It is the middle of February and the worst team in basketball is clearly the Brooklyn Nets. They will be the last team in the NBA to achieve 10 wins this season, 9-46 through their first 55 games of 2016-17.
Several high-risk, high-reward trades under a different front office a few years has left the Nets in an extended nadir of a seemingly hopeless rebuild. At least they have two guys full optimism in their first years on the job: head coach Kenny Atkinson and general manager Sean Marks.
While they do have two draft picks this season, their projected lottery pick will be swapped with the Boston Celtics. Brooklyn’s second round pick will be coming to the Nets via the Indiana Pacers. To say the Nets need help is a gross understatement. So just how bad is it?
Well, the Nets do have the second most cap space left this NBA season at $15,845,368 and luxury cap space of $34,989,368. They will have cap space next year and those two draft picks to work with. Brooklyn only has two unrestricted free agents in Luis Scola and Randy Foye and one unrestricted free agent in Bojan Bogdanovic.
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In short, while Marks has put Brooklyn in better position to succeed in the coming years, his team is still largely terrible. While the Nets don’t have any incentive to lose thanks to the pick swap with the Celtics, they do need to get better players on their roster by any means necessary.
Of course, Marks will have to crush it in the upcoming drafts, but he could use a few contributing players coming his way immediately. Fortunately, Brooklyn is in position to take on a bigger salary than most would be at the deadline. If a disgruntled, overpriced player has had enough on whatever team he is emotionally driving into the ground, Brooklyn is a potential short-term landing spot for him.
However, veterans with depreciating value shouldn’t be all that Marks targets this trade deadline. Atkinson’s greatest skill as a coach is in player development. Just give the guy raw basketball material and he can create a good rotational player to fringe starter in about half a season.
Basically, Marks should look for undervalued, unrefined players that Atkinson can cultivate running his system in the Nets’ remaining games. It’s a rebuilding plan that the Nets can get behind, as Atkinson’s track record of player development as an assistant for the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks speaks for itself.
If we’re looking at what Brooklyn might want to land in a trade deadline deal, the Nets could use three things: depth and dynamism in the frontcourt, more stability at point guard, and a team can never have enough wing depth.
The frontcourt and wing needs can be players that demonstrate raw athleticism, but untapped potential. As for the point guard, the Nets could use a player that is a veteran backup that can spot start. Starting point guard Jeremy Lin has played 12 games this year. He’ll be back for the Nets after the All-Star Break, but could use a short-term spot starter for him in the coming weeks.
Three players that the Nets could have interest at the trade deadline are New Orleans Pelicans power forward Terrence Jones, Sacramento Kings small forward Omri Casspi, and Utah Jazz point guard Shelvin Mack.
All three players are upcoming free agents, but could be good schematic fits in Atkinson’s rotation the rest of the season and possibly next season if they re-sign. Mack played for Atkinson in Atlanta. If Utah’s surge towards the top of the Western Conference begins to limit his minutes, he could be a prime target to aid in Brooklyn’s point guard depth.
Jones is an interesting trade piece for the Pelicans. He is one of New Orleans’ most intriguing short-term trade assets. If the Pelicans want Nets starting center Brook Lopez, expect Jones and a few picks to be coming Brooklyn’s way. Jones would suffice a frontcourt dynamism need.
Casspi doesn’t play very much for the Kings under new head coach Dave Joerger. He is a veteran wing that could give the Nets some much-needed muscle coming off the bench at the three. Though he has rarely played for winning teams, Casspi feels like a good culture fit on Atkinson’s team.
Since the Nets don’t really have a great draft picks to trade this season, they will have to give up pieces from their current roster in a trade deadline deal. The four players that could be moved by the Nets are Bogdanovic, Foye, Lopez, and Scola.
Bogdanovic is hitting restricted free agency. A team that trades for him would not just be getting a great outside shooter to space the floor at small forward. The team would have the ability to match whatever offer he garners on the open market thanks to now having his restricted free agency rights.
Because of this, Brooklyn will essentially have to okay wherever the Nets potentially deal Bogdanovic. In a weak jump-shooting trade deadline market, Bogdanovic could garner more than he would most years in a mid-season deal.
Foye and Scola are aging veterans that would offer much value on the open market. However, they have ample playoff experience and could be good locker room guys/role players for young teams pushing for playoff positioning for the first time in a while.
The best trade asset that the Nets have to offer is easily Lopez. Now that the injury concerns with his foot have subsided in recent years, he might be the best center potentially on the trading block this February.
He has lived most of his Nets life on the trading block, yet he has never been dealt since being drafted by the team in the first round out of Stanford in 2008. Lopez is a tremendously skilled offensive big man with an improved stroke from distance. He won’t be a free agent until summer 2018.
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Teams would be getting a near-All-Star caliber center at the deadline. Lopez can be the third best player on a championship-level team. Pace may have to go out the window with him on the floor, but he’s been a highly productive player for a long time. Trading Lopez would easily garner the Nets a first round pick, a solid, rotational big man, and probably another future pick.