The New Jersey Nets took another big step in their re-building effort as they reached a verbal agreement with Avery Johnson to take over as the Nets’ new head coach. An official announcement is expected tomorrow. With the highest winning percentage in the history of the NBA (albeit a relatively small sample size), Johnson was likely the highest-profile pro coach available. That being the case, this hire fits in nicely with new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s commitment to bringing the Nets back to relevancy.
Johnson has a career regular-season record of 194-70, has coached a team to the NBA Finals, and has been the recipient of the Coach of the Year award. There’s no question of his ability to coach. His dismissal from the Mavericks came only after being eliminated from the first round in two consecutive seasons. This shouldn’t be of concern to the Nets, though, as a mere playoff appearance would be a notable achievement in New Jersey these days.
It will be interesting to see how Johnson handles this Nets team which finished the season with a 12-70 record and was widely discussed as one of the worst teams in NBA history. The Nets have an all-star caliber point guard in Devin Harris, who Johnson coached in Dallas – so there should be a level of familiarity there. They also have one of the east’s best young centers in Brook Lopez, but this team is a far cry from the talent level of the Mavericks when Johnson took over. Johnson more or less inherited a golden egg of a team, stacked with the likes of Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard, Jason Terry, and Michael Finley and Jerry Stackhouse in their younger days.
The Nets will need to acquire much more talent, and cultivate its current players if they want to be competitive again. Luckily for them, they are in a good position to do so. The Nets have enough cap space to sign up to two players to maximum contracts this Summer, giving them a major opportunity to bring in veteran, all-star level talent right away. Still, it’s no guarantee that they will be able to lure in a top free-agent, especially given the large number of teams who have cleared cap space to be active in this year’s free-agency period.
Regardless of what free agent(s) the Nets are able to nab this Summer, they will undoubtedly have a better record this year with Johnson at the helm. Well, there really is nowhere to go but up for the Nets. Sadly for Johnson though, I think that impeccable .735 winning percentage is going to take a notable dip in his first few years in New Jersey.
