The Brooklyn Nets have been planning for the upcoming season for little over a year. Locking in the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference last year was expected given their lack of overall talent at the moment. Even so, Brooklyn didn't expect to make a legitimate push into the playoffs with most of their players either sitting out from injuries or taking precautions with COVID-19.
Coming into the offseason, the Nets only had a few objectives: secure Joe Harris for the long-term and grab a few additional pieces to round out the roster. Other than that, this squad is already set for contention the moment the 2020-21 season gets underway. They have a healthy Kevin Durant returning with Kyrie Irving as one of the most dangerous co-star pairings in the league.
The Nets front office set the tone early for what to expect in the upcoming season after hiring Hall of Famer Steve Nash as their new head coach. Brooklyn is undoubtedly in win-now mode with many of their players coming into their peak years.
With everyone hopefully healthy, the East could very well be theirs for the taking.
Offseason Grade: A-
Draft: The Nets didn't have much production from a drafting standpoint on draft night. Where they did cash in was on shipping off their 19th pick Saddiq Bey along with their 55th pick Jay Scrubb in exchange for Landry Shamet. They also acquired the Los Angeles Clippers' 57th pick Reggie Perry along with Bruce Brown from the Detroit Pistons.
The major takeaway was acquiring Shamet to boast in their backcourt on the reserves unit. Shamet possess a tremendous 3-point, shot-creating ability. The marksman shot 37 percent from downtown with the Clippers last season through 27.4 minutes of playing time. While the Nets clearly carry a golden starting lineup, their bench production was looking to be a ways off in order to sustain leads throughout the season. Shamet should help in those efforts.
Trades: Brooklyn wasn't speculated to make much noise in the trade department. They'd already landed two of the best players in the world with Durant and Irving and had a spectacular supporting cast last season.
Where things became shaky was after the developing news of James Harden's desire to play in Brooklyn, which surely sent the front office into a frenzy. The Nets could still make a move for Harden, though the momentum behind such a trade has died down in times since, seeing as how the Nets would likely have to give up Irving to even obtain Harden's services.
Free Agency: The Nets only had to consider retaining Joe Harris this offseason. They were successful in those efforts, inking the 3-point sniper to a four-year, $75 million deal during offseason, one of the highest contracts handed out during free agency. Harris has certainly made himself one of the deadliest sharpshooters in today's game, but the cost it took to re-sign him may come back to bite the Nets down the line.
Yes, Harris was going to receive multiple offers from other suitors, which would have eventually bumped his asking price up. Yet the Nets front office bit first without letting other offers come by. Harris had made it known that re-signing with the Nets was his No.1 priority, which means the likelihood of him working out a deal with them versus another team was always going to happen. In short, they probably dropped the ball on decreasing his asking price by roughly $10 million.
The gut punch for the franchise is the extra money that could've been used down the line. By committing to Harris on such a high number, that signals the end of both Spencer Dinwiddie and possibly Jarrett Allen in their coming years after their respective contracts expire. There were even reports suggesting that Western Conference executives were gauging interest in Dinwiddie, seeing as how the Nets won't have the money necessary to lock him in next season when he's an unrestricted free agent. The same could be said for Allen, who according to ESPN's Bobby Marks will be looking for “Clint Capela-type money” when his turn arrives.
Outlook:
If the Nets did one thing wrong this offseason, it was not allowing themselves to play chicken with Harris for all of a day in order to see what the free agent market was willing to pay for his talents. Other than that, the offseason played out for them like most would have predicted. Excluding a dreamt-up scenario by Durant to land Harden and form the next Big 3 in Brooklyn, the 2019 Nets had the same goal now as the 2020 Nets: get Durant back on the floor with Irving.
With that in mind, the only virtue that general manager Sean Marks needed to practice was patience. They still have Dinwiddie for the now along with a developing talent in Caris LeVert. Most of their pieces were already locked up coming into the season, now all that remains is in seeing if they can put it together.
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