***Official 2021-22 Offseason Thread***

[TheNetsFan]

Within his story on the Nets, O’Connor writes that there were “crickets” earlier in the 2021/22 season when the team was reportedly willing to listen to trade inquiries on Kyrie Irving.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2022/04/nets-rumors-simmons-irving-harris-curry-dragic.html

I'll say it again. We should NOT bid against ourselves. We should NOT provide Kyrie with a max offer. If O'Connor is right & the Nets were willing listeners on Kyrie, that means KD was ok with it.

[Joe Bening-BRO]

As they say in the radio business "first time caller, long time listener". I mostly have posted on ND but its gotten stupid over there so I decided to post over here. I'm an old head from the nj.com/forums days.

Anyhow, here is my take on the end of the year.

Steve Nash not just retaining his job but getting a vote of confidence seems wild to me. I think there are some valid excuses. Kyrie's availability, trading a star in Harden mid season, Durant missing 6 weeks, Harris availability... So may you dont blame Nash for us being a disappointment this season. But my question is, even if he didnt hurt us (debatable), what has he done to help us?

Is he gaining us any coaching advantage? Is he exploiting teams weaknesses? Is he hiding our own weaknesses with creativity and adjustments? Is he using the gravity of Irving and Durant to get easy looks for our role players? Call me a hater but I'd say a confident no to all of those things.

Now, I get that Nash was brought in more to manage ego's then be some x's and O's genius (which, if thats the case why did we not replace D'antoni or Ime?)... but even in that regard, has Nash really done a passable job of that?

Harden came in out of shape. Was unhappy. Was to some degree dogging it. Was flying to vegas between games. What did Nash do to manage that, other then to say Harden wont be traded only to see him trade?

Blake was clearly upset most of the year. He went from a starter to the bench to DNPs. I know we had 5 centers, but this team lacked energy. I know Blake at PF didnt work well. But you are telling me would couldn't use his hustle and energy and blue colar approach the last 40 games?

Kyrie was out, then he was part time, then he was full time. Tough situation for sure. Out of Nash's control for sure. But what did he do to make the best of it? To help make the transition back easier. to make player road games easier? to take advantage of a fresh Kyrie?

KD is Nash's guy. I dont expect him to anything against KD. But it was pretty clear all year KD has issues protecting the ball and handling hard double teams and physical defense. Nash had like 50 games and 3 playoff games to adjust to it, work on it, address it. Did he? If he did it fell on deaf ears.

Ben is here, hes back, hes out, hes ramping, hes not ramping, hes returning, hes not. What is Nash doing to help manage this guys ego, statements, mental state, getting over his hurdles?

So my thing is, if Nash is not adding much managing things (I mean, it was a crap show all year) and he isnt doing much from a strategy standpoint in games to add value, then what exactly is the point of having him as coach? Can't we hire a "yes man" who also can make adjustments? or who can also work with these players to manage their demands and egos?

Im my view, Nash should be fired, maybe mid-season he should have already been gone. But thats my opinion. What blows my mind is that he isn't even on the hot seat or getting any internal criticism. It is hard not to point out the white privilege not just with his hire but with the leash he has. Better coaches have been fired for less with less talent.

[GTR11]

Blow up the Clowns!!! No. There is no salvaging this by bringing them back. Sever ties and bring back our Brooklyn NETS!

I want another shot at the chip with new coach. Give me that and I'm good.

Steve Trash comes back next year. I taking a year off.

[Joe Bening-BRO]

Regarding the players...

Ben I don't blame at all. We had major issues before he showed up and we knew the damaged goods risk we had coming in. I think on paper he is a great fit and unlike Philly we have the shooters and go to scorers to make any offensive shortcomings he has a non-issue. My concern is, when will he play... and maybe worse, when he is playing are we constantly nervous he will sit out again. or if he sits out that it will be an extended period again. I'm confident he can get back to where he was but... also... this is the Nets and we are cursed so him never playing again would be super on-brand for us.

