The Brooklyn Nets have still not made a move to replace Billy King as the GM of the team after they reassigned him earlier this month. As of right now Frank Zanin, King's assistant GM, is the interim general manager but the Nets are in the process of finding the long term replacement. As of now it seems as though the Nets have four "serious" candidates to become the new general manager of the team, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
There had been reports previously that the Nets were zeroing in on two different guys for the job including Danny Ferry and Bryan Colangelo but now two new names have joined them on the list. Denver Nuggets assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas and Houston Rockets executive VP of basketball operations Gersson Rosas round out the four possible candidates for the Nets. It is possible that new candidates are added to the list but the Nets reportedly want to name a new GM before the trade deadline which is Feb. 18th and these four guys are in the lead for now.
Each candidate for the job has some intrigue attached to his name. Both Colangelo and Ferry have a lot of experience as GM's in the league and each of them have built winners in the NBA. Colangelo did a great job of rebuilding the Phoenix Suns and the Toronto Raptors into perennial playoff teams while Ferry did the same with the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Atlanta Hawks.
Colangelo has a lot of backing from the top of the NBA front office to get the job and is a two-time NBA executive of the year. Ferry, on the other hand, has the support of King who is still involved in the Nets day-to-day operations until a new GM is hired.
Karnisovas and Rosas are attractive options to the Nets because they should be able to bring more of a global scouting focus to the franchise, something that the Nets felt they were missing under King. Karnisovas is with the Nuggets now and they have three solid centers from overseas that he helped bring over including Jusuf Nurkic. The Nets do not currently have many draft picks or future assets to work with moving forward so they feel getting some good foreign players might be a good, creative way to improve the roster.
Karnisovas and Rosas have reportedly been extremely impressive so far in the process for the Nets and for that reason they might be the favorites to land the job. Ferry and Colangelo are still extremely strong candidates with strong track records but the thought of needing better scouting globally may win out in this scenario. Either way expect the Nets to name a new GM within the next few weeks.
