BROOKLYN – Mikhail Prokhorov will reportedly be in Turkey on Sunday celebrating his 50th birthday with legions of $20,000 models hoping to console him after his American playtoy’s season came to a crashing halt at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks in Game 6 Friday night.
So what does the unabashed playboy do with this broken playtoy?
A little more than five years ago, Prokhorov vowed to bring a championship to Brooklyn or get married if that didn’t happen within five years. Now, he has neither a wedding nor NBA championship ring. He has already reneged on his marriage plan vow — although quickie nuptials can probably be arranged in Turkey.
He also vowed to give James Dolan’s New York Knicks – or as he calls them, the ‘Manhattan Knicks’ – a run for their money as the team of the city.
A first-round blowout in Game 6 with numerous empty seats and free t-shirts hanging in place of potential fans was not the vision Prokhorov had in mind when he purchased the team. In fact, some fans yelled “refund” and “go back to Jersey” as the Nets allowed 41 points to the Hawks in the decisive third quarter.
Will Prokhorov be going through a mid-life crisis in Turkey with beautiful women surrounding him? Hardly. On the other hand, the Nets are a team in crisis mode heading in the wrong direction next season.
Prokhorov will have much to ponder when he returns from his triumphant Turkish weekend.
Is it time to sell the team and cash out with a nice profit that will fund many more lavish birthday parties in the years ahead? Prokhorov turned what was a woeful franchise during its final years in New Jersey into a worldwide brand in Brooklyn that has made the playoffs in three straight seasons since moving.
Should there be a change in management? Billy King mortgaged the future by trading numerous first-round draft picks to the Boston Celtics for a failed one-year title window with Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce last season. The Nets will also swap this year’s first-round pick with the Hawks as part of the Joe Johnson trade.
Pierce verbally thrashed the Nets as too soft and lacking the mental fortitude to become champions in a recent ESPN interview.
Where does the current group go from here? After being dubbed the “best backcourt in the NBA” by King, Brooklyn couldn’t trade Johnson and Deron Williams this season in a fire sale attempt due to their overpriced salaries and underwhelming production. Brook Lopez also has a $16.7 million player option this summer and will strongly consider opting out after a healthy and productive season as I outlined in a previous SheridanHoops column.
Furthermore, Thaddeus Young – a major reason for Brooklyn’s playoff push after being acquired in a trade deadline heist for Garnett – also has a nearly $10 million player option.
“I’m definitely going to take my time and think about the situation at hand,” Young said. “Like I said, there’s nothing bad to say about anything. They’ve been the best. My teammates have been great and we all feel like we’re brothers. It’s all about me sitting down with my team and just figuring out things.”
Meanwhile, the Hawks are coming off their best game of the series before a showdown with Pierce and the Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference Semifinals beginning Sunday at 1 p.m. EST. Pretty quick turnaround, borderline unfair, but that is a subject for a different column.
Brooklyn can learn a thing or two from Atlanta about building a contender and developing continuity, according to Williams.
“You look at their team and that’s what they’ve had,” Williams said. “They’ve kind of built year by year something really special. It’s taken them a little bit of time. They’ve had the same coach and they’ve had the same group of guys. Now you see them and how they’re playing as a team.”
Hawks swingman DeMarre Carroll, whom Hollins called the “MVP of the series,” is ready to show Pierce the Hawks have the “it” factor to win a title.
“I know we’re going in there, we’re still mad,” Carroll said. “We’ve still got a lot to prove. You know, this might’ve been good for us.”
Carroll averaged 17.5 points on an outstanding 54 percent from the field and 47 percent from beyond the arc in the series. One NBA executive told SheridanHoops a few weeks ago that Carroll could get $8-9 million annually in free agency this summer. With the way he is performing in the postseason, that number may be underpriced.
Like Atlanta, Brooklyn hopes to go from the eighth seed to the top seed in the East the next season.
However, we all know that is completely unrealistic. Therein lies Prokhorov’s dilemma.
“I don’t think Lionel is going anywhere,” Williams said. “That’s definitely reassuring. You never know what’s going to happen in the offseason, but it’s good to know you’re going to have the same coach and if we keep most of our guys, we’ll have something to build on for once. We’ve had the same core, but we’ve been semi-healthy and played together under the same system. Hopefully we can build on things.”
While Williams painted an optimistic picture, I’m more in agreement with Johnson’s outlook this summer. With the futures of Lopez and Young so uncertain, the foundation that is in place is far from solid.
“I’m not sure what to expect this offseason, honestly,” Johnson said. “As a player, you know with the way the season went for us, we weren’t even a .500 team in the regular season, which is very disappointing considering the talent that we have in this locker room. Each and every player has the feeling that nobody is safe.”
Nobody should be safe as Johnson mentioned. When Prokhorov emerges from his midlife crisis festival, something needs to change.
After five full seasons of Russian ownership, has this project been a success?
Nyet.
Michael Scotto is an NBA columnist for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeAScotto.