Post-Mortem: 2021-22 Brooklyn Nets

[Deivork]

KD and Kyrie didn't look very good overall. Major disappointment. They shouldn't have traded Harden. It would have been better to keep him and let him leave in the offseason.

Trading for Harden was one thing, but this year they were kind of forced to trade him. Not even in hindsight is better to see him leave for free. Wait, or is it...?

[NoStatsGuy]

GM: Change or keep? - Keep
Coach: Change or keep? - Change
Relative to expectations, how did they fare this year? expectations for the nets drastically changed during the season. in the beginning, they were sure fire bets for the finals. after the harden trade and absence of kyrie, they can be happy to have reached the 1st round.

Rising, falling, or treadmill? Falling/treadmill
If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

Heart to heart with KD and tell him, he needs to keep kyrie in check or he wont get the max extension. Ask KD if he wants to be a part of the team, if they let kyrie go. IF not, trade him to his preferred destination for picks and maybe young talent. might be hard to pull off, if you wanna do KD a favor but i would still try it. KD played his heart out for the nets and was reliable, cant say that about any of the other "top dogs" on the roster.

As a fan, i love the nets. they entertain me a great deal, mostly off the court.

[CharityStripe34]

They should have kept Jarrett Allen and LeVert. Having an actual rim protector/rebound/shot-blocker would've made a world of difference for them.

Kyrie's going to be picking his vacation spot like

[Mak]

I would not be surprised if Ben retired with back issues. Took the money and left.

[hugepatsfan]

If I'm the Nets, my primary goal is a stretch 5 who can defend. Re-sign Bruce Brown too.

Kyrie / Brown / Durant / Simmons / (stretch 5)

Build around that as a starting 5. Brown can just stand in the corner and cut to the basket on offense. The stretch 5 compensates for Simmons, whose passing makes up for the relative lack of playmaking from KD/Kyrie for the generational talents they are as scorers.

They have other good players like Claxton (free agent), Seth Curry, Joe Harris but all of that is secondary. You can find backup bigs and 3 point specialists. They need to do whatever they have to with the rest of the roster to get a stretch 5. Trade Curry for a pick - at that manageable salary I bet there are teams who would give value. Use the TPEs to take back dead weight salary for assets attached. Whatever you need to do. Get that stretch 5 to tie the starting lineup together.Then you go from there with the bench on whatever is left.

Myles Turner would be the ideal target but not sure BRK can get enough capital to make IND move him unless he doesn't want to re-sign. But they need to fill that hole IMO. Along with Simmons coming back that would take their defense to the next level.

[theoilslick]

They should have kept Jarrett Allen and LeVert. Having an actual rim protector/rebound/shot-blocker would've made a world of difference for them.

Kyrie's going to be picking his vacation spot like

Anything is possssiiiiibllllle!!!

I had been looking for this. Good sir you made my day

[Memories]

So are the Rockets still only going to get worthless late first round picks from 22-27 from the Nets?

Man, can you imagine if Irving leaves after all that?

Rockets would be sitting on pure bliss of lottery picks till 2027 lol.

[jc23]

although they got swept its not like the celtics blew them out the water. The games were determined by a couple of key plays here or there.
'
They can really go in either direction next season.

[TinmanZBoy]

Run it back with Simmons anchoring the defense with structures, nets will be right back on contending

[tamaraw08]

I would not be surprised if Ben retired with back issues. Took the money and left.

Retire and leave 110 Million dollars guaranteed? Who in their right mind would do that?
Zion, Ben, Wall etc etc these guys are the ultimate criminals who are stealing from teams in broad day light and nobody seems to care if their teams are suffering because of their questionable excuses not to work.

[Mak]

I would not be surprised if Ben retired with back issues. Took the money and left.

Retire and leave 110 Million dollars guaranteed? Who in their right mind would do that?
Zion, Ben, Wall etc etc these guys are the ultimate criminals who are stealing from teams in broad day light and nobody seems to care if their teams are suffering because of their questionable excuses not to work.

Hi! I don't think you lose all the money if you retire due to injury.

[TA42]

So are the Rockets still only going to get worthless late first round picks from 22-27 from the Nets?

Man, can you imagine if Irving leaves after all that?

Rockets would be sitting on pure bliss of lottery picks till 2027 lol.

What's amazing is it would be the second time the franchise mortgaged it's future for big names that ultimately did not lead to a Championship.

[CS707]

Ben continuing to claim mental disability makes me wonder how reasonable accommodation works in the NBA. The professional standard is the employer having to make an exhaustive effort to accommodate the employee but there is a point at which the employer has done their due diligence and can put the employee on disability. Work place injury obviously throws a wrench in that which may be where the back issue comes in. Just pondering on my part but I do wonder if he intends on ever playing again.

[Larry_Russell]

No need to worry, cause according to his post game interview, sounds like Kyrie is planning to manage the team with the GM.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/kyrie-irving-pledges-allegiance-to-nets-and-managing-this-franchise-is-now-apparently-part-of-his-job-too/

"When I say I'm here with Kev, I think that it really entails us managing this franchise together alongside Joe (Tsai, the owner) and Sean (Marks, the GM) and just our group of family members that we have in our organization," Irving said.

[Perseus1966]

before the games right after Jonhson wave, i said the Nets are throwing white towel (they call me crazy)
Nash must go .

