doesn't seem to exist to him. Rod Thorn retiring won't be a deal breaker. If anything, the Nets will hire Jerry Colangelo who has expressed interest. Proky will make Lebron a billionaire. It doesn't get any better than that. And they still ended up with a shitty record. Nets went through all sorts of problems last season -- injuries, loss of identity, a beyond shitty coach, horrible attendance.
If only it was that easy. NBA players very rarely, if ever, take salary cuts. Asking Bosh to take $4M less is actually a lot to ask for. Having $5M extra than the Nets in this FA class is actually very significant. I also don't understand why Jay-Z and Prokhorov are so "persuasive". They don't play basketball and have no experience making basketball-related decisions. Johnson has had little longevity in the league. The knock on D'Antoni's defense is often overstated. He hasn't exactly had defensive-minded players. But even if Avery is the better coach which is (debatable), it doesn't matter. LeBron and other top-tier free agents are on record saying they enjoy playing for D'Antoni. Avery, however, is pretty unpopular amongst players. It doesn't have to be a deal-breaker to hurt the product. Colangelo is not a guarantee, either. Unless he literally gives LeBron money out of his own pockets, LeBron has no better chance of becoming a billionaire on the Nets roster. Terrible excuses. The biggest problem the Nets had is sucking. Every team deals with injury including the Knicks. The Nets attendance has always been horrible, including when they made it to the Finals in 2002 and 2003. Besides, the attendance started getting worse AFTER the Nets started losing and starting the season 2-20. Losing 70 games is actually a pretty rare feat; the Nets are now enshrined in the pantheon of sucky NBA teams.
Source If the Nets felt Avery would keep guys like Lebron from coming to the Nets he would've never been hired. Unpopular amongst players? I only remember hearing slight rumbles from the Dallas squad after he was fired. That can happen with any coach. This doesn't warrant a real response. It won't hurt the product, and the Nets will find a suitable option to replace Thorn soon. Source Maybe they are terrible excuses to you, but all these things played a role in the Nets soon to be forgotten season.
I was referring more to NBA experience. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is it true that Euroleague teams don't have salary caps? If this is the case, then his success in Russia is far less of an indication that he will be successful on this level. Why does what the Nets think matter? They also thought Sean Williams would turn into a great player. Avery Johnson is generally perceived as a stricter coach, giving players less freedom. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but does seem that D'Antoni is more well-liked in the league. If players like our coach more, it gives us an advantage over your team. Whoever they sign will not be better than Thorn. Therefore their product is worsened, no? I'm actually surprised you've been taken in by that nonsense. LeBron is a multimillionaire and has access to plenty of financial advisers. In fact, he's met with Warren Buffet, who is actually more of a financial genius than Prokhorov. He isn't more likely to be a billionaire in Newark. And I'm saying that's B.S. because most teams deal with those same factors and worse yet amass way better records.
What you're doing is questioning every little thing trying to turn it into a negative. Proky is not a stupid man. He's a self-made billionaire after all. He's going to do what it takes to succeed. And if anything you should question your own owner. Dolan has owned the Knicks for what, 10 years now? Seems like all that experience did nothing for him and he's still as incompetent as can be. Where are you getting your information? Where has it been said that D'Antoni is more well-liked? Being strict means nothing. Gregg Poppovich is a very strict coach. Do his players not like him? And I've seen some Knicks games where D'Antoni was screaming his head off at his players. He doesn't seem to be that gentle and nice man you're referring to. Thorn is a good GM but he has also proved to be quite disappointing. Over the past decade Thorn has failed to provide the Nets with the necessary bench support. He won't be that difficult to replace. Name one team the dealt with the same factors.
You are really overrating the owner's significance. The fact that he is a self-made billionaire is completely irrelevant. Because he has had success outside the NBA is not grounds for claiming: "He's going to do what it takes to succeed". Dirk: "I wish we had communicated a little more. We all know Avery ran a little dictatorship here. I think this league is still a league of players, not a coaches league." "Avery had a really strong will of what should go on out there, and he controlled the game a lot. I don't think there was enough movement going on. People were just sitting on our stuff, especially in the playoffs. We just couldn't score enough." Now this, from what I hear, is the overall perception of Johnson. You yourself said you didn't want him and he was a "control freak". I don't think Popovich is a dictator. He's well-liked amongst players and has a great sense of humor. I can't conclusively prove that players like D'Antoni better, but there are generally more positive news about D'Antoni than there is about Johnson. D'Antoni is especially well-liked by the players in Team USA - players we are trying to get. I hope this was a joke. Every good coach screams at players at least some of the times. But he has kept them pretty competitive throughout the decade and they made the Finals twice. I don't think there are many, if anyone available as good on the market. Washington, New York, Indiana, LA Clippers, Hornets to name a few.
