Nets as title contender? Billy King thinks it could happen.

I’m not sold the Nets are the best team in New York. They are not the best team in the Northeast. Nobody sane thinks they are the best team on the East coast, or in that conference.

Yes, they are going to be much better than last season’s train wreck in Newark. This version of the Nets — with Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and Gerald Henderson — should be entertaining. That’s a start.

But Nets GM Billy King thinks they could be more than that. He was asked in a Tuesday press conference if these Nets could win an NBA title, as reported at ESPNNewYork.com.

“Can we win a championship? Yeah. But it takes luck in an NBA season to do that. You’ve gotta be healthy, get some breaks and the ball has to bounce your way sometimes.”

Sometimes? The Nets would need every bounce to go their way. The breaks would need to include the legs of LeBron James and Kevin Garnett.

Seriously, Billy King did watch the Heat win an NBA title, then go out this summer and land Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. Does he think the Nets roster is better than that?

“I don’t know. ... Miami’s very good. They’re the defending champions so that’s who everybody’s trying to beat, but I look at when we play them. For once, we’ve got pieces where we have a chance to beat them,” King said. “When we play the Lakers, we’ve got a chance to beat them. Every night we step on the court we’ve got a chance to win every game.

“We’re new to the party, but we’re going to be knocking on the door.”

If it’s a good party, do you ever hear the guy knocking at the door trying to get in?

I don’t want to just bash the Nets here because they are going to be a pretty good team. They are going to win more games than they lose. We do praise them in the PBT season preview.

But any Nets fans that think they are contenders are more delusional than Knicks fans… hey, maybe that is one battle of New York they can win!