NBA post-free agency power rankings

28. Brooklyn Nets

If plans were more important than results, the Nets were the winners of the offseason.

General manager Sean Marks’ slow build back toward relevance is paying off, as the Nets put together a roster of interesting young assets. They had no prospects of acquiring those players when Marks took the job, but based on shrewd deal-making and a keen eye toward the future, they are finally out from beneath the weight of the ill-advised Boston trade of 2013.

After moving off of Timofey Mosgov’s contract, Brooklyn can create $63 million in cap space next summer. All that for the price of two second-round picks, of which the Nets still have five extra. If you hadn’t heard, Brooklyn is very close to New York City, where a lot of famous athletes enjoy living. Not since Deron Williams have we considered the Nets a free agency player, but when Mikhail Prokhorov and Jay-Z decided the franchise was better off in the Big Apple, they envisioned the impact that proximity to Manhattan would have.

With nearly half the league available in free agency next summer, I forecast we’ll see that advantage pay off for the Nets. They’ll be spenders once more.

So if this summer was about setting up flexibility, it was a success. They freed up space in their point guard rotation by trading Jeremy Lin, acquired two expiring deals from the tax-frightened Nuggets, and drafted two European forwards who should help the team in the future.

Marks is playing the waiting game here, and it will pay off sooner than anyone would have thought when he took the job in 2016.