Here’s video of free agent point guard Steve Nash saying he will consider the Knicks and the Nets among his new landing spots.

Toronto, Miami, Dallas, and the Lakers are also possibilities for the 38-year-old two-time NBA MVP.

Nash was in New York Wednesday night hosting his annual charity soccer match.

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They currently own only the No. 57 pick in the second round and failed to land a lottery pick in the recent NBA Draft Lottery.

“We are preparing like we are still going to be in the first round,” Johnson told ESPN’s Andy Katz at the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine. “We have an unlimited amount of resources within the rules, so you never know. We probably could get into the first round, end of the first round.

“So we’re here evaluating all of these kids, we’re going through the interview process just like all of the other teams. So even though we’re at 57 now, my general manager is Billy King and Mikhail Prokhorov is the owner so you never know what they may pull off. So we’re anticipating that we could move up.”

Asked specifically how the Nets might add a first-round pick, Johnson said: “There are a variety of ways to get there. Can’t give you any of our secrets, but we have some opportunities. We’re talking to teams like everybody else and we have our eyes on some players that if we end up getting in the first round, there’s some guys that we like.”

Johnson said the team’s first priority was to re-sign unrestricted free agent Deron Williams and Gerald Wallace (player option) to go along with Brook Lopez.

“Hopefully we’ll get that one resigned in terms of Deron Williams,” Johnson said. “We’re also excited about Brook Lopez, he hurt his foot last year. But we feel if we get Deron Williams resigned, get Gerald Wallace resigned, Brook Lopez, we feel we have the one, three and five positions covered.

“We have some other spots that we need to upgrade but we feel like we have an opportunity to really put together a team that when we open in Brooklyn in the latter part of October with our first regular-season game we could really be an exciting team.”

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“I am hoping for more sparks, a few verbal, some buildup,” Stern said Wednesday at the NBA Draft Lottery. “We are going to have two spectacular new buildings in New York City and we are going to have two very aggressively managed teams.”

While the Knicks have a trio of stars in Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler, plus international sensation Jeremy Lin, to play in the renovated Madison Square Garden, it remains unclear just who will be on the Nets roster at the Barclays Center.

Will Deron Williams stay? Will Dwight Howard come? Will the Nets land a lottery pick on Wednesday night?

“We are awaiting the summer to see how the Nets fulfill their assurances and their aspirations, but we have seen the Knicks moving up quite a bit, and I think that we are going to have, you know two, sold-out arenas, not just for games against each other, but for all games,” Stern said.

If he does go to Brooklyn to see the Nets, Stern said he’ll ride public transportation instead of drive out there.

“I’ve been out to Brooklyn,” he said. “It’s going to be kind of interesting. I’m not sure how much I’m going to drive there but I’m going to get there and it’s probably easier not to drive.”

Stern pointed out that Brooklyn will become the “fifth-largest market” in the NBA and harkened back to the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers as reasons why the Nets could succeed there instead of New Jersey.

“You know what’s interesting, it’s Brooklyn, New York, but I consider it could be Brooklyn, USA,” he said.

“And the Brooklyn Diaspora is incredible, at all levels of corporate society and life, and there are lots of people, not just Howard Schultz, who are looking forward to going back to a game in their home borough, so to speak.

“So I think there’s going to be a real conversation and there are lots of baseball fans that see the Brooklyn Nets as a legitimate successor to the Brooklyn Dodgers. So, yes, I think that we are going to have a great rivalry.”

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By JOSH NEWMAN

Special to ZAGSBLOG

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Like all NBA executives, Nets GM Billy King is a busy man these days.

The NBA Draft Lottery is just a week away, the NBA Draft is just over five weeks away, NBA free agency will open just three days after the draft and there is the small matter of having his NBA Summer League roster set in the days after the draft.

King’s first order of business is the draft lottery next week. After that, he may actually find his workload considerably lighter. The Portland Trail Blazers own the Nets’ 2012 first round pick thanks to the Gerald Wallace trade.

