The front office decision makers now get to re-set the roster after the KD and Kyrie debacle is fully over. From now onwards they have control and therefore they are responsible for our future results and path to title contention. When we win they deserve the praise. If we fail to progress it’s fair the decision makers should be held accountable and depending on performance they might be dismissed.
Sean Marks and ownership made two terrible mistakes around trade deadline/all-star break. The first mistake was unenforced. They gave a long term extension to HC Jacque Vaughn keeping him with the Nets through 2027.
Whatever you think of JV it was the wrong decision to extend him when Vaughn already had a contract through the end of 2024. A wiser GM would play out the rest of the season and consider how JV coached the reshaped roster. It didn’t look promising from my point of view.
JV has been swept in successive first rounds of the play-offs.
JV used 11 different players in the 1Q! vs. Knicks on 2nd March, 2023. Many NBA coaches will go their entire coaching careers never playing 11 different players in the same game.
To give 11 players minutes in the first quarter alone tells me you don’t know what you’re doing strategically as a head coach. How can you learn anything about your roster doing that?
The second mistake the Nets brain-trust was a major misjudgement in the middle of the season. I can understand those people that don’t blame them heavily. I imagine this came from ownership.
But the front office knew without KD and Ky and a very limited Ben Simmons that the Nets were not title contenders. They knew Houston was on course for a top 4 pick and therefore the threat of the pick swap was extinguished.
Yet they went all-in on making the play-offs. And we know how that turned out – swept by a not-fully healthy 76ers team and we struggled to score and through the series and there were barely any adjustments to improve our scoring. That’s on the head coach.
I’m not saying we should have tanked but we could have got the 10th pick instead of the 22nd and still have played hard but given more minutes to Day’Ron and Cam Thomas. The way young players get better is to play through their mistakes and get reps with on court minutes.
You can add a quality player to the roster with the 10th pick. A player picked 22 if far less likely to have a major impact on the NBA.
Our roster going forward shows us to be in no-mans land. This is the worst place a team can be in the NBA. Too good to get high lottery picks yet never good enough to go beyond the first round of the play-offs. Ownership might be satisfied with that especially after all the superstar drama. Plus we can’t tank because of the Harden trade.
We won’t know how Ben Simmons will perform until we see him back on court. Will he be an anchor with his contract for two more seasons? Or can he be a productive member of the team with his point of attack D and outlet passing. I hope to see the return of agile Ben Simmons.
Spencer Dinwiddie is perhaps the biggest choice the Nets have to make and I would personally like to see him moved to a contender who could use him. If we could get back a mid-first round pick in this upcoming draft I make that trade instantly.
Sean Marks had the opportunity to give Dinwiddie an extension three years ago and instead let him walk to the Wizards, we helped him by doing a S&T. But Dinwiddie is 30 now and I can’t see Marks giving him a lucrative, long term extension especially when he didn’t do that for a young SD.
Royce O’Neil and DFS are both 30. Valuable wings on contending teams but far less important on rebuilding/reloading teams. Again first round pick offers should be accepted. There will be demand for them.
The Nets have a potential superstar on the roster in Cam Thomas. I know there is a huge number of fans that don’t want to hear that but it’s the truth. N.B – I said potential – I didn’t say certain.
There is a video online called: The Brooklyn Nets NEED To Unleash Cam Thomas – watch it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xNryqxo1CU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xNryqxo1CU)
It’s a reminder of the promise Cam T has and his star level ability to score. Of course he needs to improve other aspects of his game, be a more willing passer, commit to D and learn the rotations but we do have a really young player who has the most important skill in the NBA at an elite level already.
I can’t wait to see what Cam has worked on in off-season and how much better he will be in his third season. He improved his efficiency and made a jump as a sophomore. There are a lot of false narratives about Cam. Watch the video linked above.
Nic Claxton is coming into another contract year. He made a jump last year. If he continues to improve it will be essential to retain him on a long term contract. We need him to be able to score away from the basket for him to become a true two-way player. A mid-range J would be awesome.
