Nets' Complete 2023 NBA Trade Deadline Preview, Predictions
The Brooklyn Nets are in a strange spot with the NBA trade deadline fast approaching.
Their recent play has been so bleak—seven losses in their last 11 games, the most recent one by an eye-popping 43 points—that it makes you wonder if this roster's shortcomings are fatal flaws.
Then again, this has all gone down without Kevin Durant, whose knee injury immediately preceded this rough patch. And prior to his removal, Brooklyn had been on a bulldozing 18-2 run.
The ceiling it has flashed sits high enough to think the Nets should be aggressively buying this trade season. However, its floor sinks low enough to wonder if this group needs more help than the deadline can provide.
How will the Nets proceed over the next week? We'll examine that question and more in this comprehensive deadline preview.
Trade Assets
1 of 3
The Nets don't have a ton of assets to throw around.
Draft picks are probably their best currency, but their hands are a little tied on that front with two future firsts already traded away and two more tied up in potential pick swaps.
They can probably use one future first to sweeten a trade package, but anything beyond that would get tricky. They also have five second-rounders, but their value only stretches so far.
Brooklyn will need to move players to bring back anything of substance.
Veteran scoring guards Seth Curry and Patty Mills are potential trade candidates, since their skills are redundant with this roster. Sharpshooter Joe Harris is another option, though it's hard to imagine anyone is super eager to cover the cost of his remaining contract.
Sophomores Cam Thomas and Day'Ron Sharpe offer some prospect appeal, but it's the eye-of-the-beholder kind, since neither has shown a ton to this point of their career.
Team Needs
2 of 3
This is pretty simple: The Nets need more size.
Nic Claxton has been all-caps AWESOME this season. If he doesn't receive a healthy amount of support in the Defensive Player of the Year voting, then the voters are doing it wrong.
Saying that, though, he's still only 6'11" and 215 pounds. Physically, he'll have trouble matching up with the big bruisers who could be blocking Brooklyn's championship path, like Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo or Nikola Jokić.
Otherwise, the Nets could stand to add more stoppers. Their sixth-ranked offense, per NBA.com, is ready to contend, but their 13th-ranked defense isn't quite there.
Plus, two of their top defenders, Claxton and Ben Simmons, are atrocious at the free-throw line (sub-50 percent), which could make it tricky to play both (or maybe even one) in major playoff moments.
Deadline Predictions
3 of 3
The Nets seem eager to do some dealing. As they should.
This group belongs in every championship conversation, and not only for the fact that Durant gives them a puncher's chance in any playoff series on his own. Since Jacque Vaughn took control, Brooklyn has gone 29-15 with a top-five net rating. They are really, really good.
The lack of size is concerning, though, and it needs some type of fix.
The Nets should start out aiming high. If a package of Harris, Thomas and a first-round pick could bring back John Collins, that's a no-brainer in my book. If that same combination could pry Jakob Poeltl and Josh Richardson away from the San Antonio Spurs, that's at least a discussion worth having.
My crystal ball doesn't see Brooklyn getting a major deal done, though. Instead, it pictures them pairing Curry or Mills with draft consideration for someone like Naz Reid, Mason Plumlee or Mo Bamba.
.jpg?w=600 "New NBA Mock Draft 📝")
