Brooklyn Nets: The battle to be relevant again in the NBA
It has been a long time since the Brooklyn Nets have been relevant. Not since the days of Jason Kidd, Kerry Kittles, and a young Kenyon Martin have the Nets been the center of attention. The battle to be relevant for the Brooklyn Nets is ongoing.
Will the Brooklyn Nets be able to make a run at a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference? How attractive are the Brooklyn Nets to the big time free agents of 2019? Let’s take a look.
The Nets have been an NBA punchline the last three to four seasons. Brooklyn has given other teams such as the Boston Celtics the ability to get better while they continually go downhill. Between bad decision-making in the front office in terms of trades and team personnel the Nets haven’t been able to make a dent in terms of their wins on the court.
In the last three seasons the combine record of the Brooklyn Nets is 69-177. The Nets have been one of the bottom feeders in the Eastern Conference for a few years now, but is this about to change for Brooklyn?
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Going into the 2018-19 season, Nets fans have a few things on their mind. One of those thoughts is that the Nets need to be players in the free agent market next summer.
With Karl-Anthony Towns, Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and even Kevin Durant available for signing, the Nets have to be able to sell one or two of these players on coming to Brooklyn.
The Nets may have upwards of $50-70 million in cap space going into the 2019 free agent period. That’ll be exciting for guys like Kyrie Irving or Jimmy Butler who do want to play together.
By clearing out the Dwight Howard contract, the Nets have afforded themselves the ability to attain two max players. Getting two max guys to come play in Brooklyn would be a windfall that would speed up the process for this franchise.
Brooklyn can be an attractive landing spot just on location alone. Playing in Brooklyn gives a player a chance to play in a big market, live a big city lifestyle, and increase the chances of landing big off-court endorsement deals.
Let’s face facts. The pressure for the Brooklyn Nets to get into the playoffs is not there. Many sports pundits don’t even expect them to get to the playoffs this year. I’m not even sure the team really expects to make to the playoffs this season.
With King James taking his talents to the West Coast there could be an opening for Brooklyn to squeeze into the playoffs.
The GM of the Nets, Sean Marks, has openly said that the team is not going to tank their season. Marks has said the objective is to play to win. Somewhere Herm Edwards is smiling.
Sean Marks is exactly right with that statement.
Losing games does nothing, but drag the franchise morale down and it most likely scares any prospective free agents away. You have to show that you are competitive as a team and as a franchise to bring in any possible free agents.
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What Brooklyn has are workable contracts with younger players. I would suspect that he would also take advantage of having two-way contracts with some players. These two-way contracts don’t count against the cap, so it allows a team to be a little more flexible with their money.
Brooklyn does not want to be the little brother to that other team in New York. The Nets want what everybody else does and that is a chance to win a NBA Championship. By doing what they have with their roster and their maneuvering with their cap space the Brooklyn Nets will bring their relevancy back to the franchise.