ESPN

P.J. Carlesimo also reflected on his time with the Nets, and touched on the players' offseason remarks that they wanted a veteran head coach who could bring toughness, command respect and hold them accountable.

"This time I think there was a little bit of 'I wasn’t hard enough on the team,'" Carlesimo said. "Every other time I've coached in the league, I was too hard on the guys. So I think people spin things the way they want to do it.

"Whoever comes in here, he’ll get at least a short chance. By the time training camp is over, by the time November/December is over, he’s either going to have proven to the players how capable he is and then they’ll go forward from that, or for whatever reason, it will go sideways or stutter a little bit in the beginning."

Said Carlesimo of the team’s next head coach: "I don’t think there is a magic person in terms of a profile. I don’t think it’s got to be somebody that's coached in the league for 10 years. I don’t think it’s somebody that has to have been a head coach. There are too many examples of guys with no coaching experience thriving right off the bat. I think you’re not going to win in this league much less win a championship unless you have a veteran team.

"I think for the most part, it's a good group. I really do. I think you’re never going to get 15 guys that you love their attitude; you love the way they work and the way they listen. But in general, I think it’s a good group, and whoever is lucky enough to get the job will like working with that group.

"But maybe I’m being unrealistic, but I would not say it can’t be an assistant or can't be a young guy or can't be somebody that hasn’t been a head coach in the league before. I think when you get in there and get a chance to be face to face with guys and get through training camp with them and coach some games, they'll know.

"They’ll sense at that point this is the right guy or this guy knows what he's doing or he doesn’t know what he's doing. I don't think it will be that."

P.J. Carlesimo wasn’t happy when the Brooklyn Nets fired Avery Johnson in late December.

And Carlesimo, who took over for Johnson on an interim basis only to not be retained after going 35-19 during the regular season, still isn’t happy with their decision now.

In the end, according to Carlesimo, expectations for the team were too high and unrealistic.

"Well, I think it made it difficult to keep the job more so for Avery, because Avery was brought in, and he did the dirty work," Carlesimo, now an ESPN analyst, said during a Thursday conference call, according to Newsday.

"You got the two years of getting your head knocked off while they were getting the roster together and getting the salary cap right and all that. Then when the team had a very representative team to put out there and you had all the great things that we all enjoyed this year in Brooklyn, he didn’t get a chance to reap the benefits of those two years, which was unfortunate.

"For me, it’s disappointing only because it's such a good job. I think you know how I feel about it. There are only 30 jobs in this league, but there are a handful that are better than others, and I think Brooklyn is one of those jobs because it’s a team that’s got a chance to win every night. I’ve had very good jobs, and I’ve been as a head coach and an assistant coach obviously when I was in San Antonio in particular, we had a chance to win the whole thing."

The Nets invested approximately $330 million in current and future contracts in the offseason to upgrade their roster after going 46-102 in their first two seasons with Johnson at the helm. Expectations were high, and Johnson, who was in the final year of his contract, was fired after the team got off to a 14-14 start. Brooklyn’s season ultimately ended with a first-round ouster at the hands of the Chicago Bulls.

The Nets are very early in the process of trying to fill their head-coaching vacancy now.

"When you have a job in this league that you have a chance to win every night, that's very special, and Brooklyn is one of those jobs," Carlesimo said.

"Having said that, the expectations to win a championship in two years, that's a heavy load for anybody, not just for Brooklyn. I don't know if that's realistic the way the roster is right now. I would not say that team could not win a championship. We thought we could this year if things broke a little better for us.

"But if you have that on your plate, that you need to win a championship in two years, I think it makes it a little challenging. ... But I still would not call them one of the favorites. I wouldn’t put that on whoever is lucky enough to get the job. I think it's a team that could win a lot of games. I think it's a 50-win team, a playoff team and a team that could do well, particularly in the Eastern Conference. But to win a championship is a bear. Those 16 wins are hard to come by at the end of the year, but the Spurs have 10 of them right now, Miami's got nine. It's hard to get to 16.

"I still do think it's a good job. I think the expectations are maybe not totally realistic, but you'd rather have that from your owner and you know he's got the wherewithal to back it up.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez was snubbed again.

