Earlier in the month, the Brooklyn Nets decided to part ways with head coach Lionel Hollins as well as general manager Billy King after a disappointing start to the season. Now, Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the team has identified their top four candidates for the GM job, and the team is looking to hire someone before the Feb. 18 trade deadline.
The first candidate for the job is Bryan Colangelo, the former GM and President of the Toronto Raptors. Colangelo is a two-time Executive of the Year winner, but struggled to keep the Raptors in contention in his final years in Toronto.
Next is former Hawks’ GM Danny Ferry, who did a great job of transforming the Hawks’ roster into a viable contender without breaking the bank. But by the end of his tenure, Ferry became embroiled in controversy after audio of racially insensitive remarks he made about Luol Deng surfaced.
The final two candidates, according to Wojnarowski, are current Nuggets assistant GM, Alturas Karnisovas, and Rockets executive VP of basketball operations, Gerrson Rosas. Both have achieved success in assistant roles for their respective front offices.
Initially, there were reports that Brooklyn might be backing up the bank to lure John Calipari away from Kentucky, but now it appears that they may be going with a slightly less splashy GM and coaching hire.
As Wojnarowski explains, Colangelo and Ferry are being pushed because of their prior track record of success, while Karnisovas and Rosas may give the Nets an edge in the international market, something the team values.
Colangelo has strong backing at the highest reaches of the league office, and Ferry has support from outgoing Nets GM Billy King, who is still involved in the Nets’ day-to-day operations until his successor is hired.
Karnisovas and Rosas fit the Nets’ desire to have a more global scouting focus, something ownership believes was lacking under the previous regime.
Ultimately, the decision will be left up to Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who has been hit or miss with his personnel decisions since taking over as team owner in 2010. Thanks to the disastrous Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trade, the Nets will not be able to build through the draft, so whoever Prokhorov chooses will have the tall task of somehow turning Brooklyn into serious contenders without utilizing high draft picks.
