The Knicks have owned the metropolitan area since their inception as an original NBA franchise almost 70 years ago. However, as the Nets prepare to move into the brand new Barclays Center in Brooklyn this season, they have designs on making an immediate splash and taking a piece of New York City for themselves.
If that plan is to come to fruition, it’s going to take a roster that can at the very least be competitive. General Manager Billy King believes he has put together just such a team and on Thursday afternoon, two key pieces of the future in Brooklyn were introduced.
In a press conference held at Brooklyn Borough Hall, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson were introduced after they were re-signed and acquired via trade, respectively, during a flurry of activity across the NBA on Wednesday once the moratorium on free agents ended on Wednesday morning at 12:01 a.m.
Williams re-signed with the Nets for a reported five years and $98.7 million, while Johnson, a six-time All-Star, was sent to the Nets for Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, DeShawn Stevenson, Jordan Williams, Johan Petro, the Houston Rockets’ 2013 first round pick and the Nets’ second round draft pick in 2017. Johnson is owed approximately $89 million over the next four seasons.
Williams and Johnson together gives the Nets arguably the best starting backcourt in the Eastern Conference, but King took that notion a giant step further on Thursday.
“This is a great day because it’s a day when we put together the best backcourt in the NBA,” King said. ”
“This is an exciting day for me and our Nets basketball family, to have two outstanding young men to lead us into Brooklyn next year,” Nets head coach Avery Johnson said.
The new backcourt is the cornerstone, but King has worked tirelessly since free agent negotiations opened on July 1 to not only snare Williams and Johnson, but put pieces around them as well. On Wednesday, much of that work came to fruition.
Gerald Wallace re-signed for four years and approximately $40 million and Brook Lopez agreed to return for four years and a reported $60.8 million once the Nets’ attempts to trade for Dwight Howard came to an end. After those two, rugged power forward Reggie Evans was acquired via sign-and-trade, while versatile 26-year old Euroleague star Mirza Teletovic was signed for the taxpayer mid-level exception of roughly $10 million over three years.
“If you told me five years ago I would be driving around New York, I’d have said “Yeah, right,” Williams said. “Billy is a big reason why I wanted to stay, along with coach. I didn’t to leave them on an island.”
The next thing for King to get accomplished is attempting to re-sign free agent power forward Kris Humphries, which would theoretically complete the starting lineup with Williams, Johnson, Wallace and Lopez already in the fold. The Nets have reportedly offered him three years and $24 million to return, while the Charlotte Bobcats have reportedly offered him three years and $22 million.
