Mason Plumlee Trade Would Be Big Mistake for Brooklyn Nets' Future
With very few assets to build toward the future, the Brooklyn Nets would be making a mistake by trading young center Mason Plumlee this summer.
With the oft-injured Brook Lopez expected to test the open market and the team having little cap space, Plumlee is a cheap insurance policy who has improved each year.
| Joe Johnson | $24.9 million |
| Deron Williams | $21 million |
| Brook Lopez (PO) | $16.7 million |
| Thaddeus Young (ETO) | $10.2 million |
| Jarrett Jack | $6.3 million |
| Bojan Bogdanovic | $3.45 million |
| Sergey Karasev | $1.6 million |
| Mason Plumlee | $1.4 million |
| Alan Anderson (PO) | $1.3 million |
| Darius Morris (non-guaranteed) | $1 million |
| Markel Brown (non-guaranteed) | $845,000 |
| Corey Jefferson (non-guaranteed) | $845,000 |
| Earl Clark (non-guaranteed) | $1.2 million |
| Total (estimate) | $90.7 million |
Two seasons ago, the Nets built their current roster through overspending on veterans and trading away draft picks in an attempt to stay competitive. As a result, the club doesn't have its own first-round pick until 2019 and harbors Joe Johnson's massive expiring deal ($24.9 million), as well as one of the NBA's worst contracts in Deron Williams (two years, $43 million remaining).
| 2015 | Swapped first-round picks with Atlanta Hawks |
| 2016 | to Boston Celtics |
| 2017 | Less favorable of Own Pick/Celtics pick |
| 2018 | to Boston Celtics |
| 2019 | Own pick |
According to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, Brooklyn might not be done mortgaging its future.
After making the All-Rookie First Team last season, the 25-year-old Plumlee made even greater strides this season, contributing 8.7 points and 6.2 rebounds in 82 games. He did an admirable job in the starting lineup, averaging 11.8 points and 7.6 boards in 45 starts, as opposed to the five points and 4.6 rebounds he pitched in as a reserve, per NBA.com.
Down the stretch, Plumlee's numbers took a dip as the Nets made their playoff push.
| Month | MPG | FG % | PPG | RPG | BPG |
| November | 13.1 | 38.7 | 5.1 | 4.5 | 0.6 |
| December | 28.3 | 61.2 | 12.9 | 8.4 | 1.3 |
| January | 28.0 | 68.9 | 13.5 | 7.3 | 1.1 |
| February | 23.1 | 55.2 | 9.2 | 7.1 | 0.7 |
| March | 18.8 | 51.5 | 5.6 | 5.2 | 0.4 |
| April | 13.7 | 47.1 | 4.7 | 4.3 | 0.2 |
In a related article, Stein pondered what Brooklyn could have received for Plumlee had it struck sooner, using the Cleveland Cavaliers' acquisition of Timofey Mozgev in January as a point of reference:
"It's unavoidably tantalizing to think about what the Nets might have gotten for Plumlee, had they actively shopped him before he fell out of favor -- bearing in mind the two future first-round picks Denver extracted from Cleveland for Timofey Mozgov.
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However, with so much uncertainty surrounding the Nets and Plumlee continuing to produce on a rookie contract, a trade doesn't make sense.
Franchise in State of Flux
The uncertain future of Lopez could set the stage for a wild chain of events in Brooklyn this summer. While he has yet to make an official decision, there's an expectation that Lopez will decline his $16.7 million player option and become a free agent, according to Grantland's Zach Lowe.
It's a move that would make a lot of sense for the 27-year-old 7-footer. Lopez played in 72 games this season, the most he's played since 2012-13 and his second-highest total in the last four years. He averaged 17.2 points, 7.4 boards and 1.8 blocks during the regular season before upping his game with a stat line of 19.8 points, nine rebounds and 2.2 blocks in the playoffs.
With size always at a premium and Lopez's body a ticking time bomb, this would be a good opportunity to secure a lucrative long-term deal rather than risk another injury-riddled campaign next season.
