Brooklyn Nets: Ranking the Best Players by Position in Team History

The Brooklyn Nets franchise has spent its entire 46-year existence bouncing around the New York metropolitan area, first in the fledgling American Basketball Association and, since 1976-77, in the NBA.

Born as the New Jersey Americans in the inaugural season of the ABA, the team played its home games in a converted armory in Teaneck, N.J.

The Americans were scheduled to host the Kentucky Colonels in a one-game playoff for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Division, but a circus had left the Teaneck Armory in no condition to host a game. An alternate site, Commack Arena in Commack, N.Y., was located, but the floor was full of holes and covered with condensation from the ice surface beneath it and the Colonels were awarded a forfeit win.

So it figures that the Americans’ next move would be to move to Long Island—and Commack Arena—on a permanent basis the following season. The team was renamed the New York Nets—owner Arthur Brown was unhappy that whatever press the team did get in the New York media included the team name being shortened to “Amerks,” which he believed “looked communist.”

The Nets played two seasons at Commack before moving to the larger Island Garden in Hempstead, N.Y., in 1969. Midway through the 1971-72, the Nets were on the move again, this time to the new, 17,800-seat Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. That would remain the Nets’ home for the rest of the team’s time in the ABA.

After acquiring superstar Julius Erving from the Virginia Squires in 1973, the Nets put together two ABA championship runs, winning in 1974 and again in the ABA’s final season in 1976.

The merger came at a steep price for the Nets, steeper than the price for the other ABA refugees—the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs. Under terms of the merger, the teams were treated as expansion teams and had to pay a $3.2 million expansion fee. The ABA teams received no television money during their first three seasons and the players from the folding Kentucky Colonels and Spirits of St. Louis would be allocated to the other NBA teams.

But the Nets owed an additional $4.8 million to the New York Knicks for invading the Knicks’ territorial rights. Strapped for cash to make the payment by the Sept. 15, 1976, deadline, Nets owner Roy Boe offered Erving to the Knicks as compensation, but the Knicks—in one of their worst personnel moves ever—turned it down. Instead, Erving was sold to the Philadelphia 76ers and the Nets sunk to the lower levels of the NBA.

Those fees came on the heels of the $2 million the Nets and Nuggets had been fined in the fall of 1975, when they tried to break ranks and jump to the NBA.

The Nets played just one season on Long Island after joining the NBA. With a new arena planned for the Meadowlands in New Jersey, the Nets headed back to the Garden State, playing four seasons at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J., and became the New Jersey Nets. In 1981-82, the Brendan Byrne Arena finally opened and was the team’s home—through many arena names—through the 2009-10 season.

It was while in that building, then known as Continental Airlines Arena, the Nets enjoyed their greatest NBA success, reaching the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 behind point guard Jason Kidd. In 2010, the Nets moved one more time to the new Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., while waiting on their new facility in Brooklyn to be completed.

In the fall of 2012, the Nets moved to Brooklyn and the new Barclays Center and had a complete makeover. Gone was the franchise’s long-standing red-white-and-blue color scheme, replaced by a minimalist black-and-white approach.

In 37 NBA seasons, the team has made the playoffs just 17 times after qualifying in seven of their nine ABA campaigns. This season marked the team’s return to postseason basketball after a five-year absence.

So who are the best players by position in the history of the Brooklyn Nets franchise?

NOTE: Players must have appeared in 250 regular-season games with the franchise to be considered for this list.

Small Forward: Julius Erving (1973-76)

Julius Erving played only three seasons for the New York Nets, but led the franchise to two ABA titles and helped set the table for a merger between the upstart league with the red-white-and-blue ball and the most established NBA. (Flickr.com photo by ChinueX)

Julius Erving came to the Nets in 1973 when the cash-strapped Virginia Squires were forced to sell the young star. To say Erving had an impact on the Nets would be a huge understatement.

Erving was the ABA’s Most Valuable Player in all three of his seasons in New York and led the league in scoring in both 1973-74 and 1975-76, both championship seasons for the Nets. He was an All-Star all three seasons as well as being a first-team All-ABA selection.

Erving’s 28.7 player efficiency rating (PER) in 1975-76 is the best single-season mark in franchise history as are the 17.7 win shares he posted that season. Despite playing just three seasons, Erving is sixth on the franchise’s all-time scoring list with 7,104 points. He is also sixth with 521 blocked shots, seventh with 583 steals and eighth with 2,738 rebounds.

Erving’s 28.2 points per game is the second-highest average in team history and he is fourth with 2.3 steals per game and 2.1 blocked shots per game and fifth with 10.9 rebounds per game. His 50.8 field-goal percentage is tied for sixth-best in franchise history and his 26.8 career PER with the Nets is the best for the franchise.

Here are some highlights from Erving’s final game as a Net, a 31-point, 19-rebound performance against the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the 1976 ABA Finals:

Erving was sold to the Philadelphia 76ers in October 1976 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993.

Apologies to: Richard Jefferson, Chris Morris, Kendall Gill, Albert King.

Power Forward: Buck Williams (1981-89)

Buck Williams was the third overall pick by the New Jersey Nets in the 1981 NBA Draft and the former Maryland star didn’t disappoint.

Williams was the 1981-82 NBA Rookie of the Year after averaging 15.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per game and helping the Nets back to the playoffs for the first time since 1979.

