This makes sense to me. The more you lose the harder it is to get the pendulum swinging back the right way.
https://nypost.com/2024/07/01/sports/nets-expected-to-follow-shorter-rebuild-strategy/But agents and league executives who’ve spoken with The Post are reading the tea leaves. And those leaves are showing more of a painful-but-short strategy than the death-by-a-thousand cuts misery the Pistons have been going through.
There are risks down each path.
Despite whatever rumors are floating about, don’t expect the Nets to move Simmons this summer for some long-term bad deal (read: Zach LaVine). And forget reports of a D’Angelo Russell reunion; it’s not likely.
It’s impossible to know for certain what free agents will be available (Jimmy Butler could opt out, Donovan Mitchell could extend, etc.). But cap space is also valuable to take players back in trades. And Brooklyn’s cache of picks are valuable to make those deals. They already have 16 first-rounders over the next seven years, and can add to that by moving Johnson or Finney-Smith.
The Nets were only convinced to trade Bridges by a confluence of events: their inability to pair him with an All-Star like Mitchell, and his own desire to leave and join the Knicks. A deep rebuild was never a preference, but a pivot.
The smart pivot would be to keep their eyes on 2025. And that’s what the league is expecting.
only big problem is that 2025 free agent class mostly stinks. but maybe you can do what houston did and pay big for a short term vet like FVV. or maybe someone like Fox or Ja shakes loose.