Lopez (132 points, seven first-place votes) did not make any of the three All-NBA teams, which were announced by the league Thursday.

Tim Duncan (392, 45), Marc Gasol (295, 38) and Dwight Howard (203) were the first-team, second-team and third-team centers.

Lopez, 25, had a career year, averaging 19.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks. He finished fifth in the league in PER behind LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony.

Still, it wasn’t enough for the voters.

Lopez was also snubbed by All-Star voters, but was added later as an injury replacement.

What do you think about Lopez being left off the All-NBA teams? Let us know in the comments section.

A few Brooklyn Nets offseason notes:

1. The Nets are in no rush to add a head coach, according to those familiar with their search. They don’t mind not having one in place, even with the June 27 NBA draft fast-approaching. Ultimately, with the help of scouts and other player personnel people, GM Billy King is going to have the final say on who the team selects with the 22nd pick in the first round. As has been reported, the Nets are waiting for potential candidates like Lionel Hollins and Brian Shaw to finish up their respective teams’ playoff runs so they can gauge possible interest. All that’s definitely known right now is that King talked to Phil Jackson, and the 11-time coaching champion declined the job.

2. The more you look at it, the more you realize King hit a pair of home runs when he signed Andray Blatche (non-guaranteed one-year) and C.J. Watson (two years, player option) to minimum contracts last season. Both players were worth far more to the team than their modest salaries would suggest. And that’s what’s going to make keeping both of them so difficult. Because they’re over the salary cap, the Nets are restricted as to what they can offer Blatche and Watson. If either -- or both -- decide to play elsewhere, it’s going to be difficult to find a capable replacement at a bargain basement price.

Some of the conceivable options on the free-agent market come July 1? Daniel Gibson, Nazr Mohammed, Earl Watson, Beno Udrih, Joel Pryzbilla and Ryan Hollins.

To reiterate: the Nets can only offer free agents -- including Blatche and Watson -- the taxpayer mini mid-level exception or the minimum.

But if they’re going to give slick-shooting wing Bojan Bogdanovic perhaps all of the mini mid-level to come over, that leaves them with just the minimum.

As a result, they’re going to have to hope that Blatche -- who is still owed $16 million over the next two years by the Washington Wizards after being amnestied by them -- will be intrigued by the possibility of starting at power forward next season for a playoff contender that gave him a chance to revive his career.

Watson, who holds a player option for the minimum, shot 41.1 percent from 3-point range last season, often benefiting from the double-teams that Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez saw.

The Chicago Bulls lost several key bench pieces from their 2011-12 roster, but managed to replace them in 2012-13. If the Nets lose Blatche, Watson or both, it’s up to King to at least attempt to do the same.

3. While King said he doesn’t necessarily have to make a trade this offseason, he does have Kris Humphries’ $12 million expiring contract at his disposal. Obviously, power forward was a bit of a weakness for the Nets last season. King could look to upgrade it by packaging Humphries along with MarShon Brooks, who was in the doghouse all season, and future first-round picks (the Nets have all of their firsts going forward).

Purely speculation, but some players that could potentially help the Nets include power forwards David Lee, Carlos Boozer, Zach Randolph and Ersan Ilyasova, though it’s unknown if their current teams would deal them. Or maybe King could use the Humphries contract to replenish the bench if he has to.

4. You never want to say never, but the Nets’ chances of getting Dwight Howard are basically zero because they’d have to clear nearly $30 million to get him in order to become compliant with the CBA. Salary cap guru Larry Coon broke the remote possibility down in a detailed blog post on his site.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Brooklyn Nets hold the 22nd pick in the first round of the 2013 NBA draft.

So who are they going to take?

“It’s early -- even though here we are sitting here in the latter part of May -- I think that we’re gathering information and putting together the pieces to the puzzle, and there are some moving parts that you can’t just say right now we’ll we’ve got to have this position or this guy right here, because there’s so many things that can happen during the draft,” said Nets director of player personnel Gregg Polinsky on Monday at the draft combine.

“Our philosophy with Billy [King] is we’re going to take the most talented player we think is there on the board for us that makes sense.”

