Brooklyn's Second Lease On Basketball Life

 After getting swept out of the playoffs, the Brooklyn Nets are in an interesting position. Actually, Brooklyn is in the exact same position they were in following the 2018-19 season heading into the summer in which they sign Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

Four years later Brooklyn is getting a do over. A fresh start. What are they going to do with it? Are they going to pull the trigger on a trade to get a superstar with the treasure trove of picks they received from moving on from Irving and Durant away this past winter. Are they going to stay put with the group they have and build the culture through two young All-Star caliber players and a journeyman coach?

The question that Sean Marks and the Nets front office must answer is—are the superstars reportedly on the market worth trading away a part of the future the Nets have just started to paint.

One thing is clear in Brooklyn, Mikal Bridges is the franchise cornerstone. He is untouchable with whatever the next phase of this retooling looks like. Not far down that list is resigning restricted free agent Cam Johnson because the culture that came along with Bridges and Johnson when they were brought in midseason is reminiscent of what was in the building in 2018. That doesn’t have a price tag on the open market for Johnson, but he is more valuable to the Nets than he would be for any other team that pursue him this offseason.

Nicolas Claxton also feels like he would be last of the question marks heading into the summer. The “Big Three” for Brooklyn to start this turnaround looks to be Bridges, Johnson, and Claxton. That aforementioned question mark regarding Claxton is when is his extension going to be coming and how much will it cost? Claxton is arguably the best defensive center in basketball, but how much is that worth?

To me, Claxton’s extension will be somewhere between the contracts of Jared Allen and Deandre Ayton ($100-132 Million). That would make the four-year center the fourth highest paid player on the roster at the moment, before the deal for Cam Johnson gets worked out.

Other than those three guys, what will the Nets roster look like next year? Seth Curry is a free agent and will likely sign with a title contender. Yuta Watanabe showed that he could be a contributing player to a contending team. Will a top four team in either conference overpay for a guy who could give you valuable minutes in a playoff game?

Brooklyn has a decent number of expiring contracts that could be trade pieces to either smooth out the rough edges of a young team or take another big swing at a star. Spencer Dinwiddie, Joe Harris, Royce O’Neale, Patty Mills, and Edmond Sumner are all free agents following the season.

If I was Sean Marks, I would keep this roster closer to last year’s team than make drastic changes. This is not because I would be gun shy from striking out going for broke with Irving and Durant—the reason I wouldn’t do too much is because the likely trade candidates are not title defining moves. Damian Lillard would be a fun experiment, but at this stage of his career it will end in Brooklyn like it did in Portland for the entire decade of the 2010’s… On the outside looking into the Finals. Jaylen Brown like Lillard, would be a splashy move, but Brown is coming off the worst playoff series of his career, and as a Third Team All-NBA guy seemingly cannot dribble with his left hand. Joel Embiid if available cannot stay healthy in the playoffs and has never escaped the second round and will turn 30 at the end of next season. Giannis Antetokounmpo as amazing as that would be, something drastic would have to change for the Greek Freak to break free of Milwaukee. Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, and Zion Williamson are all tremendous talents but cannot stay on the court for one reason or another. Leonard is the only reliable option in the postseason, but he will only play 20 % of the games if the Nets would be lucky and would have to likely give up the world to bring Leonard here.

The Brooklyn Nets are now in an enviable spot after they already sold their soul once to try to be remembered forever, fortunately Brooklyn got a second lease on life, this time the smart thing for them to do is stay patient.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 2023 Offseason is Brian Cashman's Biggest Test Yet

Image
   Now that the World Series is over five days from now the offseason begins. With that in mind, this is the biggest offseason that Brian Cashman will have in his 25-year tenure as Yankee General Manager. For the first time since 2016 the Bronx Bombers watched the postseason from their couches, and they earned that right. Amazingly, this team finished over .500, although not that far above that mark. This iteration of the Bronx Bombers finish with the same record as that 2016 team—but the feeling with this squad feels different. Following the 2016 season, there was hope of the two power bats that would usher in the “Baby Bombers,” and in that offseason, the farm system was rated in the Top 10 in all of baseball. There was almost certainty that Brian Cashman would put a championship team around Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, and Luis Severino that would be a title contender for years to come. There was hope. And that hope almost turned into reality. Almost. But, that was then
Read more

The Question going into the Trade Deadline for the New York Yankees

  There is a crossroads in the Bronx in between River and 161 st Street right now. As New York Yankee Manager Aaron Boone likes to put it “[the season] is right in front of them.” The second half of the season is for the taking. As we move into the dog days of summer the Bronx Bombers are nine games out of the division and now a game and a half out of the AL Wild Card race following a disappointing first series in Colorado. With that, the historic starting Tampa Bay Rays have cooled off, going 3-7 before the break while showing signs of being mortal. Baltimore, who has been keeping pace with Tampa, didn’t look like a Superpower when they split against the Yankees two series before the break. The AL East is still a Spartan Training Facility with every team above .500, the Orioles holding the first Wild Card spot, and the “struggling” Boston Red Sox tied the Yankees in the Wild Card race. And unlike Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, help is not on the way. Aaron Judge’s toe is still a m
Read more

The Answer for the Mets

  As Yogi Berra would say “it’s déjà vu all over again.” Buck Showalter is an all too familiar place. The 67-year-old manager has taken a time machine back to 2012. No, he is not managing in Baltimore anymore, however that’s what it feels like the end of Showalter’s Oriole tenure in Queens right now. The Mets simply can’t get out of their own way. With Pete Alonso likely headed to the Injured List, the Mets scored 10 runs last night in Atlanta. 10 runs on the heels of back-to-back gut-wrenching losses at the hands of the team that has foiled the Mets for the better part of almost three decades, the Atlanta Braves. 10 runs with their hired ace, Justin Verlander, who was looking to put together good starts consecutively for the first time all season. The Mets looked like they were about to exercise some demons in Atlanta last night, and then, the other shoe dropped. It wasn’t good enough. Again. Last night, I wrote that the Mets season was on the line with Verlander toeing the slab. Well
Read more