Two Western Conference executives have moved into prominent consideration with Bryan Colangelo and Danny Ferry for the Brooklyn Nets‘ general manager job, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Denver Nuggets assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas and Houston Rockets executive VP of basketball operations Gersson Rosas have emerged as serious candidates in the process, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The Nets have expressed a desire to have a GM in place prior to the Feb. 18 trade deadline, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Formal interviews are expected to begin in early February.
So far, ownership has balked at the idea of paying Kentucky coach John Calipari the $120 million package he’s seeking for a return to the NBA, league sources said.
As the Nets’ hierarchy canvasses for background and insight, multiple league executives have spoken at length with team officials about Karnisovas and Rosas in recent days and weeks. While other candidates remain possibilities, these two have separated themselves in the process, league sources said.
Already identified as candidates for the job, Colangelo and Ferry have significant and well-known track records. Colangelo is a two-time NBA executive of the year, who had success running the Phoenix Suns and Toronto Raptors.
Ferry was GM of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks, where he helped build two Eastern Conference contenders. A year ago, Ferry was fired in a scandal surrounding a racially insensitive scouting report read on a management conference call with Hawks management.
Colangelo has strong backing at the highest reaches of the league office, and Ferry has support from outgoing Nets GM Billy King, who is still involved in the Nets’ day-to-day operations until his successor is hired.
Karnisovas and Rosas fit the Nets’ desire to have a more global scouting focus, something ownership believes was lacking under the previous regime. The Nets are severely limited in draft picks over the next several years, and will need to be creative in reshaping a floundering roster.
Karnisovas, a native of Lithuania, speaks several languages, including Russian, and has strong relationships with the members of owner Mikhail Prokhorov’s extended sporting inner-circle. Karnisovas was a college star at Seton Hall University, and has polished a strong global basketball résumé that includes jobs in the NBA’s league office, director of scouting with the Rockets’ front office, and currently as assistant GM with the Nuggets. Karnisovas spent two years as USA Basketball’s global basketball scout.
Working with Denver GM Tim Connelly, Karnisovas has had success with player personnel decisions involving overseas players, including the drafting of Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic, and Joffrey Lauvergne. Karnisovas played a part with selecting Emmanuel Mudiay and Gary Harris, too.
After Seton Hall, Karnisovas won two Olympic bronze medals (1992 and ’96) for Lithuania and was chosen as FIBA’s European Player of the Year in 1996. As a player, he reached the Euroleague Final Four three times.
In his 13th year with the Rockets, Rosas, a native of Bogota, Colombia, has been the franchise’s Executive VP for five years and worked closely with GM Daryl Morey in remaking the roster and building a 2014-15 Western Conference finalist. Rosas played a prominent role in the Rockets’ reshaping of the roster in the post-Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady era, when the franchise traded McGrady for multiple draft picks and built up the assets needed to acquire star James Harden via trade and lure Dwight Howard in free agency.
Rosas played a significant part in bringing Patrick Beverley from Europe as a free agent and drafting a future max-contract player, Chandler Parsons, with the 38th pick of the draft. During those years, Karnisovas was the Rockets’ director of scouting.
Rosas has strong personal and working relationships with two potential coaching candidates, Jeff Van Gundy and Tom Thibodeau. Both coaches worked with Rosas in Houston.
Rosas replaced Karnisovas – a former colleague with the Rockets – as the International Player Personnel Scout for USA Basketball in 2015. He also had a brief stay as Dallas Mavericks general manager in the summer of 2013 before parting ways and returning to Houston.
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