ESPN’s Chad Ford has the Nets taking Kansas center Jeff Withey in his latest mock draft.

Writes Ford:

The Nets got a great season out of Brook Lopez, but they don't really have a credible backup for him. Withey is unlikely to be a star, but he is one of the two or three best shot blockers in the draft and should be able to come in and play great defense for 10-15 minutes a game in Brooklyn.

Could the Brooklyn Nets' next head coach be Scott Skiles?

Multiple reports have linked Skiles to the Nets, with the Star-Ledger hearing over the weekend that he's the front-runner for the job.

Skiles has coached in the NBA since 1999-2000 and owns a 443-433 career record.

He most recently coached the Milwaukee Bucks, but resigned 32 games into the 2012-13 season.

Lionel Hollins, Brian Shaw and Larry Brown are also considered candidates for the position, according to reports. Collins coaches the Memphis Grizzlies, who are currently in the Western Conference finals.

What do you think about Skiles coaching the Nets? Let us know in the comments section.

Nets GM Billy King is currently in Chicago at the NBA Draft Combine.

The Nets hold the 22nd pick in the first round of the draft, which will be held at Barclays Center on June 27.

“You’re just trying to see guys’ skill level,” King told NBA.com. “You’ve already seen a lot of them at college. So at this point, you’re just seeing how they interact, how they take instructions from the coaches, and see how hard they play.”

You can listen to all of King’s comments here.

ESPN Insiders can get a look at Chad Ford’s top 30 prospects here.

The Brooklyn Nets reportedly won’t be able to talk to Doc Rivers.

Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge told the Boston Globe Thursday that Rivers will be their coach next season.

“Yeah [he’ll be back], Doc and I are talking about our team next year,” Ainge said. “[No suspense] from my perspective. We've got a great coach. We’ve got a coach everybody would love to have and he’s got three years left on his contract and I think Doc likes Boston, too. Coaches get tired, though. It’s a hard job.”

Rivers was thought to be a candidate for the Nets' head coaching vacancy if he had been granted permission to speak with them.

On Wednesday, we gave you three reasons why Brooklyn Nets fans should be optimistic heading into the 2013-14 season.

Today, we'll give you three reasons why Nets fans should be pessimistic heading into next year.

1. LeBron: Normally, we’d start with the Nets. But that would be unfair to the man who has dominated them for years. LeBron James currently owns a 17-game winning streak against the New Jersey/Brooklyn franchise. You’d have to go back to March 12, 2008, to find the last time the Nets beat James -- and he had 42 points in that game. If the Nets want to get through the East, they’re very likely going to have to get through the Heat -- who may very well repeat as champions -- and that’s not going to be easy.

2. Their core is good, but ...: OK, so now, the Nets themselves. GM Billy King did a nice job building a playoff team, a team that is very much relevant in this city. But is the core of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace enough? It wasn’t enough to get out of the first round last season -- even if it was their first season playing together. D-Will (28 going on 29), Iso Joe (31 going on 32) and Crash (30 going on 31) all have a lot to prove when it comes to health and consistency.

3. Limited flexibility to improve: Expanding on the above, the Nets are currently well over the salary cap and don’t have much flexibility to improve their roster, a roster that might only have a 50-win, second-round-and-out ceiling. This is where King is going to earn his money: trying to find gems like Andray Blatche despite having limited financial resources. The Nets GM also has Kris Humphries’ $12 million expiring contract at his disposal if he wants to make a trade to upgrade the roster. King built a solid core. But he has to supplement it with better surrounding pieces.

The Brooklyn Nets won 49 games but couldn't advance past the first round of the playoffs.

Still, here are three reasons why Nets fans should be optimistic heading into the 2013-14 campaign:

1. Core continuity: Yes, they're going to have a new coach. And yes, the roster isn't going to be entirely the same. But GM Billy King believes that, even though the Nets are over the salary cap and don't have much room to improve from a personnel standpoint, they can be a better team next year because they've played together and felt the pain that comes with an early exit from the postseason. The Nets were basically an expansion team in 2012-13; their top four players -- Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace -- had never played together in the same game before the season began. That's no longer the case -- and that should go a long way in finding success next season.

