Brooklyn Nets Put off Big Decisions About Future, for Now

An almost NBA record 39 players were dealt on the day of the trade deadline. Somewhat surprisingly, only one of them was a Brooklyn Net. Against most expectations, Brooklyn's "big three" will stay together for the remainder of the season.

First, let's talk about the trade that actually did happen, the one everyone in Minnesota should be celebrating with ice fishing or whatever people in Minnesota do to go nuts.

According to ESPN.com, the Nets receive Thaddeus Young and a $2.3 million trade exception. The Minnesota Timberwolves bring Kevin Garnett back to the land where he once started his everlasting career.

It's a deal that makes sense for both teams.

Minnesota gets a personality who will probably be great for Andrew Wiggins and the rest of the Wolves' young core. Brooklyn, meanwhile, upgrades its roster and creates one of those sneaky important trade exceptions. 

(Of course, you could spin this trade on its head to argue Minnesota made a bad deal. All you have to do is go back to the Kevin Love trade over the summer when the Wolves elected to include Young instead of the Miami Heat's first-round pick. So, Minnesota basically chose an antiquated KG over a draft pick that will likely fall in the teens.)

Bringing in an upgrade while sending out an expensive role player was basically the best deal Brooklyn could make. Young, whose contract runs through next year, isn't the rebounder or defender that Garnett is, but he's someone who can play heavy minutes everyday while providing actual offense, a side of the ball where Brooklyn desperately needs help. 

Chris Szagola/Associated Press

The Nets rank just 24th in points per possession. Even if Young's shaky shooting ability doesn't make him the most ideal guy to place next to Mason Plumlee in the starting lineup (assuming Young actually does start), he's far more of an offensive threat than KG, who provides catch-and-shoot ability in the pick-and-pop without much else.

Ultimately, though, Trade Deadline Day (which should be a national holiday, by the by) was mostly about the deals that didn't happen for Brooklyn.

Brook Lopez: still a Net.

Joe Johnson: still a Net.

Deron Williams: still a Net.

Everyone's a Net—except for KG, of course. All of that trade talk, those rumors, the speculation; it was all for nothing. Well, almost.

General manager Billy King did get on the phones some, coming close to pulling off a Brook Lopez-for-Reggie Jackson deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, per Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. It never materialized, and OKC shipped its disgruntled backup point guard to the Detroit Piston, where he will become the starter. And not trading Lopez is more telling than failing to get rid of either of the other two expensive options on this team.

Jason DeCrow/Associated Press

Johnson can still play. He's a major contributor and arguably the best player on the Nets right now.

Williams, meanwhile, might be the most untradable player in the league, a former great on a massive contract who now isn't even mentioned along with the NBA's best backup point guards. Oh, how a few years can change things. 

Lopez is in a different situation.

The free-agent-to-be has shown that he doesn't fit perfectly next to Plumlee. And Lionel Hollins has, for the most part, avoided pairing them together. When the two of them share the floor, spacing becomes convoluted, defense turns secondary, and the Nets get outscored by 17.7 points per 100 possessions.

Hollins loves himself some defensive-minded bigs, and though Lopez does block a shot every once in a while, he surely isn't in that category. His slow feet don't allow him to get there. So, what is the team to do? Are things about to get awkward?

Lopez does have a $16.7 million player option he could pick up for next season, but it's more likely he opts for contract length, as anyone would, especially if he remains healthy for the rest of the year.

Do the Nets lose him for nothing? Do they bring him back and work on a deal involving Plumlee over the summer? Do they force those two to play together and hope it works out down the line?

Jason DeCrow/Associated Press

There may be more questions for the Nets now than there are answers, and that's kind of the point of all of this. The trade deadline is supposed to bring solutions, not necessarily inquiries. With the Nets keeping this core around, the queries are flying all over the place.

There certainly shouldn't have been some sort of presumption that Brooklyn would fix its unideal basketball situation in a matter of a few hours. That's not possible. But King and Co. could've begun the process of hitting the refresh button.

Of course, it's perfectly plausible King couldn't find a worthy deal for any of his stars. Maybe he would've pulled the trigger on that aforementioned Jackson-for-Lopez swap if he could've. But it didn't go down, and the Nets remain in the same situation they found themselves in heading into the should-be national holiday, fighting for the No. 8 seed before general confusion can set in over the offseason. 

They're better with Young, sure. But the remaining core also sustains remaining problems.

With Young's contributions, the Nets will contend for the right to get blown out in the first round of the playoffs, but after that, what they do is anyone's guess.

Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Feb. 20 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.