Official ‘24-25 Off-season Thread

[bubonicphoniks]

Looks like we did nothing. Unbelievable.

[Stone]

There was talk this afternoon that Memphis might be interested, but we were asking too much.

Marks has not done much at deadlines in the past. We will see how this all shakes out in the offseason.

[Stone]

https://www.netsdaily.com/2025/2/6/24360475/espn-ben-simmons-likely-to-be-bought-out

Said Charania: “Sources tell me Ben Simmons, a three-time All-Star, and the Brooklyn Nets are working on a potential contract buyout to make him a free agent. The Los Angeles Clippers and the Cleveland Cavaliers are potential suitors for him as a free agent. I expect that Ben Simmons will try to join a contender.”

[vincecarter4pres]

We’re almost locked into 5, and worst case 6xth. Moving any of these guys for **** value made no sense.

Unless it comes out Marks turned down the Mark Williams package for Clax, or some great pick package for one of the Cams, I don’t blame him in the slightest for holding onto guys who we might keep long term, or you get one high value pick on draft night for.

Let alone once he sees the Ingram trade go down, it had to give him some comfort that Toronto will make a push for no reason, leaving us in sole control of 5th worst.

And the Doncic and Fox trades really facked the market up, even the Hunter dump.

There are a lot of interesting players in this draft, but this is still mainly a 3 player draft, so hopefully we make a jump, or worst case Marks can move up to 2 or 3 without giving up the farm.

[Netaman]

We’re almost locked into 5, and worst case 6xth. Moving any of these guys for **** value made no sense.

Unless it comes out Marks turned down the Mark Williams package for Clax, or some great pick package for one of the Cams, I don’t blame him in the slightest for holding onto guys who we might keep long term, or you get one high value pick on draft night for.

Let alone once he sees the Ingram trade go down, it had to give him some comfort that Toronto will make a push for no reason, leaving us in sole control of 5th worst.

And the Doncic and Fox trades really facked the market up, even the Hunter dump.

There are a lot of interesting players in this draft, but this is still mainly a 3 player draft, so hopefully we make a jump, or worst case Marks can move up to 2 or 3 without giving up the farm.

yep basically where im at. id be really excited about any of flagg/harper/bailey. less so about others.

glad camj is back, wish we could have done claxton to lal but i think a big selling point for them was that williams is still rookie deal.

glad fernandez looks legit too.

man this franchise needs the ping pong balls to go it's way for once.

[Papi_swav]

There's still hope for top4, and hopefully the ping pong balls goes our way. I'm more worried about our Bucks/Knicks/Rockets pick since we're almost guaranteed a top6 pick. We need Rockets and Bucks to keep losing.

[Decipher]

Could’ve been worse.

We could have given the Cams away for peanuts, traded for Kuzma and agreed to pay Butler $60 million per season

[bubonicphoniks]

So this season was a complete failure. We can't even tank right.

[TheNetsFan]

Read on Twitter

Having a potential monopoly on cap space next year could put us in a very strong negotiating position.

[ecuhus1981]

So this season was a complete failure. We can't even tank right.

I have maintained all season that our approach is the right way to rebuild.

I don't want us embedding loser habits into the young players, so effort and sound strategy are a must. We have that.

I can't have our front office pawning guys off for pennies on the dollar. That's when you lose leverage for your bigger trade later, when other teams know you'll bend more in negotiations. We saw that the return for Dennis and Dorian was light, and CJ is better and younger than both of them. He's under contract for 2 more seasons also, so there was no rush to move him, other than he contributes to winning too much. So, we'll have to load manage the sh... our of him for 35 games, fine.

We could have had Keldon Johnson and a 1st, or Levert/Niang/2nds, but I don't like either of those packages. We can move him at the draft or in the summer.

[vincecarter4pres]

Isola on the pregame talking about, don’t be surprised if KD is back in Brooklyn next year if he’s traded away from Phoenix.

I mean is it that big of a reach?

And then Bobby Marks talking about Kyrie could be in play here if he opts out?

We get lucky and windup with one of Flagg or Bailey, even Harper, sign Kyrie outright, trade for KD back, re-sign Cam T and Sharpe, maybe DLo?

Would be interesting to see what a KD trade would even look like.

[TheNetsFan]

I don't want Kyrie back, nor do I want to give up a ton for KD. I'll take KD as a '26 FA, but our assets need to be focused on a longer term piece.

[ecuhus1981]

I do want Kyrie back, as far as basketball fit. And I love the fact that he grew up a Nets fan, he really gave his all on the court for us. I still believe in him, but I don't think he would honestly entertain us after the vaccine drama (btw, I believe in herd immunity and vaccinations).

And what would Phoenix expect for KD? According to the latest reports, the Suns almost got Jimmy, Kuminga, Valanciunas and 2 1sts for Kevin. I know the deal would be 5 months later, but would Brooklyn pay anywhere near this much? I say no, and I think other teams will come with bigger offers. Let the bidding war go on without us.

But wouldn't it be wild, if we reunited the Scary Hours band???

Harden can decline his player option this summer and become a free agent, too. If we traded Cam J and 3 1sts for KD, then signed Irving and Harden with our capspace, we could have a lineup like this:

Irving, Harden, Durant, Flagg, Claxton
Thomas, Whitehead, Wilson, Clowney, Sharpe

[Netaman]

Isola on the pregame talking about, don’t be surprised if KD is back in Brooklyn next year if he’s traded away from Phoenix.

I mean is it that big of a reach?

And then Bobby Marks talking about Kyrie could be in play here if he opts out?