However, the pick is top-3 protected, which means if the Nets come out of the draft lottery with any of the first three picks, they keep it. If the pick turns out to be outside the top 3, it goes to Portland. According to statistics provided by the NBA, the Nets have a 7.5 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick, which will be Anthony Davis of Kentucky.

Whichever way next Wednesday’s draft lottery goes for the Nets, who own only the 57th pick in this draft, King knows it is crucial on several levels.

“It’s a big day,” he said Wednesday. “It’s a chance we’ll get one of the top three picks or we won’t. What the lottery does more or less is it gives you certainty of what the draft order is. Then, you can start making phone calls and you know who has what picks. Utah may have Golden State’s pick or Golden State may have it. We may have our pick or Portland may have it. You find out who has multiple picks.

“The lottery, I always look at it as the day that starts the races of the true offseason in terms of player movement and trades.”

The involvement of King and the Nets and what they might do in the NBA Draft is secondary to many when you consider what is coming up right behind it. When the NBA free agency opens at 12:01 a.m. on July 1, the Deron Williams Sweepstakes will commence.

Only two things are certain right now. Williams will opt out of his contract on July 1 and he is King’s top priority beginning July 1. Amidst rabid speculation on what his move will be this summer, Williams, unprovoked, approached the assembled media on Tuesday at free agent mini-camp and tried to set the record straight.

“I want to reiterate, I don’t know what I’m doing next year,” Williams said. “Still. Nobody does but me. Not even my mom, my brother, my uncle, my cousin. I haven’t talked to anybody about where I’m going next year.”

Add in a fresh batch of Dwight Howard rumors, many of which pinpoint Brooklyn as a possible trade destination after a move to New Jersey was forever rumored this past season, and this offseason is of vital importance for King as the team gets set to cross the Hudson River for good.

As expected, the new Howard rumors weren’t something King was too high on when the topic was brought up on Wednesday.

“I don’t think we’ve been involved in them, but you guys have been writing it,” King said. “There’s nothing that I concern myself about. I just get to read and amuse myself. We have no control over it, people are gonna write what they wanna write.”

As for summer league, King confirmed that All-Rookie second-team selection MarShon Brooks, 2011 second round pick Jordan Williams, Dennis Horner and Jeff Foote will be on the roster. There will obviously be more additions once the dust settles after the NBA Draft and it becomes clear what undrafted free agents become available.

With this much to do on the job and with what just happened to Otis Smith in Orlando, King acknowledged that it does become necessary to step back, take a breath and have some sort of life outside the game.

He told a story of having lunch in Boston with former Duke teammate and ex-Cleveland Cavaliers GM Danny Ferry in the heat of the 2010 playoffs, two years after King was let go by the 76ers as their GM. King and his wife agreed that while Ferry was physically there, his mind was most certainly some place else. King asked his wife if that used to be him during the Philly days.

She said yes.

“I’ve tried to do a better job of disengaging sometimes,” King said. “You guys text me and I get snippy when I respond? Because usually I’m trying to disengage a little bit and try to not be in that constant motion because it can be a grind. The pressures of it and the intensity of it, it can get to you.

“Fortunately, I have two little ones helping me. When you go back to tee-ball last night at 6:30, they don’t care that you’re trying to sign Deron Williams, they just want you to tell them where first base is.”

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By JOSH NEWMAN 

Special to ZAGSBLOG

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Hilton Armstrong may have 277 NBA games under his belt, but none have come recently.

Once thought to be capable of contributing to an NBA roster as an athletic shot-blocking specialist, the former lottery pick (12th overall, 2006) spent 2011-12 with ASVEL Basket of France’s Pro A division, the country’s top classification. He was solid overseas, averaging 11.1 points and 7.2 rebounds in 29 Pro A games for an ASVEL squad that finished in the bottom half of the league standings.

With a renewed confidence after a strong showing in France, the Peekskill, N.Y. native and 2006 Big East Defensive Player of the Year was at the Nets free agent mini-camp this week, looking to get back to the highest level of basketball the world has to offer.