Kyrie. I think it is dumb he didn't get the vaccine but I'm not going to blame him for being put in a tough spot. he didn't start the pandemic and he had to choose. And i wont fault anyone for whatever personal health choice they make, even if it seems unwise. I think the team was dumb to not have him play part time from the start. we could have won a lot more games, maybe harden stays, and maybe our guys could rest more. The Nets went between Kyrie's buddy and strong arming him. They needed to pick 1 and stick with it. I think Kyrie/KD is still an elite force you just need that 3rd guy to be the glue. Harden was the guy but we never got them together. As bad as the celtics series was, rewatching last year it is clear that duo has a championship ceiling. I think he had a poor games 2-5, but i disagree the effort wasn't there. He was hustling, skying for rebounds, defending hard all while fasting. I think he was just gassed and collectively the team could feel they were outcoached.

KD... He has his blame, mostly as a GM in my opinion, but I thought he played hard. He was just frustrated by the situation. Double teamed with a 3rd guy helping almost every possession. it was genius by Ime, who knew first hand if you double durant even if he is surrounded by shooters he struggles to get a clean pass, so you can always rotate and you will force alot of turnovers. Our staff did nothing to adjust to that. We didnt use Dragic or Kyrie or Curry to run our offense. We just kept letting KD go at hard doubles. At some point KD could have said, lets do something else, which he kind of did by just being more passive, but it was a huge coaching failure

Curry/Mills shot well. they got almost no attempts. to me this is the biggest head scratcher. Boston is doubling to start every possessions, but we can get guys open shots playing 4 on 3. Again, a big failure in coaching and big failure in execution. Are these guys really practicing and going over film? or just chucking up shots in practice?

I thought we had a better team going into this playoffs vs. last year. better role guys with claxton healthy, drummond, and seth/mills. But we didnt utilize it right.

Also, Sean Marks. Why cut Johnson with 5 centers so Edwards can get 2 DNPs and like 10 minutes total in the series? Why keep LMA if he is gonna get 5 DNP-CDs? Bembry was also thrown to the curb when as a starter, he helped us to a great record. we could have used him vs. Boston.

I think Marks has the most work. Nash needs real assistants with the expectation if he doesn't approve, those assistants will have his job mid season. D'antoni/Ime clearly carried him last year, we need more of that. Get real coaches back in here

We need more 2-way wings and we need wings with size. no more G/F types under 6'6". And we need athletes.

Extend Kyrie. I know everyone is on this "give him an incentive laden deal" thing but honestly dont screw around. Kyrie is not going to do or not do something because he might lose money. We saw that this year. Don't let it linger. Give him the 4 years and live with Kd/Kyrie over that span. If we let Kyrie walk we dont have cap space to add talent. So may as well go in with him and have a Duo with a high ceiling and hope shuffling role guys helps.

Also, as much time as Kyrie missed this year, if there was no NYC mandate we likely would have seen back to back years of 60+ games while producing 26/6/5 on 50/40/90. The Nets luck is awful, if there was no NYC mandate, the view of Kyrie would be much different. Harden probably stays and Kyrie has back to back all-nba teams. I think even with his 6 personal days or so a year for whatever unknown reasons, he can still give us 60 games on elite production, as long as we dont start prodding him.

KD is extended. keep him happy but we need to bend less. We got rid of Jordan, he didnt want that but he still signed an extension. you can let stars have power without completely taking it in the rear. Tsai also needs to stop meddling. the Harden story is Dolan-esque cringe worth

[Joe Bening-BRO]

Within his story on the Nets, O’Connor writes that there were “crickets” earlier in the 2021/22 season when the team was reportedly willing to listen to trade inquiries on Kyrie Irving.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2022/04/nets-rumors-simmons-irving-harris-curry-dragic.html

I'll say it again. We should NOT bid against ourselves. We should NOT provide Kyrie with a max offer. If O'Connor is right & the Nets were willing listeners on Kyrie, that means KD was ok with it.