We get lucky and windup with one of Flagg or Bailey, even Harper, sign Kyrie outright, trade for KD back, re-sign Cam T and Sharpe, maybe DLo?

Would be interesting to see what a KD trade would even look like.

hard pass on kyrie, but id be good with KD. i assume they'd want clax and/or cj and a few picks? that'd be a somewhat interesting play-in ish group around booker with some of their draft assets restored.

if they are bringing in KD i dont think the nets would want to deal both vets in that deal so maybe it ends up claxton plus picks and nets accept KD into cap space? id do our lowest 2025 pick, the PHI 27 pick, and 1 distant unprotected NYK pick for KD. if they want a massive trade exception and to get lower in tax penalties that could make sense.

so much of where nets decide to go direction wise comes down to draft lotto, but let's assume optimistically they get a top 3 pick, that player plus KD, plus CamT, plus CamJ is interesting. payroll would be 87m with 6 guys under contract (KD/camJ/clowney/jalen/whitehead/keon).

plus 3 rfas (zaire, camt, sharpe).

plus 3 remaining 2025 FRPs.

so that's 12 roster spots spoken for with a bunch of money left to spend under the 154m salary cap. maybe bring back DLo as a placeholder on a 1 year deal?

it's prob not a championship team in 2025 but maybe it's a playoff team set up to add a max guy in 2026? they could have enough assets left for Giannis whenever he gets dealt. if they were to get Harper in the 25 draft, Harper/CamJ/KD/Giannis core would be pretty damn good. I have confidence Marks would be quality depth around that and Jordi could get them competing hard defensively to get a ring.

[vincecarter4pres]

I don't want Kyrie back, nor do I want to give up a ton for KD. I'll take KD as a '26 FA, but our assets need to be focused on a longer term piece.

I’d take Kyrie back with open arms assuming things were copacetic with him and ownership/management.

I’m willing to admit I and others judged him entirely too harshly and didn’t pay attention to what was going on in the world around us, just as I’m sure he’d admit no matter his message and beliefs, he didn’t win the optics war, which fair or unfair, usually doesn’t allow you to convey your point and allows the crooked and evil media further wiggle room to vilify you and your message, and manipulate the narrative and the population even more than usual.

There was a lot of ego at play as well, and Tsai overstepped things wildy, letting his off court emotions influence basketball decisions to the nth degree.

[vincecarter4pres]

Also, I think if you know(or are hearing through “back channels”), you are going to be getting a very honest crack at Kyrie as a free agent, and KD or Giannis or the such through trade this summer, or by next deadline, and especially if we luck into a top 3 jump, you then try your damndest to get as high as you can in the lottery for a second bite at the apple, using all the remaining ‘25 picks, and if necessary a future unprotected pick.

Like say we jump to 1st overall? Then say there’s a deal with OKC on draft night for the LAC or Sixers pick that’s like 8th overall. Something like Cam J and the latest ‘25 we have for 8th overall and Wiggins and another salary filler? Then the team sitting at 3 is willing to trade back to 8 for the Milwaukee pick and the Knicks pick? Maybe even our ‘26 instead?

You probably wouldn’t do the ‘26 pick even for Bailey or Harper on a moveup if we were likely to be lotto again. Top of the ‘26 draft is just too nasty.

But if you know you’re getting Kyrie in FA and are likely to pull off a big trade by the deadline as well, then you have not one, but two franchise level prospects to build with going forward on top of a Kyrie/KD duo.

[Netaman]

well this is good news for Milwaukee's pick. Calf injuries tend to linger and are also highly recurring.

Read on Twitter

[Netaman]

Apparently Hayes says 2-3 weeks. Bucks have 8 games left in February. There are 28 days until March 9, Bucks have 13 games in the 4 weeks between now and then. Just 19 games left in the season after that. They are just 2 wins ahead of the 9th seed (ATL) right now.

They won't fall below the play in, but looks likely they will now end up in the play in and so if they lose play in we could very easily end up with a top 15 pick.

[vincecarter4pres]

Apparently Hayes says 2-3 weeks. Bucks have 8 games left in February. There are 28 days until March 9, Bucks have 13 games in the 4 weeks between now and then. Just 19 games left in the season after that. They are just 2 wins ahead of the 9th seed (ATL) right now.

They won't fall below the play in, but looks likely they will now end up in the play in and so if they lose play in we could very easily end up with a top 15 pick.

If they lose in the play-in, lottery positioning just goes back to record, correct?

So say they windup the 9 seed and miss the playoffs, the 9/10 from the West are picks 14, 13, then the two next teams in the West will almost certainly have a better record then the 9 in the East, meaning picks 12 and 11 out the way. Chances are it’s actually the next 3 West teams, pick 10 cleared. Leaving Milwaukee 9th overall if they don’t make a jump and no one behind them does either.

Hell, Lillard could conceivably go down by being overused in the next couple weeks too, they could fall entirely out of the play-in if Philly steamrolls their way back in and Atlanta, Detroit, Miami and Orlando get it/keep it together.

That pick could legitimately windup like 7th overall.

Even if it winds up like 10th, combined with two picks in the early 20’s and maybe Clowney, there’s some potential for a heavy move up if necessary.

[Netaman]

If they lose in the play-in, lottery positioning just goes back to record, correct?

pretty sure the lotto is all teams who dont make it past the play in round, the cutoff line below is with 16 teams non-lotto. the heat, bulls, magic, hawks are currently the 4 play-in teams in the east and all within 2 wins of Milwaukee except Chicago.

so tl/dr it seems very likely MIL will get passed by at least 2 teams and end up in play in. then we just need to hope they lose.