The only reason you think I'm overrating Proky's significance, because once again, your owner is Dolan. And he has a hard time getting things done. But you know what, no one was complaining when the Mavs were heading to the NBA finals. It's when the Mavs began to fail their expectations that problems arose. Yeah Avery might still be a bit of a control freak, but you know what, the Nets squad might need that. No, it was Kidd that kept the Nets competitive. Washington -- Still had Jamison and Butler most of the year. New York -- What the Knicks go through exactly? Did they have a horrible coach? Injuries? Clippers -- Really? Quite a solid team with some of the injuries they had Hornets -- Paul was a big loss. And then Collison emerged, and made the Hornets close to competitive again.
Well apparently Lebron came out of the meeting with NY and was not impressed, saying that it felt "unprepared." Jay-Z offered Lebron his own clothing line and fragrance. lol
Beautiful ad hominem argument. The point is Proky's influence is less significant: he doesn't play, coach, or handle transactions. The NBA is also totally different from what he was dealing with before since we have a salary cap. You conveniently neglected that point. The point is that when it comes to coaching, Knicks are ahead of the Nets, and probably by a good margin. Who traded for Kidd? Who surrounded Kidd with the pieces to keep the Nets competitive? Washington - Arenas, their best player and a top 10 player when healthy, was out most the year. Further, the gun incident was by far the biggest distraction in the league. Knicks - Not so much last year, but certainly the last few years the Knicks have had a combination of terrible coaching, distractions, injuries, and still haven't lost 70 games or even 60 games. Hornets - Paul, arguably the best point guard in the league, was injured for about half the season. That injury is huge. Clippers - Eric Gordon missed some time and Blake Griffin missed the entire season. There is no excuse for the Nets being this bad. It's not like they were completely decimated by injuries. Devin Harris was injured, but he played most of the season (64 games). Besides, he has a history of getting injured anyway: last season he played 64 games, the year before he played 69 games, and the year before that he played 65 games. He's right around his season average of games played. Brook Lopez was their best player last year played all 82 games. The problem wasn't really injuries - the problem was really that they sucked. Winning 12 games is a complete joke and their is no excuse if your best players are playing 60+ games.
But he's certainly going to put pressure on his GM to put forth a team that can win. That's the type of person Proky is. Not to mention he's Russian. He wants to be successful in every aspect. I disagree. But we shall see. You missed the point. Thorn made a great trade for Kidd, props to him. But ever since that blockbuster trade, he had failed to provide the Nets -- more importantly Kidd with at least a decent bench. There are excuses to the Nets bad season, and if you don't wish to accept them, that's fine. It won't change anything. We will see who wins the free agency game -- Knicks or Nets. And who sucks next season. I still find it laughable how you seemed to take the Nets out of the free agency game.
If an incompetent GM is at the helm, pressure won't better his decisions. In fact, it can easily lead to bad free agent signings that only slightly improve the team's record at present, but severely hamper the team's long-term progress. Prokhorov owning the team is not as big a deal as you are making it out to be. I think it's fair to say D'Antoni is more well-liked by players than Avery Johnson, but we just have to agree to disagree then. Every team has weaknesses, and with a limited amount of assets Thorn managed to turn a lottery team into a contender for several consecutive seasons. Even if he didn't provide the Nets with a good enough bench, most importantly, and this is the main point, he did an excellent job when he was in charge. There are excuses - just not good ones. They had some injury problems, but their best player in Brook Lopez played all 82 games, and Harris played 64 games. The players who missed substantial time were Simmons, Hayes, Yi, and Dooling. If you say the Nets lost 70 games because these scrubs were injured then you are fooling yourself. Find me one post where I said the Nets were out of the free agency game. All I said was LeBron has a better chance at success both on and off the court playing with the Knicks than he does with the Nets. Any team with cap space is usually never out of the free agency game.
