The Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers are first round opponents and are notable for taking vastly different approaches to their rebuilds.
The 76ers tanked for several seasons to accumulate assets and high first round picks, while the Nets built via trade, lower draft picks and free agent signings after not having their own first round pick for three seasons. Brooklyn sent the No. 3 pick in 2016, No. 1 in 2017 and No. 8 in 2018 to Boston.
“Isn’t that the greatest thing about the NBA?” Atkinson said of the two rebuilding strategies. “They did it one way, and we kind of did it the other. They’ve had great success and great players. We just did it a different way. That’s the beauty of the NBA. There’s a lot of different ways to skin a cat. We took our particular situation and took another approach, and here we are playing against each other. It’s great.”