The Brooklyn Nets are searching for a new general manager and a new head coach after they fired Lionel Hollins and reassigned Billy King earlier this season. There has been a reported list of candidates that owner Mikhail Prokhorov would consider hiring, but that list seems to be dwindling quite a bit. John Calipari and Danny Ferry appear to be out of the race now, leaving Bryan Colangelo, Arturas Karnisovas and Gersson Rosas as the three known candidates remaining, according to Brian Lewis of the New York Post.
Calipari was always going to be a pipe dream for the Nets, as he has one of the best jobs in college basketball at Kentucky and has outrageous demands to make the jump to the NBA. Still, Calipari has ties to the Nets, and CEO Brett Yormark has been pushing for the Nets to go after him. The idea of Calipari coming to the Nets has reportedly been "fading" despite the in-house support.
As for Ferry, he has had success in the NBA before, specifically with rebuilding franchises, but he is also reportedly out of the running. King, who is still involved in day-to-day decisions, has been pushing for Ferry to get the position, but that won't happen now. Ferry was let go by the Atlanta Hawks after he was involved in an incident in which he said Luol Deng "has a little African in him" in a scouting report. The circus he might bring along with him is likely a major reason he is no longer a viable candidate, and that is in the Nets best interest.
This leaves two guys that have never been a GM before and Colangelo as the three top candidates. The Nets reportedly really like both Rosas and Karnisovas for their potential and what they can bring in the way of international scouting, so they might not be at as big of a disadvantage as you would think. Also it should be noted that Frank Zanin, who is the acting GM for the Nets, is an option to keep the job as well. Zanin was the assistant GM under King but has gotten the endorsement of Kobe Bryant to be the Nets' full-time general manger.
The Nets have said that they want to hire a new GM before the trade deadline on Feb. 18. As of now, it is being reported that none of the candidates are close to being hired and that nothing is imminent in the process. Taking some candidates off the list shows some progress toward hiring a new GM, but if the Nets want to have someone in place before the deadline they will likely have to speed up the process a bit.