“This was a great opportunity and I just tried to take advantage of it,” the former UConn star said Wednesday at the mini-camp’s final day. “Every day is a humbling experience whether I’m overseas or over here. I’m just blessed to be healthy, I’m happy to be in a position where I can take care of my family and France was a great experience. I would never take it back for anything, but now, I think I want to be back home and try and make the best of it.”

With a senior year in Storrs capped by the Defensive Player of the Year award, Armstrong’s stock was high entering the 2006 NBA Draft and the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets used the 12th pick on him.

Despite trading for Tyson Chandler from the Chicago Bulls to lead their frontline during the same summer they drafted Armstrong, the Hornets held onto him for nearly his entire rookie contract before trading him to the Sacramento Kings in January of 2010.

Three trades and four different teams after the Hornets drafted him, Armstrong was out of the league. With his appearance in East Rutherford this week, he has begun what he hopes is the road back.

“What I like about Hilton is he’s long and he knows how to play,” Nets General Manager Billy King said. “I think the biggest thing for Hilton is doing it consistently. I thought he got better each day. I like his length because it’s hard to find not only size, but athletic size in this league.”

Represented by Sam Goldfeder and Excel Sports Management, Armstrong doesn’t have a firm of idea of what’s next for him off the Nets mini-camp aside from continuing to work out and evaluating all options that come his way.

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The younger Hansbrough is one of 21 free agents working out this week for the Nets, but he is the only former Big East Player of the Year in the group.

“It’s almost like my second go-round so I’m actually healthy,” the 6-foot-3 shooting guard told SNY.tv Tuesday, hours before his older brother, Tyler, and the Pacers lost to the Miami Heat in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.

A year ago, Hansbrough was named Big East Player of the Year after averaging 18.4 points and 3.9 rebounds for Mike Brey’s Fighting Irish.

But he suffered a severely sprained ankle during a workout in Indianapolis and missed the Chicago Pre-Draft Combine. He ended up signing a one-year deal with Bayern Munich in Germany, but was released in December. He later signed with Krka Novo Mesto of Slovenia but left that club in January due to personal reasons.

He described the Germany experience as “culture shock, leaving family and going on your own to a foreign country.”

Hansbrough says he’s healthy now but still must ice down his ankles after workouts.

Hansbrough isn’t the only brother of an NBA player here with the Nets for this three-day camp.

Taylor Griffin, the older brother of Clippers star Blake Griffin, is also in attendance.

Hansbrough shares the same agent, Jeff Schwartz, as Nets free-agent-to-be Deron Williams and says he has upcoming workouts with the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks over the “next couple weeks.”

“I want to show a little bit of my toughness, a little bit of shooting ability,  a little bit of how I can move,” he said. “Just get out there and play my games and find some teams and see what happens.”

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Instead, the Queens native went undrafted and ended up playing in Israel, far from home and the bright lights of the NBA.

Still, the 6-foot-6 former Queens Holy Cross star says he doesn’t regret leaving school early.

“When I came out I thought I was ready to compete,” Landesberg told SNY.tv following a workout Monday at the Nets free agent mini-camp. “Just watching myself now two years later, I’ve grown a lot as a player. Looking back, I’ve grown a lot.  I feel like I got a lot better since those past two years.”

A McDonald’s All-American and Mr. New York Basketball, Landesberg was the subject of a heated recruiting battle coming out of Paul Gilvary’s Holy Cross program. In the fall of 2007, he chose Virginia over St. John’s and Georgia Tech, dealing another recruiting blow to then-Johnnies coach Norm Roberts, who two years later would miss out on local stars Lance Stephenson (Cincinnati) and Tobias Harris (Tennessee).

In his first year at Virginia under Dave Leitao, Landesberg was named ACC Rookie of the Year after averaging 16.6 points and 6.0 rebounds.

After Leitao resigned in March 2009, Landesberg opted to stay and play for new coach Tony Bennett.

He was named second-team All-ACC after leading the Cavaliers at 17.3 points per game as a sophomore, but opted to leave after one year under Bennett.

Landesberg declined to comment on his relationship with Bennett.

After going undrafted, he landed in Israel and has spent the last two seasons with Maccabi Haifa, where he averaged 20.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists last season.