I think its a double edge sword and I think we need to live with the extension. Kyrie is not the type of guy who is going to get in line because their are incentives. He willingly gave away nearly half his salary this year. without blinking an eye. Kyrie is going to do his own thing regardless. You can walk away completely or just try and keep him in a good headspace. I dont think he is going to opt-in and there is no way we strong arm him to do that. we saw how that approach worked this year... it didn't.

To me choices are:

1) Extend him for the max. maybe weasel in some incentives but dont get too cocky and drag the negotiations out. It is in our interests for this to be swift and not Harden 2.0. Live with the consequences. He will miss games to injury, games to personal reasons. I doubt see him missing half a year again, that was more mandate then it was Kyrie. I think he did want to play and would have played 60+ games otherwise. at 30 years old, and in great shape, and with a skilled game, he should be between all-star and all-nba for the duration.

2) Don't extend him, and when he opts out let him walk. Find a way to sell it to KD. The problem with this approach is it doesnt leave KD with much to work with. We are still way over the cap even without Kyrie. So we cant use his savings to sign anyone. Ben is a big unknown. when will he play? he good will he be? how reliable will he be.

Getting Harden initially was big because he was an ironman and great Kyrie insurance. If We had a healthy engaged Harden, KD has the Harden/KD duo to fall back on. But of course the Nets are cursed so the second Harden is here he stops being injury free, gets fat, dogs it, and demands out.

So, how do you get KD's buy in to spend the next 3 years in a "big 2" with a Ben Simmons who has a back issue and mental block? We dont have trade assets. Any Kyrie or Ben trade gets severly diminished returns.

So for me, get whatever protections or concessions have little/no pushback from Kyrie's side and get it done. Max vs. 5-7 million less then max honestly wont mean much. We are way in the tax with this trio either way. 1 less year would help alot. but again, Kyrie either agrees or doesnt, you cant strong arm him and he is too unpredictable to call any bluffs like we did with the vaccine.

[Joe Bening-BRO]

Blow up the Clowns!!! No. There is no salvaging this by bringing them back. Sever ties and bring back our Brooklyn NETS!

I want another shot at the chip with new coach. Give me that and I'm good.

Steve Trash comes back next year. I taking a year off.

Nash will be back, but you can flank him with a D'antoni/Ime like combo like we did year 1 and probably contend at a high level again. to me KD will be fine. Still stop 5-10 easily. Fatigue and poor coaching killed him, not some sharp decline.

Kyrie was a huge drama, but without mandates, its really a non-factor. if he misses 6 games because the of the age of aquarius and his favorite podcast being cancelled thats whatever. missing half the year is whats killer and i doubt that happens. If there was no NYC mandate we are likely talking about the best 2 year stretch of his career.

Ben is the big wild card. does he play or can we flip him. but if we get 1/2 ben simmons, plus better wings with the mMLE/trades and KD/Kyrie with some real coaching, who is better then us?

Boston series is too fresh. This team is still loaded with talent

[NetsJets]

What do you guys think about trading for Westbrook?

[CalamityX12]

What do you guys think about trading for Westbrook?

Not for me

[Joe Bening-BRO]

What do you guys think about trading for Westbrook?

Not for me

Hard pass for me. Even if we gave up scraps for him, I would pass. I'm not sure he is even a neutral impact, with potential to be a heavy negative impact.

Bottom line... we cant afford to bring in more guys who dont defend and dont shoot well from deep.

When you factor in his 47 million per year number, its even more of a no.

[MrDollarBills]

What do you guys think about trading for Westbrook?

I'll pass

[MrDollarBills]

Within his story on the Nets, O’Connor writes that there were “crickets” earlier in the 2021/22 season when the team was reportedly willing to listen to trade inquiries on Kyrie Irving.

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2022/04/nets-rumors-simmons-irving-harris-curry-dragic.html

I'll say it again. We should NOT bid against ourselves. We should NOT provide Kyrie with a max offer. If O'Connor is right & the Nets were willing listeners on Kyrie, that means KD was ok with it.

