Now that the NBA trade deadline has come and gone Thursday, Nets fans didn’t get the star they were pining for, or the clarity they wanted from the organization on its direction for the future.
“Those fans seven or eight years ago were sitting here going they probably didn’t really know what the direction was then,” GM Sean Marks said. “I have utmost faith in this group — this group of players and this staff — to go out there and put a sustainable product on the floor.”
As far as how, yesterday can tell us about tomorrow.
Everything Brooklyn has said and done — the latter always more important than the former — doesn’t point toward a complete tear-down. The Nets built gradually in Marks’ early tenure until they landed Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and eventually James Harden. Despite the ugliness of the Big Three’s breakup, expect them to stockpile their powder and keep it dry.
Until they need to take their shot.
And all signs point toward a 2025 reset. Though the right opportunity could advance that timeline if it presented itself.
“When we first came in here — I think it was almost eight years ago — we had one idea of what our timetable would look like, right? All of a sudden, that gets sped up — credit to our coaches, they developed guys,” Marks said. “They speed up your timetable a little bit.
“That doesn’t mean you have to go all-in when you go all-in. But at the same time, we had the opportunity to acquire players of Kevin and Kai and James’ stature. We’re going to want to do that, and I would do it all over again. But at the same time, this time it’s how we’re developing these young guys? And who fits our timetable? You know, you look at the age-group of the guys that we have here, in that 22-to-25-to-27-year-old, you know you’ve got three or four years.
“It’s going to be fun to see what Mikal [Bridges] looks like when he’s in his prime, fun to see what Cam looks like when he’s in his prime, Nic Claxton, the list sort of goes on there. So I don’t want to say we’re on a three-, four-year timetable. It could be faster than that; we’ve seen it move quicker than that in the past.”
It could be faster if the right star speeds it up.
Clearly Damian Lillard’s advancing age and this roster’s limitations — currently with just a 20-31 record — show he wasn’t a good fit for their timelime.
The Hawks’ Dejounte Murray appeared to be available at the deadline, but some personnel people around the league question if he is a winner, and all agree he isn’t a superstar.
Not like Luka Doncic, or Giannis Antetokounmpo, or Donovan Mitchell.
League executives are carefully searching for any Doncic dissatisfaction in Dallas and monitoring Antetokounmpo’s mood in Milwaukee. But the one most perceived as acquirable is Mitchell, a native New Yorker viewed as open to a homecoming.
Mitchell declining to ink an extension in Cleveland last summer was predictable. But if he refuses to sign one this coming summer, that — plus the threat of him declining his $37 million player option for 2025-26 — could prompt the Cavs to move him, either over the offseason or at next season’s trade deadline.
The five-time All-Star is 27 — the same age as Bridges, Cam Johnson and Ben Simmons. Claxton is 24 and Cam Thomas, presumably cited by Marks as a foundational piece for the future, is 22.
A nest egg for the future
Brooklyn has seven tradeable first-round picks with which to acquire a suitable running mate for Bridges, including unprotected firsts from the Suns (2027, 2029) and Mavericks (2029)
“Again, we know what fits with our timetable right now, what we’re looking for and what we’re judging these guys on, Marks said. “And part of that is the moves we made at this deadline, the moves we’ll be making at the draft and then into free agency: who fits and who can be a net long term here.”
Those moves were to get younger and try to straddle competiveness and flexibility.
With their three eldest players — 30-year-olds Spencer Dinwiddie, Royce O’Neale and Dorian Finney-Smith — all on the trade market, they moved the Dinwiddie and O’Neale, both on expiring contracts, and kept Finney-Smith, the one for whom they’d asked the most. Too much, according to several league personnel that spoke with The Post.
Marks rejected an offer of two first-round picks for Finney-Smith at last year’s deadline, and didn’t get an offer to their liking this time around. But they moved Dinwiddie and O’Neale in deals that straddled the line between trying to stay competitive but maintaining flexibility at all costs.
“Yeah, we go into these days always thinking about future flexibility, try to maintain some level of sustainability when we’re looking at how’s the team look this year?” Marks said. “How’s it going to look in six months’ time from now? How’s it going to look in three, four years?
“So we’re looking way down the road here, and what’s fitting with our timetable, fitting with the group that we’re thinking that we’re envisioning that we will come back this next offseason and we’ll bring back as Nets in a year or two from here. So, hopefully, we accomplish some of those goals. We feel pretty good about it by adding the players that we added and bringing those guys in. But at the same time you’re keeping some of those draft assets as well, and again, that future flexibility.”
O’Neale went to Phoenix in a three-team deal, Marks bringing back Keita Bates-Diop, Jordan Goodwin (already waived) and three second-round picks. They got a similar return for O’Neale that Indiana got for deadeye shooter Buddy Hield.
Translation: He went to the Suns for future cap savings and draft assets.
“When you’re getting three future draft assets here, I couldn’t tell you how they’re going to be used, but that’s the opportunity for me. It’s an exciting piece for our group,” Marks said. “You saw many of these picks thrown around and floated all over the place over the course of the last 24 hours and 72 hours here. That just gives more to use down the road here.”
Dinwiddie got swapped to Toronto for Dennis Schröder, ex-Net Thad Young (also waived) and, in essence, the ability to create a huge $20.4 million trade exception for Dinwiddie’s cap hit.
Translation: The Nets got rid of a problem — a disgruntled free agent who could walk for nothing — and brought back a point guard who can be a starter at best, or a trade asset next year at worst.
While Dinwiddie was an expiring deal, they couldn’t reach a deal on an extension. Schröder is under contract for $13 million next season, and is a starting-caliber player. Now the Nets have insurance in case oft-injured Ben Simmons’ health gives out again — always a possibility, given his history — or a valuable piece that could get moved either in the summer or at next year’s deadline.
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Reset, not rebuild
Brooklyn also saved money, and should be able to not only re-sign Claxton in the summer but also have the midlevel exception, the bi-annual exception and avoid the luxury tax. That’s vital because after paying luxury tax last season and the year before, the Nets are $13 million under the tax per Spotrac. If they avoid the luxury tax next year as well they’ll reset the repeater tax.
If Simmons’ gargantuan $40.3 million salary is allowed to come off the books in the summer of 2025, they would not only have ample cap space but also would have reset the repeater tax to avoid it until at least 2028.
Nets owner Joe Tsai has paid an eye-watering $323 million in luxury taxes already since buying into the Nets, with one playoff series win to show for it. He’s believed to be willing to pay again for a contender — but coach Jacque Vaughn, facing fan unrest, has to show he can deliver one. He hasn’t had an easy time.
“No, it hasn’t, absolutely,” Marks said. “And it’s part of coaching, right, when you never quite know who your roster is going to be,” said Marks. “I see the sweat equity from not only Jacque but from his coaching staff on a daily basis, and that’s absolutely to be respected beyond belief.
“He’s giving it everything he can. And he never knows who has he got for tonight’s game, let alone we just took a couple players from him (Thursday). So he knows what’s at stake. We all do here. Our jobs are to go and put a sustainable product on the floor and give the fanbase something to cheer and root for.”
It would be nice if that was before 2025.
