BROOKLYN – Nets general manager Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson gave their final press conference of the 2017-18 season and both had plenty of insightful remarks about the campaign. BrooklynNets.com takes a look at the biggest storylines to emerge out of their comments.
Player Development Key in Brooklyn
Though the Nets were able to improve by eight victories in the 2017-18 season, there is a general sense that the team could have picked up more wins if it had better luck with injuries. That being said, Marks was happy to see the improvement of several players, which he credits to Atkinson and his coaching staff.
“Obviously, with the injury situations that happened, that threw a wrench in the works for us,” Marks explained. “Our staff, starting with Kenny and his coaching staff, was able to navigate that and put players in different situations to succeed.”
He later added, “Those things were important for me to look at when I look back and say how did Kenny and his staff do over the course of the year? It’s navigating the course. It’s never going to be straightforward. So, it’s these little obstacles that we find along the way and then making the most out of them.”
Spencer Dinwiddie, Joe Harris and Caris LeVert were all players who made significant progress in their second year with the Nets under Atkinson’s guidance. Entering his third season with the Nets, the head coach hopes to see the same returns out of D’Angelo Russell, Jarrett Allen and Allen Crabbe next season.
“We can look at the guys that made the commitment last offseason, and hopefully they saw the improvement in certain players,” Atkinson said. “Whether it’s D’Angelo or Jarrett or Allen, they’re going to say ‘Man, I’m going to buy into this.’ The proof will be in the pudding when we start next year’s preseason and we talk about the commitment and buy-in, but I expect full commitment.
“That’s the feedback we got in exit interviews, that’s the type of guy we collective brought in here that buy into the whole program. So I expect full participation, enthusiasm for what we’re trying to do here in the offseason from all those guys.”
Marks weighs in on free agents Harris and Jahlil Okafor
Marks shared his thoughts on the futures of two upcoming free agents in Harris and Jahlil Okafor.
Harris is viewed as a key member of Atkinson’s rotation and had an impressive second year with the team as he shot 41.9 percent from downtown and averaged career highs across the board. The Nets general manager appreciated Harris’ recent comments about wanting to stay and insisted bringing back the swingman will be a priority this offseason.
“I think Joe made it pretty clear from statements he made that he’d love to be back here. That’s how the organization feels about him too,” Marks said. “As Kenny alluded to before, we’ve got some decisions to make on several [players], and definitely Joe is a guy we see in a Nets uniform.”
Marks also addressed Okafor’s time with the Nets. The former Blue Devil arrived in a trade with the Sixers that received a lot of attention, but he wasn’t able to ever find a consistent footing within Atkinson’s rotation. Though there were several games where the 22-year-old showed glimpses of why he was selected third overall in 2015, he would end up averaging 6.4 points and 2.9 rebounds in just 26 games of action in Brooklyn.
Marks backed Atkinson’s usage of the center in Monday’s press conference.
“When you say ‘how Kenny used him,’ there’s a lot of group-think that goes into that,” Marks explained. “This isn’t one person sitting here making that (decision). This is the front office, this is analytics, performance, coach staff. We’re all sitting here saying, ‘How are these guys? Are they ready to play from a physical standpoint?’ And when they are ready, obviously, that is ultimately up to the coaches and Kenny to decide on that.”
Optimism at Joe Tsai’s arrival
It was announced last Thursday that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has completed the sale of a 49 percent interest of his team to Alibaba Group Co-Founder Joe Tsai. In his first comments since the news broke, Marks appeared to be excited by the new partnership in the Nets ownership, pointing at the vast amount of resources that should be at the team’s disposal.
“The fact that Joe saw something that he liked in Brooklyn, saw something that he liked with the Nets organization, I think there’ll be a great partnership between the two,” Marks said. “I think we’re very fortunate to have that amount of knowledge and that amount of commitment shown by two individuals – arguably either one could own a team outright if they wanted to.”
“So the fact that they are both in here, showing that level of partnership and commitment to us is intriguing for sure.”
Despite the spending power of Prokhorov and Tsai, Marks insisted that there will be no shortcuts in his rebuilding of the Nets. He wants to make sure that every move that the team makes keeps the team’s future, particularly its flexibility, in mind.
“We already know we have an ownership group that is ready to fork out the big money when that timing is right,” Marks said. “I think if we skip steps and think we can do it right now or we could’ve done it a year ago, that’s when franchises end up digging themselves into a hole. They lose the flexibility in which to build and win with.”