What Happens If the Brooklyn Nets Are a Disappointment?

New stadium, new Brooklyn Nets team, and expectations are running high.

Joe Johnson told the NY Daily News, “I think we have a chance to win the whole thing this year. I’m not just saying it. I honestly believe it.”

“We’ve gotta be in the top 10, that’s one of the barometers for us defensively," coach Avery Johnson told ESPN.

But after all the hoopla, budget-busting PR campaigns, mobile basketball trucks and major palm-greasing  -- what happens if the Brooklyn Nets don't live up to expectations next season?

NBA lead writer Ethan Strauss says he eyes the Nets "as perhaps ranking among the most disappointing teams next year."

Sure, Deron Williams' was re-signed. But Williams has already played 67 games for the Nets, "and the results have not been especially inspiring," Strauss writes. The Nets have "an awful defense," and the backcourt of Johnson and Williams -- who should be fun to watch -- may not combine especially well.

Worst case scenario? Will Leitch writes for New York Magazine: "Look at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, or the Palace in Detroit, or Power Balance Pavilion in Sacramento, buildings constructed with the idea of Instant Urban Status that almost never reach full capacity, albatrosses, cursed by teams that can’t contend and ownerships that constantly shift hands. At one point, those buildings and their teams were the hot new item in town, with their own slick new logos and stadiums. Then a few years passed and the teams floundered and everyone moved on to the hot next thing or, worse, moved on to nothing at all.

"Because if you think there was public outcry when apartments were razed and homeowners were evicted for the building of this new arena," Leitch says, "wait until you see the uproar if Barclays Center isn’t a success."

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Photo by MK Metz

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