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Nets staying modest in takeover of New York – Metro US

Nets staying modest in takeover of New York

Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov. (Photo: Getty Images)
The Brooklyn Nets are taking over the New York basketball landscape over the Knicks. 
 
That’s what happens though when you have the kind of offseason general manager Sean Marks is having. 
 
In the span of a week, the Nets have gone from a nice little team in the East to a budding powerhouse after signing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. 
 
Marks followed it up by adding verified depth in DeAndre Jordan, Garrett Temple, and Wilson Chandler to the mix. 
 
Even with Durant expected to miss the entire 2019-20 season after rupturing his Achilles during the NBA Finals with the Warriors, the Nets are still poised to make the postseason for a second-straight year. 
 
It’s an unthinkable feat that could happen this decade considering where the team was just a few years ago. 
 
Gutted from the Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry trade in 2013, the Nets averaged 23 wins per season from 2015-2018. 
 
Their struggles let the Knicks off the hook for being just as dysfunctional under the often-controversial owner in James Dolan. 
 
Marks, however, found a way to take the Nets from nothing and make Brooklyn an attractive target for the likes of Durant and Irving. 
 
From bargain signings to the trade for D’Angelo Russell, who developed into an All-Star under head coach Kenny Atkinson, the Barclays Center went from a house of horrors to the new mecca of Big Apple basketball, at least according to the Daily News. 
 
All the while, Dolan and the Knicks continued to think they could skate by merely on their reputation.
 
But the Phil Jackson tenure was an embarrassment, the Kristaps Porzingis era was short-lived, the Carmelo Anthony split was a mess. Instead of building a legitimate foundation through homegrown talent, the organization continued to invest their future on the prospect of signing big names in free agency. 
 
From LeBron James to Durant, to Irving, that’s yet to happen. 
 
And it resulted in the Nets taking over New York just seven years after moving to Brooklyn from New Jersey. 
 
It will be one of the biggest follies of the Dolan era as his franchise is now poised to assume the role of little brother in a city they’ve called home since 1947.
 
Even during their huge offseason that has turned around the fortunes of the franchise, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov isn’t planning any parades just yet.
 
“As part of the new culture Sean and Kenny have been building, we are looking at every step as the next one in a long journey,” he said in a statement. “We’re not shouting, we’re climbing. So, on the occasion of the signing of Kevin, Kyrie, DeAndre, Garrett, and Wilson, we’re not going to shout out loud from the rooftops, just give a little ‘woo!’ with our inside voice. A happy day for the Brooklyn Nets. Hoping for many more to come.”
 
And the Knicks aren’t even a blip on his radar. 
 
“We don’t set the takeover of New York as our goal,” Prokhorov said (h/t New York Post). We’re about steadily developing a team that, at some point in the not-too-distant future, will get us a championship.”