Don’t look now Nets fans, but it appears that nearly a decade of bad basketball from the New York area’s “other hoops team”, will thankfully come to an end as GM Billy King and their Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov have begun to build a contender in the Eastern Conference, beginning with the signing of the top free agent available, point guard Deron Williams, to a 5 year max contract worth more than $98 million.
Williams chose to help usher in a new era of Nets basketball into Brooklyn next season over returning home to play for the hometown Dallas Mavericks, who were only able to offer the 3 time All Star a deal for 4 years at $75 million, per the new collective bargaining agreement. There’s no doubting that GM Billy King’s ability to recently acquire 6 time All Star Joe Johnson from the Hawks to be Williams’ backcourt mate, as well as resigning free agent Gerald Wallace helped convince D-Will that the Nets are serious about not only bringing star power to the organization but are truly focused on winning going forward.
Despite the recent trade for the rather handsomely paid Johnson(more than $19.7 mil owed in ’12-’13), the free agent deal(3 years – $40 million) given to Wallace, and the new monster max deal to Williams, the Nets reportedly are still somehow still in the hunt for Orlando Magic big man Dwight Howard, but would now have to make a blockbuster sign-and-trade deal, probably involving another team, that would probably include a mixture of players like promising big man Brook Lopez, PF Kris Humphries, the resurgent Gerald Green, and even potentially newly signed Gerald Wallace. I’d give up Wallace in a deal for Howard, wouldn’t you?
In addition to the moves for Williams, Wallace, and Johnson, the Nets also made some key under the radar moves, signing rebounding demon Reggie Evans to a 3 year – $5 million deal and another 3 year, $15 million deal with promising Bosnian forward Mirza Teletovic.
The signing of Williams, who averaged a lofty 21 ppg and 8.7 assists, now gives the Nets a bonafide superstar going forward as they open the NBA’s newest arena, the Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn.
Check out some of D-Will’s Highlights from 2012:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
