There was no bigger loser in the NBA Draft Lottery than the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets. After being Heisman’d by one free agent star after another over the last three years, a shot at Anthony Davis could’ve been that spark they so desperately needed to set Brooklyn ablaze upon arrival. That wasn’t happening however, and things just got worse from there. As the ping pong balls pushed the Nets out of the top-3 picks, the lottery protected selection they hoped to hold on to left with it. As a result, the Nets will make their first Draft pick from Brooklyn with the 57th overall pick in June 28th’s NBA Draft.
Not that they still don’t want to get back into the first round that is, according to Coach Avery Johnson:
“We are preparing like we are still going to be in the first round,” Johnson told ESPN’s Andy Katz at the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine. “We have an unlimited amount of resources within the rules, so you never know. We probably could get into the first round, end of the first round.
“So we’re here evaluating all of these kids, we’re going through the interview process just like all of the other teams. So even though we’re at 57 now, my general manager is Billy King and Mikhail Prokhorov is the owner so you never know what they may pull off. So we’re anticipating that we could move up.”
Asked specifically how the Nets might add a first-round pick, Johnson said: “There are a variety of ways to get there. Can’t give you any of our secrets, but we have some opportunities. We’re talking to teams like everybody else and we have our eyes on some players that if we end up getting in the first round, there’s some guys that we like.”
That’s gotta be the worst. Bringing in all these first round prospects, interviewing them, watching them work, thinking about how much better they’d all be than different guys you have currently, and then watching them come off the board 20 or 30 spots before you even have the chance to pick. Props on the Nets for doing their due diligence though. If they do end up swinging some type of crazy deal, it certainly would behoove them to be prepared. I would like to know what those unlimited resources he’s talking about include though, because I don’t see it. But maybe I’m wrong.