I think its a double edge sword and I think we need to live with the extension. Kyrie is not the type of guy who is going to get in line because their are incentives. He willingly gave away nearly half his salary this year. without blinking an eye. Kyrie is going to do his own thing regardless. You can walk away completely or just try and keep him in a good headspace. I dont think he is going to opt-in and there is no way we strong arm him to do that. we saw how that approach worked this year... it didn't.

To me choices are:

1) Extend him for the max. maybe weasel in some incentives but dont get too cocky and drag the negotiations out. It is in our interests for this to be swift and not Harden 2.0. Live with the consequences. He will miss games to injury, games to personal reasons. I doubt see him missing half a year again, that was more mandate then it was Kyrie. I think he did want to play and would have played 60+ games otherwise. at 30 years old, and in great shape, and with a skilled game, he should be between all-star and all-nba for the duration.

2) Don't extend him, and when he opts out let him walk. Find a way to sell it to KD. The problem with this approach is it doesnt leave KD with much to work with. We are still way over the cap even without Kyrie. So we cant use his savings to sign anyone. Ben is a big unknown. when will he play? he good will he be? how reliable will he be.

Getting Harden initially was big because he was an ironman and great Kyrie insurance. If We had a healthy engaged Harden, KD has the Harden/KD duo to fall back on. But of course the Nets are cursed so the second Harden is here he stops being injury free, gets fat, dogs it, and demands out.

So, how do you get KD's buy in to spend the next 3 years in a "big 2" with a Ben Simmons who has a back issue and mental block? We dont have trade assets. Any Kyrie or Ben trade gets severly diminished returns.

So for me, get whatever protections or concessions have little/no pushback from Kyrie's side and get it done. Max vs. 5-7 million less then max honestly wont mean much. We are way in the tax with this trio either way. 1 less year would help alot. but again, Kyrie either agrees or doesnt, you cant strong arm him and he is too unpredictable to call any bluffs like we did with the vaccine.

Bro bro...i gotta tell ya....ahh I dunno bro I think we're pretty much stuck with Kyrie. It's a bunch of gahbage bro but what are ya gonna do eh?

[Joe Bening-BRO]

I'll say it again. We should NOT bid against ourselves. We should NOT provide Kyrie with a max offer. If O'Connor is right & the Nets were willing listeners on Kyrie, that means KD was ok with it.

I think its a double edge sword and I think we need to live with the extension. Kyrie is not the type of guy who is going to get in line because their are incentives. He willingly gave away nearly half his salary this year. without blinking an eye. Kyrie is going to do his own thing regardless. You can walk away completely or just try and keep him in a good headspace. I dont think he is going to opt-in and there is no way we strong arm him to do that. we saw how that approach worked this year... it didn't.

To me choices are:

1) Extend him for the max. maybe weasel in some incentives but dont get too cocky and drag the negotiations out. It is in our interests for this to be swift and not Harden 2.0. Live with the consequences. He will miss games to injury, games to personal reasons. I doubt see him missing half a year again, that was more mandate then it was Kyrie. I think he did want to play and would have played 60+ games otherwise. at 30 years old, and in great shape, and with a skilled game, he should be between all-star and all-nba for the duration.

2) Don't extend him, and when he opts out let him walk. Find a way to sell it to KD. The problem with this approach is it doesnt leave KD with much to work with. We are still way over the cap even without Kyrie. So we cant use his savings to sign anyone. Ben is a big unknown. when will he play? he good will he be? how reliable will he be.

Getting Harden initially was big because he was an ironman and great Kyrie insurance. If We had a healthy engaged Harden, KD has the Harden/KD duo to fall back on. But of course the Nets are cursed so the second Harden is here he stops being injury free, gets fat, dogs it, and demands out.

So, how do you get KD's buy in to spend the next 3 years in a "big 2" with a Ben Simmons who has a back issue and mental block? We dont have trade assets. Any Kyrie or Ben trade gets severly diminished returns.

So for me, get whatever protections or concessions have little/no pushback from Kyrie's side and get it done. Max vs. 5-7 million less then max honestly wont mean much. We are way in the tax with this trio either way. 1 less year would help alot. but again, Kyrie either agrees or doesnt, you cant strong arm him and he is too unpredictable to call any bluffs like we did with the vaccine.

