After failing class recently, the Nets need to learn from their mistakes and build towards contention the right way
In college, professors typically handed out the syllabus on the first day of class. From that day forward, it was up to the student to make sure they planned ahead enough to get assignments turned in on time. Major assignments, such as research papers, were often not due for months. Plenty of time to gather research, take notes, craft an outline, and type the paper. Too bad no one took advantage of that.
To be fair, some students planned ahead. They did their research immediately, finishing the paper weeks before the due date and leaving themselves enough time to proofread – a foreign concept to many students. They were like the San Antonio Spurs, who seem to be so far ahead of the rest of the league that they can relax while others have to scramble.
Other students worked on their papers at a proper pace, finishing at a reasonable hour the day before the due date, stress-free. The Golden State Warriors, the Miami Heat, these teams use smart front offices to approach team-building and franchise success, and they do it well. The foil to this group are those students seemingly content to turn in three pages of poorly-researched tangles of poor grammar, not caring about their grade – the Sacramento Kings, of course.
Some students procrastinate until the last possible moment, buying a pack of Red Bull energy drinks and powering through an all-nighter, turning in the paper the next morning before sleeping through the rest of the week. Despite a lack of preparation, they are on-time and receive a passing grade. This would correspond to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who despite their own ineptitude have been gifted with three #1 overall draft picks in four years and the return of the King himself.
However, some students go too far. They wait until the last day. Then the library is closed. Their computer crashes. They have to work. Or sleep. Their girlfriend needs to talk. They talk to the professor, get an extension. Put it off some more. Make excuses. Forge doctor’s notes. And yet eventually, there is no more time. No more patience. The paper isn’t going to be written this semester. The class is failed, and they have to retake the class the next semester. This is the Brooklyn Nets.
Rather than put in the piece by piece, patient work of building a good team, the Nets exerted their effort making last-minute moves to put together a contender, trading every one of their assets for veteran players. From Deron Williams to Paul Pierce, Gerald Wallace to Kevin Garnett, Brooklyn tried to put together a paper by all manners of shortcuts. Two brief postseason appearances and a bare cupboard of assets later, the Nets find themselves further than ever from their championship dreams.
How Things Stand
Brooklyn’s record currently stands at 19-49, 14th in the East and fourth-worst in the entire league. While they have had moments of competency, beating the Thunder, Hawks, and Celtics, they are also 2-2 against the 76ers and 0-2 against the Los Angeles Lakers. And to refer back to the first stat, 19-49 against the whole league. That’s markedly below the high expectations Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has placed on the organization. Those expectations led to the firing of coach Lionel Hollins and general manager Billy King; the latter has since been replaced by former Spurs executive Sean Marks.
Brooklyn’s issues don’t stay in the present. Moving forward, Brooklyn doesn’t control its picks until 2019; Boston has the right to the Nets’ unprotected firsts in 2016 and 2018, and to swap picks in 2017. They also owe their second-rounders to various teams until 2021. While they will have cap space up to $30 million this summer after years of hemorrhaging money in luxury tax payments, the rest of the league will as well as the cap rockets to 92-95 million.
The roster no longer contains the big names of the recent past, with Brook Lopez and Thad Young the only players making more than seven million. However, the Nets’ draft pick paucity stretches into the past as well, and the team lacks young talent. Bojan Bogdanovic recently erupted for 44 points in a win over Philadelphia, but he’s been playing at a below-replacement level for the season. Young veteran contracts given to Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington, and Thomas Robinson have provided little return. The Nets traded for Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at the draft, but the rookie has been mostly out of the lineup with a variety of injuries. End-of-the-rotation players like Markel Brown, Willie Reed, and Chris McCullough have shown potential, but no one on the roster has an All-Star ceiling.
Steps to Take
- Have an old-fashioned Intervention with Prokhorov – On the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother, a running gag was having an “intervention” with one of the characters, where the rest of the friend group got together to step-in before this unacceptable action/habit/addiction ruined their life. The minority owners of the Nets, Sean Marks, and anyone else they can bring with them need to stage an intervention with Mikhail Prokhorov. The Brooklyn Nets are not going to be a championship contender for a long time, and he needs to stop mandating otherwise. This team needs to make smart moves for the future, not short-sighted win-now moves that drain money and draft picks.
- Develop a long-term plan to assemble a core that will grow together from 2019 and on – With their draft assets gone until 2019, and dead money on the books for Deron Williams’ contract until then as well, this team’s window to start climbing the ladder needs to be then. Marks and his team need to sit down and plot out their strategy with this timetable in mind.
- Trade veterans in the offseason for picks and very young players – Brook Lopez and Thad Young, the two remaining veterans who provide above-average play, will be 30 at the start of the 2019 season; that is realistically too old to play a part when the Nets build to contention in 2020 and beyond. With nothing to play for over the next three seasons, the Nets should offload them in the offseason and receive value for them. Ideally, picks for 2019 and 2020 would be Brooklyn’s target in trade talks, but young players – especially developmental players and international prospects – who can be a part of a core down the road would be a valuable return as well.
- Use cap space to sign 2-3 year deals for veterans – If Brooklyn has no incentive to win over the next few years, they have no incentive to lose either. Signing veterans to be respectable serves multiple purposes. Winning games brings people into the arena, and provides the (admittedly small) consolation of giving a division foe in Boston a lesser pick. In addition, as Philadelphia has shown, talent struggles to develop with holes on the roster around them. Finally, signing a veteran who develops even further can provide trade value to a team looking to contend. With the cap expanding and the salary floor rising with it, the team has to spend money somewhere.
- Look for value signings among young free agents – The Brooklyn Nets recently signed guard Sean Kilpatrick to a three-year deal for the minimum. Kilpatrick was a star in nearby Yonkers during high school, and put in a successful career at Cincinnati. While he has bounced around the NBA since being undrafted in 2014, Kilpatrick has talent, and the Nets are risking nothing finding out if he can be an NBA contributor. Having made similar moves with Willis Reed, Thomas Robinson, and Shane Larkin – with varying results – the Nets should continue to mine the margins for talent.
- Generate fan interest by bringing in popular college stars – This is mostly superficial, and the Nets should not use real assets to accomplish this. But bringing in players with “name” value – from Jimmer Fredette to Yogi Ferrell – that New York fans will recognize can bring some level of excitement to watching meaningless games. If a local college has a star player who isn’t on a high NBA level, that would serve this purpose as well. A tiny thing, but it could connect well with the Brooklyn fan base.
- Put a team together in 2019-2020 that is built to last – After assembling draft assets for 2019 and 2020, as well as young and developmental players, the Nets need to put together a team at that point that can grow into a long-term success. Having a coach in place to develop the talent, a clear organizational mindset, and a system that fits the players, are all things that Brooklyn has plenty of time to set in place.
Conclusion – Brooklyn’s shortcut has become a long-cut, and they are the laughing-stock of the league. Win-now moves made by Billy King left Utah with a young core, Portland with a marketable star, and Boston with the greatest treasure chest of draft picks in the league. With a new front office in place, the Nets have the opportunity to build a team that can last – but they will have to be smart and patient, two words that have not applied to the Nets in some time. Brooklyn stumbled its way into failing the class this semester; next semester they need to not make the same mistakes, and actually read that bundle of paper the professor hands out on the first day.
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