The Nets’ roster additions this offseason counsel they’re nonetheless making an attempt to compete for a championship. The darkish cloud hovering over the franchise in mild of Kevin Durant’s commerce request, then again, would counsel in any other case.
The fact, as incumbent head coach Steve Nash likes to say, is someplace within the center: Durant’s commerce request has created a little bit of an ungainly state of affairs in Brooklyn, however the Nets seem – no less than on the floor – prepared to take this stalemate additional into the offseason, and fairly probably into coaching camp, in the event that they aren’t blown away by a deal far superseding the haul the Utah Jazz acquired within the Rudy Gobert megadeal with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The actuality is Durant has 4 years remaining on his contract and is likely one of the finest basketball gamers ever to set foot on an NBA courtroom. The Nets aren’t going to be rushed into promoting low. And if Phoenix’s finest provide — with out Devin Booker, that’s — is Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and 6 or seven years price of mixed picks and choose swaps and isn’t sufficient, it’s unclear what inside cause one other group can provide that might make the Nets’ entrance workplace snug agreeing to a commerce.
Yet amid what has been a worst-case situation — the utter considered dropping one of the best participant in franchise historical past earlier than a real run at an NBA championship — Nets GM Sean Marks is making good on his promise to enhance Durant’s supporting forged within the opening week of NBA free company. If he can put collectively a deep and gifted sufficient supporting forged with the restricted monetary instruments at his disposal given the Nets’ standing as a taxpaying group, Marks would possibly be capable to make Brooklyn’s grass inexperienced sufficient to persuade Durant to remain put.
Many have pointed to the Nets’ choice to not provide Bruce Brown a contract this offseason, and on the floor, permitting Brown to stroll to Denver on a modest two-year, $13M deal seems to be like a blunder. But the Nets predict a wholesome Ben Simmons for the primary time since buying him within the James Harden deal. A wholesome Simmons averages about 34 minutes per sport, and Nash mentioned in his exit press convention the group intends not solely to make use of Simmons as the purpose guard and offense initiator, but in addition as a middle–a screener-and-roller of Brown’s ilk within the final two seasons.
The Nets made a enterprise choice: Not to overpay to have roster redundancy. Instead, they used their commerce exception to accumulate Utah Jazz 3-and-D wing Royce O’Neale.
O’Neale has lengthy been a participant the Nets sought, and Brooklyn tried to commerce for him final season, in keeping with HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto. While Brown shot 40% from three-point vary final season, his taking pictures percentages weren’t solely a profession excessive, however an outlier. Brown should cement his standing as a shooter with an encore efficiency subsequent season earlier than groups start to deal with him as a official outdoors risk.
O’Neale is a risk, and one can argue the Nets overpaid by furnishing a first-round choose in 2023 to coax the Jazz right into a deal. The response to that argument, nonetheless, is that the Nets don’t personal the rights to that choose anyway. It would be the least favorable of their very own, Houston’s and Philadelphia’s first-rounder subsequent season, and if a first-round choose is the price of doing enterprise so as to add a direct impression participant to a championship group, it’s the fee you pay virtually each time.
Which brings us to the opposite acquisitions: The Nets signed veteran scorer TJ Warren, and The Athletic reported they acquired him on the veteran’s minimal. Warren has missed all however 4 video games previously two seasons with what has been reported as a navicular fracture to his left foot. In the final three full-ish seasons Warren has performed, nonetheless, he’s averaging shut to twenty factors per sport. He is a 6-foot-8 ahead who checks two packing containers: satisfying Durant’s standards when he tweeted “it’s a wing’s league,” and including dimension to a Nets group that acquired bullied of their first-round sweep by the Celtics final season.
The Nets additionally added an enormous guard: Edmond Sumner, who missed all of final season after getting surgical procedure on his Achilles, however shot it at a 39% clip from downtown the final time he performed video games for the Indiana Pacers.
While Nets made these enhancements, they nonetheless have their finest accessible software so as to add an impression participant on free company: the taxpayer’s mid-level exception, which generally is a one-year cope with $6.5M or a three-year deal price $20M. The MLE can be break up between a number of gamers, so if extra gamers like Warren are prepared to take a pay lower to affix a championship contender, the Nets can accommodate them for a couple of hundred thousand {dollars} greater than the veteran’s minimal. Some gamers that make sense given Brooklyn’s roster development are shot-blocker Hassan Whiteside, defensive hound Avery Bradley, backup pace demon Dennis Schroder and three-and-D wing Ben McLemore.
Those free brokers, nonetheless, will need readability on Durant’s standing in Brooklyn earlier than making a dedication. Durant’s commerce request has frozen enterprise in basketball. Yet what’s clear in Brooklyn based mostly on their strikes within the aftermath of Durant’s request is that they’re nonetheless making an attempt to win video games.
Can Marks put a adequate supporting forged round Durant to make him rethink a future in Brooklyn? Kobe Bryant as soon as requested a commerce on Los Angeles public radio, saying he’d relatively play on Pluto than return to the Lakers, solely to go on to win 5 championships and by no means play for an additional group.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com