Billy King On Nets: "We have to be hungrier to improve"

With the Nets’ inaugural season in Brooklyn complete, General Manager Billy King sat down with Ben Couch of BROOKLYNNETS.COM for an exclusive interview wrapping up the year and looking forward toward the offseason.

One quote from the interview I thoroughly enjoyed and hope all the Nets take notice of is below.

“We have to be hungrier to improve, and remember that pain that we felt in Game 7.”

[quote_simple] Mike Mazzeo ESPNNY

“I didn’t know how quickly the group was going to gel,” King said. “When you put that many pieces together, that many guys that were so-called ‘their guy’ on their team, you don’t know how it’s going to gel. I thought it did quickly … then it faded. But I think the biggest thing was my vision was for us to have homecourt advantage, to finish in one of the top four spots, which we did. But I thought with that it would help us get to the second round. So that’s where the disappointment really came about.”

“I think P.J. (Carlesimo) did this year — and got us to where we are — but I think we could have gone further. … I think we need to create a culture that becomes the identity of the Brooklyn Nets; something where I think it’s got to be the vision of the Brooklyn borough, where it’s going to a tough-minded, where you know if you come to play us, it’s going to be a dogfight every night. That’s what I’m looking for in a coach that will instill that within the team.”

“I always go back to Coach K because the mindset he always gave us is that people expect to play Duke, and so give them Duke, he always said,” King said. “So when you go out there, people expect that to be it to be a tough game, a defensive-minded game, they’re going to be physical. So that’s what I’m looking at.

King reiterated his goal to bring European sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic over for next season.

“He has an NBA buyout, so the object is for him to exercise it, give him the money, get him to come over and I think he wants to come over,” King said. “(But we) can’t do anything until July 1 (the start of free agency), so we’ll look at that when the time comes.”[/quote_simple]