When Mikhail Prokhorov bought the New Jersey Nets, he immediately envisioned a five-year plan to make this franchise a title contender. To make Prokhorov’s vision a reality, Billy King has acted swiftly as general manager.

During his 10-year tenure (1997-2007) with Philadelphia, King built a team that made five consecutive playoff appearances (1999-2003) and won the Eastern Conference in 2001. King made two important trades that netted starting power forward Tyrone Hill and starting center Dikembe Mutombo to pair with MVP Allen Iverson during the team’s 2001 NBA Finals appearance.

On February 23, 2011, King capitalized on the diminishing relationship between the Utah Jazz and Deron Williams. King made the boldest trade of his career trading Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, two first-round picks and cash to the Jazz for Williams.

Harris has struggled, Favors is a backup power forward behind Paul Millsap and Williams is an unrestricted free agent after the season with no guarantee he’ll make the move to Brooklyn with the Nets.

After acquiring Williams, King has put role players around him as he once did with Iverson in the hopes of building another contender.

King traded the draft rights to JaJuan Johnson and a 2014 second-round pick to the Boston Celtics for the draft rights to starting shooting guard MarShon Brooks, who was selected to the Rising Stars Challenge for All-Star Weekend.

King then re-signed Kris Humphries to a one-year deal that provides nightly double-doubles for this season and cap space flexibility for the future.

Finally, King traded for Mehmet Okur after Brook Lopez was injured as a quick fix replacement in the final year of his deal.

Now King is working on another bold move that could change the landscape of the Eastern Conference and give the Nets the best center in the NBA. Since December, King has been in discussions with the Orlando Magic and other teams to put Dwight Howard in a Nets uniform.

If King can trade some of the role players he’s assembled around Williams, he’ll form a dynamic duo that would be this generation’s newest Stockton-to-Malone combination.

The Timberwolves have improved thanks to the pairing of international sensation Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love.

The Clippers have become a legitimate title contender thanks to the arrival of Chris Paul to pair with Blake Griffin.

The Knicks have been rejuvenated by the revelation of Jeremy Lin to work the pick-and-roll.

King is trying to continue the trend of dynamic pick-and-roll duos with the Nets and form possibly the best of the tandems in Williams and Howard.

King’s career, the future of Brooklyn, and the futures of Deron Williams and Dwight Howard all rest on potentially the most important trade discussions of the season.