Bro bro...i gotta tell ya....ahh I dunno bro I think we're pretty much stuck with Kyrie. It's a bunch of gahbage bro but what are ya gonna do eh?

...Bro... exactly

[NetsJets]

What do you guys think about trading for Westbrook?

I'll pass

I feel like he’ll essentially play the role Harden used to play for us. You can’t really hard trap/double him unless you want to leave KD and Kyrie open. He’ll have a ton of spacing here, and the best part we can get rid of Simmons.

[ArksNetsSince99]

Here are my solutions to fixing the Nets:

1. Fire Nash- Not looking like it will happen but hes a major negative. I know a lot of people say he didn't have a real chance. He didn't. But he also just had no idea what he was doing. We need to hire someone who can actually make adjustments that make sense. If we keep Nash its will just make everything else more difficult.

2. Put Kyrie on a Short Leash- I've had enough of this guy. We need to make clear to Kyrie that his antics will no longer be tolerated. If he does any more nonsense then we should trade him by the deadline. Hopefully he can remain professional for once.

3. Get Simmons/Harris Healthy- The biggest problem this playoffs was a lack of defensive wings. Luckily we have two of those guys on the roster. Have to manage these injuries right. Get these guys back by October. Make sure they are able to play a full season.

4. Develop Youth- No more signing washed ringer chasers. I want us to keep playing Kess/Cam/Sharpe. These guys can be good if given the chance. We need these fresh legs in the playoffs and to get KD/Ky some rest.

5. Stop playing KD/Kyrie such high minutes. Its not sustainable. If we develop a better system and defense we don't need to play them so many minutes. It won't work and was a disaster all year. KD's body cannot take it especially.

6. Trade one or two Philly picks. The first one I want us to get a stretch 5. We need a big man that can shoot to cover up for Simmons who will kill our spacing. Maybe Dwayne Dedmon or Gorgui Dieng?

7. Sign a reliable backup PG. I honestly missed Chiozza. Maybe we can do better than that. But need someone off the bench that can play PG.

This is all I can think of right now. But I do think it would solve a lot of issues we had this year.

All you said it’s true beside point 1/2/3 it’s not a reality its a pipe dream

1 all news suggests Nash staying
2 with Nash and Marks Kyrie continue to have longest leash in the league
3 while i can see Joe healthy and ready , i got big doubts about Ben
4 to develop youth we need different coach , look point 1
5 again not with Nash
6-7 both could be done

Idk bro , you sound reasonable, but i see more of the same next season maybe with little tweaks here and there

[ArksNetsSince99]

What do you guys think about trading for Westbrook?

Good idea , this way we can have a thread "Fashion King of Brooklyn "

It’s gonna be close race with both Simmons and Westbrook on the bench wearing clown outfits

[MrDollarBills]

Read on Twitter

?s=20&t=XBpNaUMTJYaUFFDfNYEzgg

I won't hold my breath

[Scottie4Bro]

My only advice is to trade that absolute bum Tragic. It will improve your team if he is not on the roster.

[Eatgreenz]

Read on Twitter

?s=20&t=XBpNaUMTJYaUFFDfNYEzgg

I won't hold my breath

This type stuff we all want to hear. Next step is Fire Nash and bring in a real coach who embodies that my choice Sam Cassell, think he can be the next great coach and can also relate and talk to players but isnt no pushover.

[NetsWorld]

Is it crazy to really think Simmons wants LA? LBJ and the Lakers seem discontent and LeBron has staunchly supported Kyrie throughout his ordeal and tweeted how
he was in awe of his performances throughout this year.
Will the Nets make arguably their biggest move in trade history and pull of LBJ finally wearing a Net jersey?

[ArksNetsSince99]

I did not know that Nets can decline Kessler Edwards for 1.6 m team option and then resign him for up to 4 years for 8.7 m in total , I would love to see that , I’m high on this kid , and have him locked for next 4 years for cheap