How the Brooklyn Nets Didn’t Botch Their Big Move to New York

It’s easy to hate. In 2005, real estate developer Bruce Ratner announced plans to relocate the Nets to Brooklyn and an immediate backlash ensued. The fans in New Jersey were hurt, while Brooklynites needed some time to warm up to the idea of a basketball team making themselves at home in their backyard. Eventually, the metaphorical ball got rolling once Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov assumed the role of principal owner of the franchise on September 23, 2009.

Upon taking control of the Nets, Prokhorov promised that he would put a competitive squad out on the court. Is that a new philosophy? No. Every owner wants their team to win as soon as possible, but like many franchises, they go through their bumps along the way. In the last three seasons, the Nets have gone 58-172. Surely, the tide needed to turn at some point and what better time then their big move to the Big Apple?

With the Nets only a couple months away from their first game in the newly-created Barclays Center, expectations are high. But why is that? It’s simple: When it comes to competing in New York, the pressure to succeed is a lot greater. Just ask the New York Knicks. So, with money to spend and a fresh start in a new town, Brooklyn added a couple players and retained others. Yet a recent article posted on Grantland entitled “The Brooklyn Nets Brand” is referring to their moves as the most inorganic approach to assembling a team. Which, we figured the Heat or Tartabull-era Yankees had a copyright on, but hey. Well, let’s dissect what Grantland considers the three ways that the Nets have failed as an NBA rebuilding project and see who you agree with more.

Written by Jose Martinez (@ZayMarty)

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Early on, Carles says that "It's hard to remember who Deron Williams actually is—he has basically been M.I.A. for two seasons due to injury and/or strategic tanking...Can you really be a 'franchise guy' if you go M.I.A. for two seasons of your prime?" Wait. It’s hard to remember who Deron Williams is? He’s the guy who, aside from his rookie year, has been ranked in the top five in assists every season he’s been in the NBA. He's not Cal Ripken when it comes to playing every game, but he's not Greg Oden either: He missed 28 of his teams' 148 games the past two years. Sure, this past season he averaged the fewest assists since his rookie year (8.7 per game) but did you see who was playing alongside him? Williams needed to put that dishing mentality to the side and become more of a scorer, which explains his second-highest average since joining the league at 21 points per game.

Are those type of numbers the work of a “franchise player”? Probably not. But why don’t we take a look at the supposed “superstar” for the cross-town Knicks. When Carmelo Anthony was traded to New York, he was given that often used title and what has he done lately? Two first-round bounces is hardly the work of a superstar. But in the 2008-09 season, Anthony led the Nuggets to the Conference Finals before losing to the Lakers, 4 games to 2. However, in 2008, Deron led the Jazz to the Conference Finals before losing their series to the Lake Show 4-2, as well.

There are many anointed superstars in the league, but "true value" to a team should be held to a higher regard. When the Knicks played without Melo, they were still pretty good. One reason for that was the rise of Jeremy Lin, or more importantly, an effective point guard. In order to succeed, you need a solid guy that can manage to score when need be while also passing the ball to the open player in the most opportune situation. That describes Deron Williams to a T.

Carles goes on to claim that Joe Johnson was only as good as Steve Nash made him while the two played on the Suns. In other words, Johnson needs a premium point guard to thrive. Now who just signed a premium point guard to a five-year extension? Chris Broussard's sources know.

Finally, Carles criticizes Joe Johnson for "reuniting with a world-class point guard when he wanted to do it himself all along." For our explanation, we'll take a quote from three-time MVP and member of the 2012 world champion Miami Heat, LeBron James, who, when asked why he signed with Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade on Oprah's Next Chapter said "you can't do it alone." For JJ to reach that next level, he needs help. Deron may be the missing piece. Much of next season's success lies on Williams' shoulders. If those aren't the expectations of a superstar, we don't know what are.

When you move to New York, you need to assimilate yourself with the faster pace and busy atmosphere. Similarly, when the Nets moved to Brooklyn, they developed the mentality of nearly every New York sports team: the "win now" philosophy. The idea of overpaying for talent, trading draft picks and giving away promising young talent is a Knicks specialty. Is there "artistry" in that? Nope. There's no artistry in the way the Yankees front office runs. But how can the Nets and more specifically, GM Billy King be put in that same category when his team features only one new starting player from the squad that played in New Jersey?

Yeah, all of the guys that were retained have shiny, new and very expensive contracts, but Deron, Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries didn’t stay just for the money. Carles says "It wasn't about finding players that believed in the Brooklyn dream," but that's exactly why Williams, Wallace and Humphries are still around.

There's an artistry in making the same crop of players think that after last year's abysmal season, things would be any different now that they are in a new location. There's an artistry in getting a quality player like C.J. Watson to turn down more lucrative offers from other teams to join the Nets. Saying that “it doesn't feel like he ‘saved’ anything” is an even crazier assumption. What he “saved” was the cornerstone(s) of the team when he got Deron to re-sign and extended Brook Lopez’s deal to a max contract. Now, the Nets just need an orthopedic surgeon who can sculpt Lopez's foot with artistry and they'll be just fine.

Carles says “’Building an entirely new culture’ used to be a hot sports term that made it sound like you understood that there was something 'beyond the game' that had to be altered within a franchise to make it a winner.” Now, the Nets didn’t change their culture. They really didn’t change their team other than adding Joe Johnson and a bunch of back-ups. So, the theory of “building an entirely new culture” absolutely lends itself to the Brooklyn Nets.

The idea that “something ‘beyond the game’ had to altered within a franchise to make it a winner” speaks on the Nets move from New Jersey to Brooklyn. In their past couple of seasons playing at the Prudential Center, otherwise known as the “ticking time bomb” phase of their move out of Jersey, the Nets experienced ridiculously low attendance and a greatly depleted fan base. The ownership was eagerly anticipating the day that they could call BK home. That upcoming move was their blank slate, their fresh start—the sort of change that was beyond the game of basketball.

As Carles later points out, “Not every team can be the Little Incubation Project That Could, better known as the Oklahoma City Thunder.“ This is true. But for every Oklahoma City, there are plenty of other teams that think they can build a championship ready team through the Draft only to find themselves back in the lottery the following year. This is the Charlotte Bobcats' umpteenth time thinking that they've finally found the draft pick answer to all their problems after selecting Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in late June.

Finally, when Carles goes on to assume that “the idea of a 'winning team culture' as effective only for small markets in which locals need the illusion of togetherness and overcoming long odds, which often result from a series of lucky bounces and prudent managerial decisions,” one needs to forget about everything that went down before the Nets made this move to Brooklyn. With their move to BK comes Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez and Deron Williams. All three guys have gone through the lowest of lows together for most of the past two seasons. They chose to stay together because the three of them believe that with a change of scenery comes a change in mentality, or a possible winning team culture. Don't dismiss what the Nets management has been able to do over this current off-season. Perfect? Far from it, and even the most perfect of off-seasons can take a year to pan out (see: Heat, Miami, 2010-11). But "botched." Fuhgeddaboutit.