Williams was a three-time All-Star, was named second team All-NBA in 1982-83 and was on the All-Defensive second team in 1987-88.

Williams led the NBA with 3,182 minutes in 1984-85.

With 10,440 points, Williams is the Nets’ all-time leading scorer and the only player in franchise history to top the 10,000-mark plateau. He is also the team’s leader with 7,576 rebounds and 635 games, is second with 696 blocked shots and sixth with 599 steals.

Williams is also the franchise leader with 11.9 rebounds per game and his 55 percent field-goal shooting is the franchise’s third-best.

Williams was the subject of a nice feature in 1986:

In June 1989, Williams was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for Sam Bowie and a first-round pick in the 1989 draft. Williams went on to help Portland to the NBA Finals twice; Bowie was … Sam Bowie.

Apologies to: Derrick Coleman, Keith Van Horn, Kenyon Martin, Jayson Williams.

Center: Billy Paultz (1970-75)

This 1975 Topps basketball card from the author’s personal collection depicts “The Whopper.” Billy Paultz was a part of the New York Nets’ first championship team in 1974 and still ranks as the best center in franchise history.

Billy Paultz came to the New York Nets in 1970, when the team’s new coach and general  manager, Lou Carnesecca, traded cash and a draft choice to the Virginia Squires for the rights to the rookie center who had played for Carnesecca at St. John’s.

Not a bad move. Paultz was a two-time ABA All-Star for the Nets and was on the team’s first ABA title team in 1974. Nicknamed “The Whopper” because of his 6’11”, 265-pound frame, Paultz was a force in the middle during his five seasons on Long Island.

Paultz holds the team single-season record with 1,035 rebounds in 1971-72 and is second on the franchise’s all-time list with 4,544 rebounds. He is also seventh with 498 blocked shots and ninth with a 50.1 field-goal percentage.

His 11.2 rebounds per game average is the second-best for the franchise and his 2.1 blocked shots per game is fourth-best.

Paultz was dealt to the San Antonio Spurs in September 1975 for Rich Jones, Chuck Terry, Bob Warren and Kim Hughes.

Apologies to: Mike Gminski, Brook Lopez, Jason Collins, Darryl Dawkins.

Shooting Guard: Kerry Kittles (1996-2004)

Kerry Kittles was the eighth-overall pick by the New Jersey Nets in 1996 and was a solid, if unspectacular, member of the teams that reached the NBA Finals in both 2002 and 2003.

Kittles was a solid shooter from long distance, three times hitting better than 40 percent of his 3-point attempts. His 158 3-pointers as a rookie in 1996-97 was the franchise record for a single season until it was broken this year by Deron Williams. A sign of Kittles’ dependability is his franchise-record low 6.7 percent turnover rate in 2002-03, a figure that was the best in the NBA that season.

Kittles is seventh all-time for the Nets with 7,096 points. His 687 3-pointers are second-most in franchise history and he is third with 803 steals and seventh with 496 games played.

His 37.8 3-point percentage is the franchise’s 10th-best mark.

Kittles did have some highlights as a Net:

Kittles was dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers in July 2004 for a 2005 second-round draft pick.

Apologies to: Vince Carter, John Williamson, Lucious Harris, Otis Birdsong.

Jason Kidd made the New Jersey Nets legitimate in the early 21st century, leading the Nets to back-to-back appearances in the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 after being acquired from the Phoenix Suns. (Flickr.com photo by John Maynard)

Point Guard: Jason Kidd (2001-08)

Jason Kidd immediately turned around the New Jersey Nets after he was acquired with Chris Dudley from the Phoenix Suns for Stephon Marbury, Johnny Newman and Soumaila Samake in July 2001.

The season before Kidd’s arrival, the Nets were 26-56 and finished sixth in the Atlantic Division. In 2001-02, the Nets won 52 games—one of the biggest single-season turnarounds in NBA history—and won the Atlantic Division title, advancing to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history before being swept by the Los Angeles Lakers. The Nets returned to the Finals in 2003 and made the playoffs in each of Kidd’s six full seasons in New Jersey.

Kidd was a five-time All-Star for the Nets and was named to the All-NBA team three times, including first-team nods in 2001-02 and 2003-04. He was also named All-Defensive team six times while in New Jersey, including two appearances on the first team.

He led the NBA in assists in 2002-03 and 2003-04. His 808 assists in 2001-02 is a franchise single-season record.

Kidd is the franchise’s all-time leader in assists (4,620), steals (950) and 3-pointers (813). He is also fourth with 7,373 points and fifth with 3,662 rebounds and 506 games.

His 9.1 assists per game average is also the Nets’ best ever. With 1.9 steals per game, Kidd ranks 10th in franchise history.

Kidd’s career with the Nets is highlighted here:

The Nets dealt Kidd to the Dallas Mavericks—his original team—in February 2008 with Malik Allen and Antoine Wright in exchange for Devin Harris, Maurice Ager, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Keith Van Horn and first-round picks in 2008 and 2010. Last week, Kidd was named head coach of the Nets, joining Dave Wohl as the only former players for the franchise to also serve as its head coach.

Apologies to: Bill Melchionni, Kenny Anderson, Brian Taylor, Darwin Cook.