When the 2013-2014 NBA season began, the Brooklyn Nets had a new and rookie coach (Jason Kidd) and several new and yet veteran players in the team line-up (Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry, Andrei Kirilenko, among others). Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez were retained to keep the core of the team. The new line-up and hiring of new coaching staff cost hundreds of millions of dollars to the Russian team owner and billionaire, Mickail Prokhorov.
Salary cap seems not in Prokhorov's mind. His mind is all set for the championship now. To give you an idea of how the team payroll looks like, the first five (Williams, Johnson, Pierce, Garnett, and Lopez) combined salaries alone has exceeded the salary cap for an NBA team which currently stands at $58.7 million. Thus, the expectations for the 2013-2014 Brooklyn Nets are very high to give the defending champion, Miami Heat, and contender Indiana Pacers a run of their money.
When the 2013-2014 regular season began, the Brooklyn Nets started pathetically. Injuries and adjustments to new teammates were the logical factors in the poor start. The rookie coach, however, got the heaviest punch of blame in the lackluster performance of the team.
After 10-21 win-loss record at the end of 2013, many basketball analysts and enthusiasts counted out Kidd as competent to be a head coach in the game immediately after retiring from playing it. The loudest call at that time was for him to resign or be fired. However, the Nets stuck with him and continued to believe in him.
Then, the new year came. Kidd forgot his necktie and did not wear it during the team's first game of 2014. The Nets won. For the next games, the Nets found its winning ways. Kidd continues not to wear a tie believing that it has a correlation with winning. Now, the Nets is 26-10 this year. It is the best win-loss record in the Eastern Conference from the start of 2014. Kidd is even priming his team to go deep into the post-season and setting his sight to the NBA finals.
If the Nets continue to surge, it may find itself against the best in the Eastern Conference and ultimately against the best in the Western Conference.