2. D-Will should be healthy: Williams was not healthy for the first 50 games, when he averaged 16.7 points and shot 41.3 percent from the field. But his ankles got better. His numbers -- 22.9 ppg on 48.1 percent shooting in the final 28 games -- did too. D-Will says he is going to take some time off for the first time in three summers. The Nets hope it pays off. If Williams is healthy and producing the way he did after the All-Star break, Brooklyn is likely to notch 50-plus wins in 2013-14.

3. Brook could be even better: Lopez finished fifth in Player Efficiency Rating -- behind LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony -- and made his first All-Star team. Plus he played in his first playoffs and put up solid stats -- 22.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game. So much for all that concern about his defense and rebounding after he played just five games in 2011-12. But Lopez was outplayed by Joakim Noah in the elimination Game 7, so King hopes that pain adds fuel to Lopez's fire for next season. Lopez is only 25, so it's possible he can be even better in 2013-14. That would certainly be big for the Nets.

Brooklyn Nets GM Billy King is looking for a head coach who can bring more toughness out of his roster.

“I want to find someone who I feel can take this group collectively and get the most out of them,” King said in an interview with the team’s official website.

“I think P.J. (Carlesimo) did this year -- and got us to where we are -- but I think we could have gone further. ... I think we need to create a culture that becomes the identity of the Brooklyn Nets; something where I think it’s got to be the vision of the Brooklyn borough, where it’s going to a tough-minded, where you know if you come to play us, it's going to be a dogfight every night. That’s what I’m looking for in a coach that will instill that within the team.”

In a perfect world, King, who is going to be patient during his search, would love to bring in someone like Mike Krzyzewski, who coached the Nets GM when he played at Duke.

“I always go back to Coach K because the mindset he always gave us is that people expect to play Duke, and so give them Duke, he always said,” King said. “So when you go out there, people expect that to be it to be a tough game, a defensive-minded game, they’re going to be physical. So that’s what I'm looking at.

“Offensively, you’ve got to be unselfish, the team has to be more important than the individual. If you look at the programs that win, San Antonio, Miami, Chicago, the Lakers over the years, that’s what they’re all about.”

Candidates like Brian Shaw (Pacers assistant) and Lionel Hollins (Grizzles coach) are still coaching in the playoffs, which means the Nets will have to wait until their team’s runs are over to speak with them. Hollins will be a free agent, and the Nets could pay him more than Memphis.

“I can’t be concerned about that. I have a job to do,” Hollins told ESPN.com last Friday.

King thought his team “exceeded expectations” with its 49-win regular season, but felt like it should’ve advanced past the first round.

“I didn’t know how quickly the group was going to gel,” King said. “When you put that many pieces together, that many guys that were so-called ‘their guy’ on their team, you don’t know how it's going to gel. I thought it did quickly ... then it faded. But I think the biggest thing was my vision was for us to have homecourt advantage, to finish in one of the top four spots, which we did. But I thought with that it would help us get to the second round. So that's where the disappointment really came about.”

King reiterated his goal to bring European sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic over for next season.

“He has an NBA buyout, so the object is for him to exercise it, give him the money, get him to come over and I think he wants to come over,” King said. “(But we) can’t do anything until July 1 (the start of free agency), so we’ll look at that when the time comes.”

King also said during the interview that he will look to improve his team’s roster by adding minimum salary players because of the team’s salary cap situation. The Nets have a core in place, but it’s unknown if key bench contributors Andray Blatche (unrestricted) and C.J. Watson (player option for the minimum) will return. King also figures the team will have more continuity next season, considering how many new players were on the roster last year.

“We have to be hungrier to improve, and remember that pain that we felt in Game 7,” King said.

Couple interesting notes on the Brooklyn Nets’ coaching search:

• Colleague Chris Broussard tweeted Thursday that the Nets would be interested in Lionel Hollins if he doesn’t re-sign with the Memphis Grizzlies after the season.

• Regarding Doc Rivers’ possibly trying to get out of his contract to coach the Nets next season, Boston Celtics GM Danny Ainge told WEEI radio, “I think Doc will be coaching the Celtics next year.”

