A little more than a quarter of the NBA season has come and gone and the Nets haven’t played very impressive basketball. They are currently 10-12, and even though they are only the 8th seed in the conference (highlighting just how pathetic the Eastern Conference has been so far). Only one of those ten wins has come against a team with a winning record.
A report has been going around that the Nets’ “big three” (Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, and Brook Lopez) are on the trading block. However, it seems that the Nets aren’t just looking to blow up the roster. The Nets are hoping to construct trades that would bring back good young players who could keep them in the playoff hunt.
The team’s first two seasons were characterized by big splashes in the trade market. The 2012 offseason saw Brooklyn trade with Atlanta for Joe Johnson and the major trade with the Celtics that brought over Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett was in 2013. The Nets gave up three first round picks in the Boston trade (2014, 2016, 2018) in order to strengthen their championship efforts.
As we all know the Nets ended up losing in the second round of the playoffs and Paul Pierce now plays with the Wizards. The Nets could have brought back Paul Pierce this summer but chose to let him sign elsewhere. That ended up being a huge mistake.
Brooklyn’s small forwards this year haven’t exactly replaced Pierce’s production. Bojan Bogdanovic has slowed down after a quick start and Alan Anderson just doesn’t provide the same skills that Pierce does. If Pierce were still on the team, he would fill a void as another forward who could handle the ball and score effectively. Pierce has also been playing extremely solid defense this year as well. Most of all, Pierce provided the Nets with toughness and leadership that they didn’t have before he came over.
Would Pierce put this Nets team over the top and make them contenders? It’s hard to tell. But the Nets blew it by not bothering to find out. After trying so hard to make a splash and expand the team brand, the Nets let their fans down. Fans realized that by trading three first round picks for Pierce and Garnett, the Nets were going to emphasize the present instead of the future. Most experts predicted that this trade provided the Nets with a 2-3 year window championship window, before Pierce and Garnett might decide to retire. By failing to bring back Pierce, the Nets blew their chance at a competitive present even though they had already mortgaged their future.
Ever since the move to Brooklyn, the Nets have tried hard to expand their fan base while also growing the team brand. Fans who have cheered on the team since it was in New Jersey have been through a lot worse (the 12-70 season) than this. But Brooklyn can’t expect to keep its fans happy by seemingly flushing the present and the future down the drain. The Nets went all in when they traded for Pierce and Garnett, and failed to see their plans to the end. It’s disappointing that even after the move to Brooklyn, fans are still stuck rooting for the same old Nets.
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