“I feel like a lot of concerns coming out were my outside shooting,” he said. “I feel like my jump shot is a lot better now. I can consistently just hit open jump shots. And a big part of my game I take a lot of pride in now is my defense. So that was a big knock, too. So just coming out here and making sure I can create plays for other players and knock shots down.”

Landesberg, whose father’s family is Jewish, said his mother and sister both spent time in Israel last season and his father was there the year before.

“This was my second year out there,” he said. “It’s pretty much like a home away from home out there this year so it was pretty cool.”

“Playing overseas was fun,” he added. “I learned a lot, matured off the court and on the court but I’m definitely anxious to try to get back and play in the States.”

In Jeff Schwartz, Landesberg shares the same agent as Nets free agent point guard Deron Williams, who watched the workout Monday.

Landesberg has upcoming workouts with the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Antonio Spurs, but wouldn’t mind staying home in New York and playing in Brooklyn.

Even if he is a Queens guy.

“Oh, yeah,” he said, “that would be really, really cool playing in Brooklyn.”

Photo: Daily News

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Adam Morrison

NBA bust.

The No. 3 pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, Morrison was out of the NBA last season and playing for Turkish club Besiktas Milangaz, the same team Nets point guard Deron Williams briefly played for before returning to the NBA after the lockout.

Now Morrison is back trying to get one more shot to live up to his potential. He was the star attraction among 22 players at the first day of the Nets’ free agent mini-camp Monday.

“When they asked me, ‘Do you want to talk to the media?’ [I thought] Christ, you guys haven’t seen me in three, four years,” the 6-foot-8 Morrison, sporting hair well below his shoulders, said with a chuckle.

“I understand that I’m never going to shake being a bust or being a failure in some people’s eyes, but I’ve experienced a lot of highs in basketball,” added Morrison, who turns 28 in July. “So I guess you can call it a hardship but it’s really not. I get to play basketball for money and it’s pretty good.”

Morrison owns two NBA championship rings from his time with the Lakers, but hasn’t competed in the NBA since playing in four preseason games for the Washington Wizards during the 2010-11 season. He then took that year off before playing in Turkey last season.

“I want to get on another team and see if I can get another chance,” said Morrison, who averaged 11.8 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists last year in Turkey. “It’s as simple as that.”

The Nets’ mini-camp was an odd setting for a man chosen No. 3 overall by Michael Jordan of the Charlotte Bobcats in 2006. In what was considered one of the weakest drafts in NBA history, Morrison was chosen out of Gonzaga behind only Andrea Bargnani and LaMarcus Aldridge and ahead of the likes of Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay and Rajon Rondo.

Morrison will practice for three days here against players of far less repute, guys like Taylor Griffin, Anthony Roberson and Sylven Landesberg.

“I’m like every one of these guys, I wasn’t in the NBA last year,” Morrison said. “So no pressure anymore. People are going to view me as a failure or a bust so the pressure’s really not on.”

“I think it proves the point that he likes to play basketball,” Nets GM Billy King said. “He’s made enough money, he probably could just sit back. But I think he wants to play basketball and wants to play in the NBA, so I think it’s a testament to him that he’s willing to come here and play just like last year he went to Washington without a guarantee to their training camp.”

King said the Nets reached out to Morrison because “we wanted to see where he is athletically, see if he has still has the skill-set. Same thing with Hilton Armstrong, Julian Wright, Al Thornton [who are in the camp]…A lot of times guys that get overlooked and people keep overlooking them and just sometimes you gotta put them in the right environment and it clicks for them.”

King compared those players to guys like John Starks, Gerald Wilkins and Anthony Mason, who took time to blossom in the NBA.

“It doesn’t always happen right away,” King said. “Sometimes it just takes the right situation, the right coach giving them the confidence level that they go out and play. And then everybody will say, ‘Why didn’t we go after him?’”

After going No. 3 overall in 2006, Morrison had a relatively strong rookie season, averaging 11.8 points.

But he suffered a torn ACL and missed all of the next season and was then dealt to a deep, veteran-laden Lakers team midway through the 2008-9 season.