[Perseus1966]

Kyrie killed their entire season due to pure narcissism. You can try to distribute the blame all you want but, in the end, Kyrie gets 100%.

Lets say Kyrie played all season whats the difference ?
they lost 4-0

[big-shot-ROB]

I would not over-react. They didn't have any chemistry going into the season. They're adding Simmons and possibly Harris next season. Get a new coach. The series was decided by what? 16 points in 4 games? Get some cheap role players and run it back a season.

The Celtics had the same exact season as the Nets and look at them now. Just not surpising they sucked after their season. There no thing as flipping the switch when your season has been bad.

[Doctor MJ]

GM: Change or keep?
Coach: Change or keep?

If you were in charge, what would you do this offseason?

A lot of hard questions with no easy answers, because realistically you have to stick with the KD-Kyrie experiment, and if they don't buy in to what you decide is best, it's not going to go well.

I don't think it makes sense to fire the GM while the experiment is on-going unless he specifically just seems broken kowtowing to the demands of the superstars - if the entire franchise seems broken, that's different.

My inclination would be to fire Nash as coach, but not so much because he failed to do what he was asked to do, but because we have a definitive answer now as to whether KD & Kyrie are so good you can expect to win championships by playing pick-up ball, and if KD & Kyrie aren't willing to get behind a new approach, you really do need to end the experiment.

I could see a scenario where Nash isn't fired but a drill sergeant of an assistant coach is brought in and empowered. This would in the short-term be the equivalent of demoting Nash, though it's possible that Nash would continue on with the head coaching role after the assistant gets hired somewhere else. I'd look to Doc Rivers and Tom Thibodeau as something of an analogy there.

In terms of who that might be, I think it would have to be someone who isn't already a big name else they wouldn't accept an assistant's role.

If we're looking for a new head coach and can assume KD/Kyrie will get on board, I don't know. Frank Vogel? You need a defensive coach because that's the glaring weakness of the team. Problem of course is, that coach can't do much if KD/Kyrie buy into defense like they've never shown any capacity for in the past.

But the really thorny stuff is what to do with the rest of the franchise. The hope is that you can plan on a Big 3 of Durant/Irving/Simmons going forward and figure the rest out based on works with them, but that's punting the off-season in favor of what comes next season because to this point this Big 3 has never even played together.

In the meantime, Bruce Brown is a free agent and the guy who has functioned best with KD/Kyrie these past two years. I don't know what kind of demand he's going to get in the off-season, but I feel like you have to match whatever he's offered unless you rally have some kind of clear path to acquiring someone else not currently on your roster that can do his job better.

[Clav]

GM: Change or keep? - Keep
Coach: Change or keep? - Change
Performance relative to expectations: Worse
Rising/Waning/Treadmill team: Waning team

Part 1 - cut all dead weight... BG LMA DJ Drummond Trade Harris etc. Make room for athletic younger players at all cost.

Part 2 - In the games I watched, I appreciated Claxton's growth, and Bruce Brown being a tenacious player (Contract time for Bruce). These guys should be prioritized. I liked the individual skill that the team has. High hopes for Cam Thomas if he can replace an old veteran. This team is thisclose to contending for a title if these guys take moderate jumps.

I should be writing about Durant and Kyrie and Harden and/or Simmons etc dominating games, leading this team to the ECF or Finals, but, now the Nets are out, swept in R1....heading to the offseason with so many issues, there's a big negative mark on its superstar's careers for their poor performances (or absences), it has even more questions about the teams' leadership, it has more than one rostered player on the wrong side of public opinion, and a huge payroll backed by a billionaire business magnate.... (Tsai/Alibaba)

...because for all that team-building, they didn't show up as a team, only as individuals.

If ownership is fine paying luxury tax to win, they need to do that now and cut all "wrong-side-of-30-guys", even if those guys are homies to coach Irving and Durant.

If ownership is fine paying luxury tax to lose, then run it back again, and hope Simmons and Irving play in 60+ games, maybe they have a chance.

[Hello Brooklyn]

Hope someone thinks Browns 40% 3 point shooting is sustainable and offers a ton. Not that I think he is good, but I don't think nets have the ability to replace them with their limited weapons. Their rotation may be 5 returning guys (including guys like BS and KI who like to miss games) and 4 vet min guys. That's a recipe for disaster with an aging KD.

Brown shoots well but only makes corner 3s and is left wide open.

Its not at all sustainable.

The rotation is completely different if you add Joe Harris and Ben Simmons. Thats 2 starters.

Youre going from

Kyrie/Curry/Brown/KD/Drummond

to

Simmons/Kyrie/Harris/KD/Claxton

No weak defenders except for Kyrie. Curry/Kyrie back court was a disaster. Brown tries but he could not all guard wing players.

This excludes the young guys who will improve.

Kessler Edwards/Sharpe/Cam Johnson played well for rookies. You have to assume they are rotation pieces.

Nets also have both first round picks from Philly which they can use to trade for other pieces.

I'm not worried about the roster.

Its mostly about coaching and Kyrie.

Nash needs to be fired immediately. A new coach would change everything.

For Kyrie I would give him until the deadline to prove he is serious about basketball. If not I would trade him.

Someone would take a chance on him. And if KD tries to veto it then I would trade him too and end the experiment.