ESPN colleague Stephen A. Smith has reported that the Nets are expected to ask the Celtics for permission to talk to Rivers.

While nothing has been finalized, the Brooklyn Nets are working to bring over European sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic, and Bogdnaovic’s camp is optimistic that a deal will eventually get done, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN NewYork.com.

Bogdanovic, 24, a 6-foot-8 swingman from Croatia, was acquired by the Nets in a draft-night trade in 2011 after being selected by the Miami Heat with the first pick of the second round.

Bogdanovic is currently playing with Fenerbahce Ulker in Turkey, but has just one year remaining on his contract with an opt-out. He is ready to come to the NBA, a source said.

Based on various reports, Bogdanovic would owe his former team between $1-2 million as part of a buyout. The Nets could contribute $570,000 of that buyout, per CBA rules.

The Nets could then offer Bogdanovic either the league minimum, or more likely all of -- or part of -- the taxpayer mini mid-level exception, which starts at approximately $3.2 million. The Nets are limited in what they can offer Bogdanovic because they are already well over the salary cap.

According to statistics from euroleague.net, Bogdanovic averaged 15.5 points and made 40.5 percent of his 3-point attempts in 21 games in 2012-13.

General mangaer Billy King had said the Nets were hoping to add Bogdanovic to their 2013-14 roster last Sunday.

The news of Bogdanovic likely joining the Nets had been previously reported by SNY and the New York Post.

Phil Jackson informed the Brooklyn Nets that he is not interested in their head-coaching vacancy, a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com.

So who will the Nets turn their attention to?

"Larry Brown is going to get a call. Brian Shaw is going to get a call," Stephen A. Smith said on "SportsCenter" on Wednesday morning. "The Boston Celtics, if they haven't been contacted, they will be contacted for permission to talk to Doc Rivers, who is under contract. I wouldn't be surprised if our very own Jeff Van Gundy is thrown into the mix."

Smith emphasized the importance of this hire for Nets GM Billy King.

"Billy King is going to scour the globe. He's going to do whatever's necessary to find who he believes to be the best coach," Smith said. "Remember, he's not the one who hired Avery [Johnson]. ... Basically, this is his first pick since being on the job in Brooklyn, and he knows he's gotta make it a good one.

"Mikhail Prokhorov has put the franchise on notice that he expects the Brooklyn Nets to be just as relevant as the New York Knicks in eyes of New Yorkers. So that's a tall, tall task."

Brown, 72, is a Brooklyn native and Hall of Fame coach. He is currently in the NCAA ranks, coaching SMU in Dallas. He has coached nine NBA teams, most recently the Charlotte Bobcats. He won an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

Brown coached the Knicks for one season, 2005–06. He was fired after going 23-59.

Shaw, 47, is in his second season as an Indiana Pacers assistant coach. He was a Los Angeles Lakers assistant from 2004-11, mostly under Jackson.

Shaw spent 14 seasons as an NBA player, winning three championships with the Lakers (2000-02).

Rivers, 51, just wrapped up his ninth season as the Celtics' head coach. He guided Boston to a championship in 2008, with a return trip to the NBA Finals in 2010.

Rivers played in the NBA for 13 seasons, mostly with Atlanta. He also spent a little more than two seasons with the Knicks. His son Austin was an NBA rookie for the New Orleans Hornets in 2012-13.

Van Gundy, 51, coached the Knicks from March 1996 until December 2001. New York reached the 1999 NBA Finals during Van Gundy's tenure.

He also coached the Rockets for four seasons. Houston fired him in May 2007, and he has been an NBA analyst ever since.

The Brooklyn Nets' next head coach will not be Phil Jackson.

Jackson informed the team that he is not interested in their head coaching vacancy, a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com.

The Nets had made the 11-time NBA coaching champion their No. 1 target to replace P.J. Carlesimo.

Carlesimo and the Nets parted ways on Sunday, a day after the team was eliminated at home by the Chicago Bulls in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.

He went 35-19 during the regular season after replacing Avery Johnson on an interim basis.