On the flip side, Lopez's laundry list of ailments makes opting out this season a bit of a gamble. The big man would also miss out on becoming a free agent next summer, when the salary cap is expected to spike.
Additionally, Lopez isn't the only Net whose tenure may be in limbo. Forward Thaddeus Young also has the option to become a free agent this offseason. Coincidentally, his arrival in February led to the decline in Plumlee's production. If Young leaves, there's suddenly a hole at power forward that Plumlee could fill.
Furthermore, Stein reports the Nets are looking to shed some of the guaranteed $58.6 million on the books for next year by shopping Johnson and Jarrett Jack. The team has exceeded the luxury tax in each of the last three seasons and is in danger of extending that streak to four if it can't move some money around.
One ominous sign of the team's future intentions can be found in a recent letter by general manager Billy King and CEO Brett Yormark to season ticket holders. According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, the duo stresses the need to re-sign Lopez and Young while also omitting Johnson, Williams and Jack's names entirely.
For conspiracy theorists who remember LeBron James leaving Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins' names out of his letter to Sports Illustrated last summer, this could be another foreshadowing of things to come.
Cheap Labor
According to Basketball Insiders, Plumlee will make $1.4 million next season, making him the cheapest guaranteed contract on the Nets payroll. He's also under team control for two more years after 2015-16 before becoming a restricted free agent in 2018.
Plumlee's 2014-15 numbers were nothing to write home about, but his per-36 minute stats tell a different story. When you extrapolate the big man's regular-season production, you get a stat line of 14.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.
He also notched a player efficiency rating (PER) of 18.04, which was second-best on the team behind Lopez. According to Basketball-Reference, Plumlee also allowed 103 points per 100 possessions, the best defensive rating of players in the Nets' regular rotation and second only to Earl Clark among guys on the active roster.
| Name | Off. Rating (On) | Def. Rating (On) | Net Rating (On) | Off. Rating (Off) | Def. Rating (Off) | Net Rating (Off) |
| Lopez | 102.8 | 105.3 | -2.5 | 100.8 | 104.6 | -3.8 |
| Young | 107.6 | 106 | +1.6 | 101.8 | 105.6 | -3.8 |
| Plumlee | 101.6 | 107.2 | -5.6 | 102.1 | 103.3 | -1.2 |
| Teletovic | 97.9 | 99.8 | -1.9 | 103 | 106.5 | -3.4 |
| Clark | 89.2 | 103.3 | -14.1 | 108.8 | 108.1 | +0.8 |
In other words, this isn't the kind of young player you try to get rid of, especially for a franchise in need of cheap labor. Instead, the Nets should find a way to carve out an increased role for Plumlee going forward. Even if the team retains both Lopez and Young, the team should still keep Plumlee around as a potential building block for the future.
Of course, for Plumlee to see more time on the floor, he'll have to improve his porous free-throw shooting. His 49.5 percent mark from the charity stripe was third-worst among qualified players, behind only DeAndre Jordan and Andre Drummond. Nets head coach Lionel Hollins pointed to Plumlee's inability to convert his freebies as one of the chief reasons he relied so heavily on Lopez in the playoffs.
"We just couldn’t … afford to sub with another big guy, mainly [Plumlee]," Hollins said after Game 5 against the Atlanta Hawks, per Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. "And if they go into the Hack-A-[Mason], then it could’ve been detrimental."
His free-throw woes aside, Plumlee has shown enough potential on both sides of the ball to eventually develop into a solid two-way center. If the former member of Team USA can become less of a liability at the line, he could turn out to be a huge bargain for a Nets team that hasn't gotten much bang for its buck lately.
For the last three years, the Brooklyn Nets have been more concerned with making a big splash than building for the future. During that span, the team has gone through four coaches and has made it past the first round of the postseason just once while accruing the NBA's largest payroll.
By shopping young center Mason Plumlee, the Nets are continuing a trend that has failed them time and time again. His continued development is one of the few glimmers of hope for a franchise with a murky present and an even gloomier future.
After failing to buy an NBA championship, the time has come for the Nets to change the way they do business.
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