NEW YORK — Sean Marks got the extra year that he demanded from the Nets for taking over Brooklyn’s front office and agreeing to undertake one of pro sports’ most daunting rebuilding projects.
Now what about the extra power he pushed for and allegedly will have as the team’s new general manager? We’re going to find out if Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov lives up to his word, or if he just sold the former Spurs assistant GM a certain landmark bridge in his new home.
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It’s a formidable challenge for Marks, as he inherits a terrible team that doesn’t control its own No. 1 draft pick until 2019, and has precious few assets, outside of Prokhorov’s outsized wallet. The blustery owner won’t do Marks any favors if he goes back on his word and doesn’t give him the control he’ll need to get the team turned around and headed back to respectability.
According to industry sources, the Nets initially presented a three-year deal and a scenario in which Prokhorov’s Brooklyn-based team would continue to have say in the team’s personnel matters. The group of Russians has been the absentee owner’s eyes and ears for six years and often interfered with the front office. Not surprisingly, for someone coming from San Antonio, that amounted to a deal-breaker.
As we reported Wednesday, Marks, 40, looked at the different people he would have to contend with and had serious second thoughts about leaving the Spurs, where he had risen through the ranks since 2012. The Nets knew that, too, and were almost resigned to move onto their next candidate, Arturas Karnisovis, the Denver assistant GM. But Brooklyn didn’t want to lose their top candidate, so it came back with the fourth year and an assurance of more autonomy for Marks, who is seen as a potential top-flight executive but has never run an NBA team before.
One source close to Marks told Sporting News after he accepted their offer that indeed there will be “less involvement from the committee" and “more power and control" for Marks.
Remember those words.
To rebuild a team that mortgaged its future with several get-rich-quick trades that all backfired, Marks needs to operate without any interference from the same folks who sometimes got in former GM Billy King’s way when he tried to conduct basketball business. Those include Dmitry Razumov, who worked behind the scenes on trade scenarios during King’s reign and often tried to push his agenda. “There were always too many voices," said one former team official.
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For Marks, it would have been ideal if Prokhorov had simply recalled his troops home and followed the lead of the Spurs and other top teams, including Miami and Dallas, who don’t give the buddies of owners a voice in basketball decisions.
But Prokhorov is not about to do that to his trusted lieutenants. On the plus side, he’s also given the go-ahead to re-stock the scouting department after making drastic cuts in which five key pro and college scouts, along with salary cap ace Bobby Marks, were given the ax in recent seasons. That is essential as the Nets try to get a step on teams when looking for talent.
To make this all work, Prokhorov should take a blowtorch to at least one of the eight lessons he claims to have learned since buying the Nets. In the third point of his recent 815-word missive, “Culture trumps talent,’’ he wrote, “getting everyone pulling in the same direction, working toward a single goal is not easy. I’ve seen over these years that personalities can strongly affect results. There can be differences of vision and opinion, and everyone should be heard, but, once we have a strategy, we all need to work together to fulfill it and put our individual issues behind us.’’
But now, according to what Sean Marks has signed on for, not everyone is going to be heard. But that all depends, on if Mikhail Prokhorov actually keeps his word.