Mikal Bridges is the face of the franchise and now valued so highly by the Nets organisation because he is essentially what fans see most in what we got in exchange for KD.
He’s on a bargain on a contract for another few years. We all love him but he’s not a number one on a championship team, we don’t yet know if he could be a number two on a title winning team. It definitely seems he has levels to go until he reaches his peak.
Mikal is in demand and apparently the first choice of Dame’s to team up with in Portland. If the godfather offer of Shaedon Sharpe and the number 3 pick are offered we have to consider it. You might have two franchise cornerstones in that one transaction.
Cam Johnson – the other twin. He’s a restricted free agent. I’m not hugely comfortable about him getting a $20 million plus per season contract, he’s a good player for sure. But considering we also have to pay Claxton in a year we could have a high payroll with several good players earning $20m+ each but no-one considered a true star. You don’t win play-off series with rosters like that.
With Monty Williams taking over as HC in Detroit perhaps he’ll be after Cam in free agency. Houston seems interested in CJ too. If a package can be put together to get the 4th or 5th pick in the draft then we should break up the twins to do it. Otherwise match any offer as CJ is a restricted FA.
If Mikal is traded then of course you trade CJ too. And you hope to make a deal with Houston for them to return at least some of our own picks and swaps.
I don’t think the Nets ownership want to rebuild from scratch so I expect us to hold onto Mikal at the very least.
**Draft 2023**
We need a point guard for the future and the player we should target is Anthony Black, a young Texan. He has a lot of Jason Kidd about him. Awesome court vision, can make any pass including the razzle dazzle highlight assist which gets the fans excited. He’s an excellent defender at 6ft 7in and his deep shooting will continue to improve.
More importantly Black’s personality is the best fit for this new younger team, he appears thoughtful and mature for such a young athlete.
We would have to trade into the top 10 to get AB but this guy could be our floor general for more than a decade and as we build an identity around D (Mikal runner up DPOY, Simmons runner up DPOY, Claxton coming for that DPOY trophy) Black can fit seamlessly into this team and be our point going forward.
**Future Draft Picks**
We have a ton of future first rounders. Suns in 2023, 2025, 2027, 2029 and the pick swap in 2028. Philly’s top 7 protected 2027 first rounder, Dallas unprotected pick in 2029. While we don’t control our own draft we have enough picks to make a bid for any superstar that becomes available.
I hope Sean Marks and Joe Tsai don’t go superstar shopping so soon again after KD/Kyrie/Harden debacle. We know players like KAT and Trae Young could become available we really shouldn’t want to be adding either of them. KAT’s a fine shooting big man who doesn’t have that Alpha in him. We know what Trae’s ceiling is already.
We definitely should not trade for Dame, he’s too old for our timeline and we don’t want to pay him $60 million per season in a few years. His body appears to be breaking down now, it will likely lead to him missing more time.
The only two players I use all the draft capital on are two players not yet (and potentially never) available but in the NBA you never know what will happen and it is a players league and superstars get to move when they want.
Luka. We know he must be pissed at missing the play-offs. Dallas have not put a good enough team around him. They’ve made multiple personnel mistakes. His patience is running low if they don’t have a successful upcoming season then he’ll at least consider asking out. I reckon he’ll be gone in 12-24 months from Dallas, just not sure whether it will be the Nets that get him.
Ant-Man. He’s on his rookie contract but the Wolves are in a very tricky position because they’re paying Gobert huge money and KAT has already signed a super-max topping out at over $60 million per year. When you consider they’ll have to max-out Ant they’ll have spent so much of their cap on just three players and they don’t control their own draft to be able to add young talent on rookie contracts. The Wolves will have to be looking for bargains.
Ant might be looking at the bright lights of Brooklyn and sign his Q/O making him an unrestricted free agent at the end of his rookie deal. He’ll make so much from endorsements in a big market. At that point you offer the motherlode of first rounders for him.
It’s only Luka/Ant who are worth all our draft picks.
What moves need to be made in your opinion?
Who would you target in the draft?
Would you extend Dinwiddie?
Would you keep DFS? Royce?
What would you do with all our draft picks?
by addictivesign
