The new-look Brooklyn Nets were thoroughly outclassed during a first-round sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers. Two months after trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets head into the offseason well short of contender status with a roster full of high-end role players. The 13-15 record to close the season before the swift playoff exit begs the question: where does Brooklyn go from here?
“You have two very distinct paths. I think you're looking at a team that kind of mirrors a Milwaukee without Giannis,” Spencer Dinwiddie said Sunday at HSS Training Center. “So if you think you can go get a Giannis then are you probably a very, very good team at that point? Likely. If you don't, you do have a bevy of draft picks and probably several guys that could net you more draft picks. They can go either route. Shoot, they could also stand pat and roll the dice. All three of them have their pros and cons.
“It's all there for you. I think that's why I said they've done a phenomenal job of giving themselves the possibility of even doing that. There's not many teams or many organizations that have blown up a superstar-studded group that possibly was in championship contention in one year and then had the possibility of championship contention again the very next season, depending on their offseason decisions.”
Spencer Dinwiddie on what he thinks the Nets do this offseason:
“In my opinion, you have two very distinct paths. I think you’re looking at a team that kind of mirrors Milwaukee without Giannis. So if you think you can go get a Giannis then are you probably a very, very good… pic.twitter.com/1vbT7aCmLJ
— Erik Slater (@erikslater_) April 23, 2023
The three-year Durant-Irving era brought the Nets to a crossroads. They can cash in on their 11 first-round picks over the next seven years and go after the next disgruntled superstar. Damian Lillard has been mentioned within league circles. The Portland star sat courtside at Barclays Center for Game 3 of the first round and holds a close relationship with breakout Net Mikal Bridges.
Brooklyn could go the other way and sell on veteran players like Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and Royce O'Neale. This would allow them to accumulate more picks while going all-in on youth and remaining competitive. They could also play it down the middle and feel the roster out for another season.
“It's about being strategic in how we build. We have the ability to build in several different ways,” said Nets general manager Sean Marks. “How we build through the draft, how we build through free agency. I think we've got a committed ownership group. Joe has never said he's not ready to go all-in. He was willing to pay over $100 million in tax. So when the right opportunity presents itself, I think we're in the right market. We've got some of the right pieces already.
“What does it look like in a year? What does it look like in three years? I couldn't tell you that, but I can tell you that we'll be prepared for whatever may come down our way and we'll be preparing and that includes, you know, developing a young group of draft guys.”
That uncertainty presents a harsh reality for the players. Five of the Nets' top six rotation pieces were acquired via trade within the last year. Veterans like Dinwiddie, Finney-Smith and O'Neale now face the very real possibility that they could be on the move again this summer.
“Well, we got to see what's going to happen this offseason, if we're being honest,” Finney-Smith replied Sunday when asked how the team can use the summer to jell. “We know the pieces we have and you just never know in this league. So I guess we're going to see after the draft. See what's going on and go from there.”
How does the uncertainty affect a player as he goes about his business during the offseason?
“You got to be a pro, got to do your job,” Finney-Smith said. “Even though you might not know, you still got to come in every day and do what you're asked, be a pro on and off the court. Regardless, if I'm here, if I'm not, got to keep it professional.”
Cam Johnson, whom the Nets hope to retain as a restricted free agent, said a tumultuous year prepared Brooklyn's players for anything.
“It's part of the business,” he said. “Situations like we were put in this year prepare us for anything that can come up this summer, no matter what it is.”
Bridges appears to be the only Net who is a lock to be in Brooklyn next season. Johnson and Nic Claxton are not far off in that conversation barring something unforeseen. Beyond that, the fate of the roster is a mystery. Just two days after the close of the season, the evaluation process to find those answers is already underway.
“It starts with me diagnosing different points of the season, what was needed, what was some of the blind spots, what was some things that were missing,” Marks said. “You just go down the list of holes you might’ve missed, processes you might’ve missed. The biggest part of it is how they can be improved because the ultimate goal is we’re all trying to get better. So that’s gonna be my push and my challenge towards myself, trying to find some of those holes and plug them up in the offseason and be prepared to the best of our ability as a group going forward.
“I would have loved to have had an entire year, an entire season of looking at what this group could look like. But at the end of the day, I think there were some real bright spots here … so these guys have a big offseason in which they can continue to jell, continue to grow. We'll be spending a lot of time with them, the coaches spend a lot of time with them in the offseason, and we'll be evaluating throughout that whole time.”
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