Nets hire San Antonio’s Sean Marks as general manager

Sean Marks is in charge in Brooklyn.

Owner Mikhail Prokhorov has shown he has no problems with spending big in order to win.

He is leaving one of the NBA’s most consistently successful franchises to join a team that is 14-40 and has the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference. At the very least, he’ll be fielding calls on players like Thaddeus Young, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson.

The Nets and Marks agreed to a four-year contract, league sources told The Vertical. Not so the Nets, who have the bleakest long-term outlook and prospects in the league, if not all of American sports. Well one day later the Nets have announced that Marks has been hired as the new GM, according to Net Income of SB Nation. It will be tough.

In San Antonio, Marks worked closely with Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, who is viewed as a candidate for the Nets’ open gig.

However, there should be plenty of patience for the 12-year National Basketball Association player, as the Nets should have no delusions of grandeur about their immediate future. But at least they’re Brooklyn’s problem now.

Brooklyn does not have control of its first-round draft pick again until 2019 due to the series of trades former GM Billy King orchestrated to get the team into playoff contention upon its arrival in our fair borough. But at the moment, Marks has the job if he wants it. Well, he comes with a bit of baggage as well.

At Wednesday afternoon’s unveiling of the Nets’ new $50 million practice facility, asked if he’d offered the job to Marks, Prokhorov joked he’d “never heard the name” in his best poker face.

For now though, Marks will have no time to waste dwelling on those possibilities. Since the firing, under interim Head Coach Tony Brown the Nets have registered a record of 4-13.

Now that the Nets have a GM in place they can turn their attention to finding a new head coach.

“I look at it as a great opportunity”. He would help lead them to their championship win in 2014.

It will be interesting to see how Marks handles the rest of the season.

The Nets may not be done plucking from the Spurs’ talented tree either.

And as Marks’ promotion suggests, people working in the Spurs’ front office have been in hot demand.