Provided are a method, system, and program for managing data read operations of a read command such as a read command packaged in an Internet Small Computer System Interface packet. In one embodiment, a network adapter has a microengine which obtains read target data from a cache coupled to the network adapter to respond to a read command packaged in a packet sent by an initiator over a network. If the network adapter cache does not have the target data addressed by the read command, the read command is forwarded to a target controller coupled to a storage unit to process the read command.