ATLANTA — After making a pit stop in Philadelphia, to avoid being potentially snowed in, the Nets rolled into town for Wednesday's game against the Hawks with a crystal clear reminder of the seemingly impossible spot in which the organization finds itself.
Not only do the Nets enter Wednesday's action a half-game behind the Hornets for eighth place in the woeful Eastern Conference, despite having the highest payroll in the league, but they also go into it knowing they virtually are guaranteed to swap draft picks with the Hawks — who lead the East with a 37-8 record and have won 16 games in a row — as the final piece of compensation in the 2012 Joe Johnson trade.
That piece is why the Nets find themselves bizarrely stuck in place as they hit the final two weeks before the All-Star break, and the final three weeks before the trade deadline. Though their three high-priced stars — Johnson, Deron Williams and Brook Lopez — have been involved in various trade rumors over the past month, the Nets can't just give away any of them, because falling deep into the lottery doesn't do them any good.
Russian billionaire owner Mikhail Prokhorov, meanwhile, seems poised to sell the team this year, which would be a prudent financial move — given he likely could make somewhere near 10 times the roughly $220 million he paid five years ago for 80 percent of the franchise and 45 percent of Barclays Center, which had yet to be finished at the time. The fact the team likely is to be sold means members of the front office and coaching staff are in limbo. It will be up to whoever buys the team to determine what happens to them.
As for the on-court product, there's little coach Lionel Hollins can do at the moment, given the Nets have spent virtually the entire month of January without Williams — who participated in non-contact portions of Tuesday's practice but again will sit out against the Hawks — and now is without Mirza Teletovic. The one big man on the roster capable of stretching defenses out beyond the 3-point line is gone for the rest of the season after blood clots were discovered in his lungs last week.
Johnson has been playing through tendinitis in both his right knee and left ankle, which has hindered his mobility and limited his productivity both on offense and defense. Jarrett Jack, Williams' replacement in the starting lineup, often has looked tired — having to play close to 40 minutes a night because there isn't a viable backup option for him.
Put it all together, and it's a far from pretty picture for a Nets team that probably would love nothing more than to wipe the canvas clean and start over. Instead, it's stuck in limbo, unable to tear things down and, at least right now, unable to get things turned around, either.
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