Are you ready for Brooklyn?

New York’s other team isn’t supposed to be as glamorous as the Knicks because the Nets are from Brooklyn not from the Big Apple. But for rookie coach Jason Kidd, glamor doesn’t win games so he couldn’t care less if Brooklyn isn’t as glitzy as the Knicks. What’s on his mind is to bring Brooklyn to the top of the NBA and that means getting past defending champion Miami in the Eastern Conference on the way to the finals.

During the offseason, the Nets engineered a major personnel revamp. Brooklyn went from Avery Johnson to P. J. Carlesimo last season when the Nets were unceremoniously ousted by Chicago in a Game 7 playoff clincher that was played before a stunned homecrowd at the Barclays Center. Recruiting Kidd to take over the helm has to be a big risk. Kidd has no coaching experience whatsoever and he’s just coming off his last playing season. But he’s not like Carlesimo. Kidd will get his players to die for him on the court. Carlesimo isn’t as charismatic and Latrell Sprewell can attest to that.

The Nets cleaned house during the break and got rid of Gerald Wallace, C. J. Watson, Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks and Keith Bogans. In their place arrived veterans Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, Andrei Kirilenko, Alan Anderson and Shaun Livingston. Kidd also picked up 6-10 rookie Mason Plumlee from Duke University.

Obviously, the Nets aren’t thinking long-term. Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov wants a championship now and he’s very impatient. There’s no other reason why Brooklyn picked up Garnett who’s 37, Terry who’s 36 and Pierce who’s 35 – all former Boston Celtics. Those veterans are itching for one more title to add to their collection. New Celtics coach Brad Stevens, formerly of Butler University, has been given the green light by team owners to rebuild with young or not-so-old blood. If the Nets are on a short-term mission, the Celtics are on a long-term direction.

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Kirilenko, 32, just had to join Brooklyn because of the Russian connection. He left countryman Alexey Shved with the Minnesota Timberwolves but expect the 6-6 guard to eventually move to the Nets. AK-47 opted out of a $10 Million guarantee at Minnesota to sign for $3.1 Million, fueling speculation that Prokhorov isn’t revealing all the terms of their contract. “I can’t do anything with what people think,” said Kirilenko who played on the Russian squad that took the bronze medal at the London Olympics last year. “I’m coming from the facts. I can’t change it, I can’t control it. Those type of rumors from the history because of the Russian KGB, it makes it a little funny, what can I do?”

Among the Nets holdovers are Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson, Andray Blatche and Reggie Evans. Kidd has assembled a serious starting lineup with Lopez at center, Garnett at power forward, Pierce at small forward, Johnson at off-guard and Williams at point guard. It’s a cast that could steal the thunder from the Heat. The Nets open the season at Cleveland on Oct. 30.

Kidd’s ascendancy drew mixed reactions. The last time a player went directly from active court duty to become head coach was with Mike Dunleavy 22 years ago. Since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77, only Dunleavy and Paul Silas made the jump from one season as a player to the next as a head coach. Will Kidd be the Man for the Nets? NBA analyst Gery Woelfel said Kidd will be severely tested dealing with a “high-strung” roster but Golden State coach Mark Jackson expressed confidence in the former University of California guard. “He’s been a coach his whole career,” said Jackson. “He’s a guy that’s as smart as they come. He’s been a leader his entire career. He’ll be just fine. At the end of the day, you win in this league with talent so I’ve got a feeling that you can win some games with this Brooklyn team. He’s going to be great.”

Williams surprisingly wasn’t Brooklyn’s top scorer last year. It was Lopez who averaged 19.4 points to D-Will’s 18.9. Johnson came next with a 16.3 clip then Blatche at 10.3. With Boston, Pierce averaged 18.6 points, Garnett 14.8 and Terry 10.1.

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Writer David Friedman said gathering high-profile stars won’t necessarily bring a title to their team. “The Nets are trying to build a Super Team to challenge Miami, adding Garnett and Pierce to a lineup that already includes Williams, Lopez and Johnson,” he said. “While the Nets’ talent looks awesome on paper, their group resembles the failed Super Teams because at least two of the stars – Garnett and Pierce – are well past their prime and because it is not clear if the Nets will play championship-level defense. Also, the Super Teams that won a championship were generally led by at least one MVP caliber performer but it is a bit of a reach to suggest that any of Brooklyn’s current or former All-Stars will be a legit MVP candidate in 2014.”

Lindy’s Pro Basketball 2013-14 Magazine predicted Brooklyn to clinch the Atlantic Division pennant over the Knicks, Toronto, Philadelphia and Boston. But it picked the San Antonio Spurs to dethrone Miami even as the choice of MVP was the Heat’s LeBron James.

Brooklyn’s slogan or battlecry for the coming season is “Are You Ready?” The Nets are primed to win it all. Prokhorov is counting on his stars to deliver. Whether Kidd can get his players to work together as a team on both ends is a question mark. It’ll be a challenge for Kidd whose chief assistant Lawrence Frank was an NBA head coach with the Nets and Detroit Pistons. If Prokhorov is a man in a hurry, he won’t wait for Kidd to evolve. Kidd has a short lease on life. The length of his tenure will depend on how the Nets perform. Prokhorov is bottom line-oriented. He wants an immediate return on investment and if Kidd isn’t able to produce, the job won’t be his for long.