Brooklyn Nets: Serving up the Nets’ blame pie after a disastrous season

Front office —2 slices of the blame pie

The internet keeps receipts, and I have to own calling the Nets the 2021 offseason winners. The team would look vastly different if Durant hadn’t missed two months, or Joe Harris the final five. But that’s sports for you.

The front office probably made a smart move in trading the disgruntled, negative energy-bringing Harden at the deadline. But knowing that Harris might not play the rest of the year, trading the 6’5 Harden for a small guard in Curry, a big man in Andre Drummond, and the dubious physical and mental health that comes with Ben Simmons, was directly responsible for the team lacking any rotation players between 6-foot-3 and 6-foot-9.

If no Harden trade package offered a ready-to-play swingman in this coveted height range, the team should’ve done a better job scouring the market in separate, smaller trades, and the buyout market. The front office, too, needs to take some blame for Simmons never playing, for not being forceful enough about its expectations he would eventually play.