Avery Johnson adamant that Brooklyn Nets have the potential to become legitimate contenders – NBA Update
The Brooklyn Nets had a fantastic summer and are well on track to fulfil the promise of their Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov - a championship in the next five years.
The off-season business included the re-singing of All-Star point guard Deron Williams and the arrival of Joe Johnson from the Atlanta Hawks and these moves have pretty much put the newly shifted Nets on the championship radar.
Despite all the acquisitions that the Nets have made, the fact remains that the Nets have not played a single game since making the move to Brooklyn and are yet to establish team chemistry. But that has not stopped them from making
their title aspirations known.
Different players and officials have been boasting about the pedigree of this new team, and on Monday, the Media Day of the Nets, Coach Avery Johnson joined the list. He was however quite realistic about the chances;
“Where we are now, the goal is to win a championship. That’s the goal. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re playing for,” Johnson said “I couldn’t say that about the team the last two years because we weren’t there on any level.
... We’re not a championship team today, (but) hopefully we’ll be one as we move on through training camp and into the regular season and into the playoffs. ... Are we a championship team right now? No. But do we have the potential to be one? Absolutely. And
that’s where we want to be.”
Considering that the Nets have only won 58 games in the last three seasons combined and have failed to make it to the post-season for quite some time now, they will surely need to put in a lot of work in order to live up to their
own expectations. Sure, they have the Russian’s deep pockets to turn to if anything goes wrong, but money and fancy acquisitions alone cannot buy them championships.
The coming season will also be an acid test for Deron Williams, who despite being an extremely talented point guard, has failed to single handedly carry his team(s) in the past. He has enough pieces around him in Brooklyn and if
D-Will can’t do it now, he won’t do it ever.
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