Video: Ian Eagle Interviews Avery Johnson and Billy King

This is a very good video where Nets broadcaster Ian Eagle interviews Nets coach Avery Johnson and Nets GM Billy King. Click here to watch the video and see below for my comments on the main points discussed.

• Avery Johnson says that since he has been coach of the Nets, “it’s always been about Brooklyn”. It is clear that nobody ever cared about the New Jersey Nets since they moved to the Prudential Center from the Izod Center in 2010.
• Billy King thinks that the 2.6 million people in Brooklyn will all become Nets fans. He seems to think that it will happen overnight, but this is not the case. Brooklyn still has more Knicks fans than Nets fans and King is going to need to do a lot of work for this to change.
• Billy King seems very confident that Deron will resign. I am glad to see this. He compliments him calling him the best point guard in the game.
• King is also confident that Brook Lopez will resign and he is “looking forward to seeing Brook back on the court healthy”. He calls him one of the best centers in the game.
• Avery also compliments Deron Williams saying that he thinks that he can win a matchup with any other point guard in the NBA. Avery thinks matchups are very important. Avery also talks about Deron’s supposedly excellent golfing skills and how he, Deron, and King spend time golfing. Avery was just trying to compliment Deron and his family as much as possible to try to convince him to resign.
• Billy King needs to convince Deron Williams that the Nets will be a winning team. If he can do this, Deron will resign; that is becoming clear. From what Billy is saying, Deron thinks that Brook Lopez is an excellent center offensively, so if he can stay healthy, the combo of Deron and Brook can become a nightmare for opponents defensively.
• The most interesting thing I found in this video was Billy King talking about Kris Humphries. When asked about free agency, Billy King seemed to feel comfortable at the point guard with Deron Williams, even though he is a free agent, the shooting guard with Marshon Brooks, even though he didn’t have a great rookie year, the small forward with Gerald Wallace, even though he is a free agent, and the center with Brook Lopez, even though he is a restricted free agent. King said the Nets needed to improve most at power forward and on the bench. This likely means that King does not want to bring Kris Humphries back, perhaps because the Nets do not have enough money to resign him if they get Williams, Lopez, and Wallace. I am surprised that King is so confident in Wallace resigning. He is one player who I would not be surprised to see leave, but Billy thinks he will stay. I am also surprised that King does not want to bring Humphries back. He has arguably been the best player on the Nets over the last two seasons. If not the best player, he has at least been the most consistent. If the Nets don’t resign The Hump, I’m not sure another team will want him. He may end up getting paid much less than he deserves because of all the extra Kardashian baggage. Luckily for him, he has probably made enough money through the entertainment world anyway.
• Avery says that the Nets need to do a better job of winning close games, specifically a loss to the L.A. Lakers on the road and a home loss to Miami where the Nets were leading for the entire game until the very last minute. I don’t really agree with Avery here. What is more important is that the Nets avoid getting blown out. They suffered blowout losses on many occasions last year and rarely had blowout wins. In fact, I think the Nets’ record was pretty good in close games.
• Avery talks about the Nets needing to improve at home. That is very true, as the only team worse than the Nets at home last year was the Charlotte Bobcats, who set records for being terrible. The Nets were an average road team, and even had a better road record than some playoff teams. I think this was mostly a coincidence.
• Avery Johnson knows his Brooklyn geography.
• Avery thinks that the Nets will be a playoff team next year and have an “opportunity to win a championship very soon”. Billy King finishes the interview by reiterating Mikhail Prokhorov’s guarantee that the Nets will win a championship within 5 years (now 3 years since 2 have already gone by). I think he is definitely feeling some pressure from Prokhorov’s statement.