Morrison took only 12 field goal attempts the rest of that season, making four. He spent one more season barely playing in Los Angeles, but picking up his second NBA ring.

“He suffered a serious knee injury,” Morrison’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, told SNY.tv. “People forget he had a great rookie season.”

Morrison ended up on Besiktas last season after Williams returned home to the U.S.

“They retired his jersey over there so it’s kind of weird seeing Deron Williams,” Morrison said. “He played there for a month or whatever.”

Morrison could potentially end up teaming up with Williams if both end up on the Nets, but a lot has to happen before then. Williams is expected to opt out and become a free agent by July 1.

“We’re talking to a number of teams that have expressed interest in him,” Bartelstein said. “I fully expect him to be back in the NBA this year and we’ll see what happens over the next month or so.”

Morrison, still carrying the emotional burden associated with being a bust, just wants another chance.

“I just want to get another opportunity,” he said, “and make the most of it.”

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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.

“Yes, Mr. King,” Williams said with a smile as he left the gym.

Williams is expected to opt out of his contract with the Nets by July 1 but attended the team’s workout for college players on Saturday wearing Brooklyn Nets gear and was back here Monday sitting next to King watching a group of 21 players that included Adam Morrison, the No. 3 pick in the 2006 NBA Draft.

“I’ll let you guys decipher that,” King said of Williams’ brief comment. “You’re tweeting anyway. I mean, nothing’s changed with Deron.

“I don’t know if people are searching for something because it’s till July [when Williams] can sign…For me, nothing’s changed.”

Williams is expected to be courted by several teams, including his hometown Dallas Mavericks.

He wore blue and read sneakers Monday and when a reporter joked that he needed to change colors, Williams cracked with a laugh, “They don’t know what color to make yet.”

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From the perspective of a college basketball writer (and fan) it’s fascinating to recall that John Calipari, Larry Brown and Rollie Massimino (almost) all coached the Nets.

All three men have also won NCAA championships, while the Nets still seek their first NBA title.

First, the story of Brown, now 71 and the new minted coach at soon-to-be-Big East program Southern Methodist.

It was a dark one in April 1983 when the 42-year-old Brown, who had a young team on the rise, secretly negotiated for the University of Kansas job for the next season. When the controlling owner, Joe Taub, found out, he demanded that Brown choose immediately. Brown picked Kansas. Taub sent him packing, and a 49-victory season crashed with a first-round playoff defeat to the Knicks.

Second, few may remember that Massimino was set to coach the Nets after he led Villanova to a shocking upset of Georgetown in the 1985 NCAA championship game.

Fresh off Villanova’s upset of Georgetown in the 1985 N.C.A.A. championship game, Massimino shook hands with the Nets’ president, Bernie Mann, on the contours of a 10-year deal, and the Nets made plans to introduce him at a news conference on June 20, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the arena. Then Massimino changed his mind, leaving the Nets with no news conference and no coach.

And then, of course, there is Calipari, who unsuccessfully ran the team in the mid-1990s before he became the King of Kentucky and the Master of the One-And-Done.

When it was time to replace [Butch] Beard, [owner Joe] Taub tried to hire Rick Pitino from Kentucky and settled for John Calipari, another insulated college type who flamed out of his first professional job on Selena Roberts’s watch for The Times.

“I remember once we were talking about the state of the Nets and Calipari asked me out of frustration, ‘Why aren’t you buying in?’ as if that was the media’s role,” Roberts said. “The real trouble was that his players weren’t buying in. And yet for months, Cal pushed on with a remarkable, upbeat energy — until the moment he snapped. That was the afternoon he called The Star-Ledger’s Dan Garcia a ‘Mexican idiot’ across a parking lot.”

Calipari was reprimanded by the Nets and the league for that 1997 incident, and was fired 20 games into his third season. When the team flew to Toronto from Miami without him, he insisted on following it to deliver the news himself. One problem: Ray Chambers, a new co-owner, had arranged for Tony Robbins, the motivational speaker, to address the team in Toronto. By the time Calipari got to address the players, Robbins had informed them that Don Casey would be their new coach.

Photo: The AP

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