Top 5 Offseason Priorities for the Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets don't own a first-round draft pick until 2019, but they do own a miserable 21-61 final record for the 2015-16 season.
Still, it isn't all bad. With a new general manager, a new head coach who has received glowing reviews from around the league and more cap space than they've had in a long while, the Nets have some reasons for optimism.
So let's help them spend that money and figure out how to go from being the new kid in New York to the big kid on the block.
5. Be Sane
Sunday, the Nets ignored all the famous names and quietly hired Atlanta Hawks assistant coach Kenny Atkinson to take over as head coach.
Atkinson has been praised for his player development skills and more by Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lin (per the New York Daily News' Frank Isola), ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy and many Atlanta Hawks stars (per the New York Post's Brian Lewis). It seems like a calm, sensible decision, made by new GM Sean Marks, who was bred in the San Antonio Spurs organization's calm, sensible tradition.
Brooklyn fans should be soothed by this, considering the recent history of the team's management has been characterized by irresponsible lunacy.
The Nets have already burned through five head coaches since moving from New Jersey to Brooklyn prior to the 2012-13 season; Atkinson is the sixth. Their draft picks were all traded away for past-their-prime stars. The owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, is getting on Vladimir Putin's last nerve. It's been weird for years.
It's conceivable that the Nets could try to reverse their current conundrum by trading their big-ticket item, Brook Lopez, for some draft picks. It's not a heinous idea.
Yet the hirings of Marks and Atkinson seem to indicate "The Age of Sensibility" has begun in Brooklyn, and trading into the 2016 draft doesn't make a great deal of sense because it's a shallow class.
Also, the Nets have more cap space to play with than a lot of teams. They only have $40.8 million of guaranteed salary to pay this upcoming season—$46.9 million at most if both Shane Larkin and Wayne Ellington opt in and if the team keeps Jarrett Jack at $6.3 million instead of cutting him loose with only the $500,000 he's guaranteed.
The salary cap is expected to go up to approximately $89 million. That leaves Brooklyn with between $42.1 and $48.2 million to drop on free agents. They can afford to upgrade their roster sensibly, build around Lopez and Thaddeus Young and ride out the next few seasons in style while they wait for the wounds of the Billy King era to heal.
4. Get Shane Larkin To Opt In
I was a big fan of point guard Shane Larkin during his one year with the New York Knicks, and I remain a believer despite some inconsistent play in Brooklyn this season.
Larkin is blazing fast and not afraid of contact, so he can break down defenses and score in the paint. He has crazy hops, quick hands and great court vision. He can be a scrappy defender who snatches opponents' passes out of the stratosphere, picks pockets, scrambles on the floor for loose balls, forces turnovers and scores in transition.
He can do all those things, and he has—but not consistently.
Consider the situations he was in during his first three seasons, though. His rookie year with the Dallas Mavericks ended early with an injury, his second season was with the ill-fated, 17-win New York Knicks and he lost a coach and GM mid-year during this season.
If Atkinson really is the "point guard whisperer," as Alan Hahn said on ESPN Radio (per Nets Daily), and as good at player development as advertised, then maybe he can hone Larkin's raw talent into the form of an NBA point guard. If Atkinson sees a spark in Larkin, that belief could be enough to coax him to stay.
If Larkin opts in for his $1.5 million contract, it's a small investment for the Nets with a potentially big payoff. It's unclear what veteran point guard Jarrett Jack is going to offer in 2016-17 when he returns from his season-ending torn ACL. Whether they need a replacement, a reserve or an heir apparent at the point, $1.5 million would be worth spending to see if the 23-year-old Larkin could be part of a young Brooklyn core.
3. Upgrade the Backcourt
Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young have matters in hand up front, but the Nets backcourt needs a boost (even if Larkin stays and blossoms).
Brooklyn will have to consider Charlotte Hornets combo guard Jeremy Lin, who credited Atkinson for much of his success back in the halcyon days of Linsanity in 2012, when Atkinson was a Knicks assistant. Lin could return to a city that still loves him and the coach that made him without having to return to the team that wronged him.
As he's showed during his time in Charlotte, Lin can make a big contribution when playing the point or the 2 guard, and the Nets need help in both places. He is fearless when attacking the basket, and he never stops doing so. The Nets could benefit from the efforts of a guard who draws contact like Lin does.
He is by no means the only choice, though—particularly since the Nets need more than just scoring. The Atlanta Hawks' young Kent Bazemore, the Portland Trail Blazers' Gerald Henderson and the Hornets' Courtney Lee will also enter free agency and can offer defensive hustle in addition to offensive production.
2. Upgrade the Defensive Roster
The Nets defense was awful in 2015-16. Brooklyn's defensive field-goal percentage was the worst in the league—it let opponents shoot 2.6 percent above their usual field-goal percentage (47.8 percent). It was bad at the perimeter but worse at the rim. It was also one of the league's laggards in rebounding.
The fact is, the Nets just aren't giving themselves a chance because their weak defense is letting them down.
If center-forward Bismack Biyombo walks away from the $3 million in his final year with the Toronto Raptors, the Nets should pay him to come to Brooklyn. Biyombo is a young, athletic defensive dynamo who would help the team's rebounding and nonexistent rim protection.
It's hard to imagine Evan Turner not re-signing with the Boston Celtics, but if he doesn't, he would be an excellent defense-minded swingman to mentor Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who already is one of the Nets' best defenders.
Signing Bazemore, Henderson or Lee would also be an improvement to Wayne Ellington at the shooting guard position.
Brooklyn should also sign a couple of classic "hustle players," such as Cole Aldrich (if he opts out of his contract with the Los Angeles Clippers), Lance Thomas or the most irritating man in the NBA, Tyler Hansbrough.
With over $40 million to spend, the Nets can afford to sign several of these guys at competitive rates and make significant improvements to their roster that won't mortgage the team's future.
1. Toughen Up
The Nets need to have some pride and personality.
They're fighting for fans in a basketball city that is still principally owned by the New York Knicks—no matter how dismally that team is performing.
The Nets can make their mark, not by teaming up with the right hip-hop moguls or importing aging stars from out of town, but by having a personality of their own.
That's something they have yet to find. Part of the trouble is the rotating door at the head coaching position. Part of the trouble is the fact that the faces of the organization over the years (like Deron Williams and Brook Lopez) have lacked charisma.
Part of it is that they're just too dainty. They don't draw fouls or commit fouls. They don't have as much hustle and muscle as a team fighting for a piece of a big city needs to have. They might be spending too much time in Park Slope and need to get to know the rest of Brooklyn a bit better.
At least Young, Hollis-Jefferson and Larkin force turnovers. If Brooklyn adds other players with those sensibilities and if Atkinson inspires defensive slouches like Brook Lopez to learn how much fun that side can be, there's hope. The Atlantic/Pacific subway station at the Barclays Center may start to see a lot more traffic on ball nights...and not just when the Knicks are visiting.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
