Post#152 » by R-DAWG » Thu Apr 28, 2022 1:20 am
In 2019, the Nets made the decision to go into the Kevin Durant business. That business came with a tax of Kyrie Irving, and the need the cater to Durant, which meant also catering to Kyrie. But you got Kevin Durant, although coming off a major injury, for the back end of his prime years, and with it, a chance to compete for championships. At this point, it hasn't worked out as planned, but let's not forget, they were inches away from being in the conference finals last year, with a very real shot to win it all. Almost anyone would have done what the Nets did when they had the chance. It's much easier to rebuild the scrappy #8 seed type of team than have a true contender with one of the top players in his generation.
Having said that, this year was a disaster for them. Kyrie's vaccine issue, Durant's mid season injury, Harden demanding a trade and Simmons coming in and not playing. Sure, some of it was self inflected (Kyrie). Basically a lost season, which is hard to accept when your franchise player is 33 years old.
Going forward, the Nets remain in the Kevin Durant business, so what do you do with the Kyrie Irving contract extension? You ask Kevin Durant what he wants you to do and then you do it. Same with Steve Nash.
Other than those huge decisions, let's look at the current roster. The Boston series showed that they desperately need size/length and athleticism on the perimeter. And in a lot of ways, Ben Simmons (health and mental health issues aside) fits like a glove. At his best he is an ace on the defensive end of the floor who can guard the other teams best player regardless of position. And offensively, he can facilitate, especially in transition, and could excel surrounded by the shooting and offensive fire power the Nets can roll out. Obviously, your concerned about his health, his desire to be an NBA player, and his jump shot. But since his value is at an all-time low, it probably makes more sense to run it back and see how he looks with KD/Kyrie.
But having Simmons on the court creates another problem - you don't want to play him extended minutes with a rim running big like Nic Claxton or Andre Drummond. In a perfect world, Brooklyn would go out and get a stretch 5 and run a jumbo lineup of Simmons-KD-Stretch 5. Assuming they can't get a 30mpg guy in that roll and are looking in the Dwayne Dedmond/Serge Ibaka minimum types, assuming Simmons is playing about 33 MPG, you want to run him at C in small lineups for 12 of those minutes, play him with the stretch big for about 15 MPG, which limits you to about 5-7 MPG with Simmons and Claxton on the floor. On the trade front, Christain Wood would be my target, but Brooklyn would likely need to give up both Mills and Curry (or just Joe Harris if they found a taker) along with the Philly 1st. I still might do that considering on what other moves are out there.
But it might make more sense to use assets on getting 2 way wings with size. Joe Harris, Patty Mills, and Seth Curry are all similar versions of the same type of player and Brooklyn does not need all 3. I would be floating all 3 of them, along with the Philly 1st to bring back a 2 way wing. I would also be dangling that pick with the $11.4MM Dinwiddie TPE to land a 2 way wing. It's a hard bucket to fill as a lot of teams need these kinds of players.
Some trade ideas:
Reggie Bullock from Dallas for the TPE and a pair of 2nd rd picks. Gets Dallas room under the tax to resign Brunson and some additional draft capital.
Josh Richardson from San Antonio for Seth Curry and either Cam Thomas or Day'Ron Sharpe
Both guys are big bodies who can defend multiple positions and hit 3's at an above average clip and would slide in as the starting shooting guard.
Assuming they make the above referenced Wood trade and Bullock trade, while also resigning Brown and Claxton
Wood/Claxton
Simmons
Durant/Harris
Bullock/Brown
Irving/
They would need to use the taxpayer MLE on a backup PG, and another combo forward who can eat backup minutes would also be valuable - brining in Carmelo while also retaining Blake Griffin would be ideal. They also still have the DeAndre Jordan TPE and some rookie scale guys they can move as well.
At the end of the day, if Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are healthy, the Nets have a chance to win any and every series they play. If they are not, they don't. The roster needs improvements around the edges, but the roster has flexibility with two decent sized TPE's, a few manageable contracts (Curry, Mills), a Philly FRP and a couple of rookie scale guys. Also, a front office that has been good at finding players in the margins. It's going to require ownership to spend deep into the tax.
But for as bad as this season was in Brooklyn, they still are not in a horrible place.
