30 teams in 30 days: Brooklyn Nets offseason preview
By Jeff Siegel
The Nets have one more season in basketball hell before they’ll hand their 2018 first-round pick to the Celtics. Once they’re out from the under the weight of Billy King’s tenure as general manager, Brooklyn will finally be able to rebuild properly by grabbing a couple of top-five draft picks to close out the decade. This type of long-term view is Brooklyn’s only choice to become a true championship contender, unless it comes out that LeBron James was actually born and raised on East 81st Street.
As things stand, Brooklyn has two positions sewn up: Jeremy Lin at point guard and Brook Lopez at center. Every other spot on the roster could use an improvement in one way or another, which comes with the silver lining that the Nets can insert themselves into every free agent and trade discussion. They have a plethora of cap space, can open up roster spots for incoming players and have a desperate need to replenish their draft coffers for the next few years.
The Nets begin with $20.5 million in cap space this summer, but can get to more than $30 million by letting go of their non-guaranteed salary and renouncing Randy Foye’s rights. Self-evaluation is key for Sean Marks and his staff before they turn their eyes toward the market — which of their non-guaranteed players have value and can contribute next season? Their non-guaranteed salaries have various decision dates, but even if the Nets want to cut those guys after they’ve become guaranteed, it wouldn’t have a major effect on their books. As things stand, the Nets have 14 players on their roster and will add two first-round picks to their roster on June 22, so it seems likely that not all of that non-guaranteed group will be back in a Nets uniform next season.
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There are very few teams with legitimate cap space this summer and even fewer who have as many holes in their rotation as Brooklyn. The Nets will be able to pitch potential free agents on their playing time and rehabilitating their value in the eyes of the rest of the league. One- or two-year make-good contracts for veterans would be prudent for Brooklyn to pursue; guys like Shelvin Mack, Langston Galloway and Brandon Jennings could upgrade their backup point guard position and perhaps lead those guys to a better contract down the line. On the wing, where Brooklyn is thinnest, they could go after some of the lower-level restricted free agents, like Reggie Bullock or Brandon Rush, in the hopes that putting them in Hawks University, Brooklyn campus (led by former Hawks assistant/player development wizard Kenny Atkinson) would significantly improve their skills. Big men such as Amir Johnson or Roy Hibbert might be willing to take a bench role with the Nets, knowing they would get significant playing time and could show they once again have value in a league that has gone away from them.
Another use of Brooklyn’s space would be to take on bad contracts from other teams in exchange for some additional draft picks in the coming years. A plethora of bad deals were signed last summer and the Nets could shop themselves around as a place to dump one or two of those. Guys like Evan Turner and Luol Deng are already becoming onerous contracts for their current teams, but Brooklyn could take one of those deals into their cap space, along with a first-round pick for the trouble. An added bonus for Brooklyn: Just like the players mentioned on the wing above, the Nets could rehab the value of Turner or Deng and trade them again this time next year when they would still have two years left on their deals and be running into the time that Brooklyn wants to be bad and collect on their own high draft picks.
One small note on K.J. McDaniels: Like Jerami Grant in my Oklahoma City preview, the Nets can decline McDaniels’ team option this summer and make him a restricted free agent, potentially paying him more than the $3.5 million he’s owed next year in order to lock him down at a cheaper overall price than he might get as an unrestricted free agent next summer. McDaniels, unlike Grant, hasn’t quite proven that he’s worth the commitment of a longer deal, so it’s likely that Brooklyn will simply pick up the option and let him hit unrestricted free agency in 2018.
Next: Toronto Raptors offseason preview
The Nets have to have the longest view in the room — similar to the 76ers when Sam Hinkie took over — not because that’s the best move for the health of the team but because it’s literally the only tenable option they have. The next year or two are goners in terms of competing or building the next great Nets team, but once their obligation to Boston is extinguished, they’ll be able to get into the draft and build their roster into a competitive team. If they’re able to pick up some other draft assets during that time to increase their odds of landing a superstar like Philadelphia did, all the better, but just having control of their own picks at this point will be a coup for Marks, Atkinson and the rest of their front office.