The Brooklyn Nets and Sean Marks look to be done making moves this summer. Here are the definitive rankings for all the big moves.
The Brooklyn Nets are in another transitional year. The rebuild was slow, but there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. GM Sean Marks was extremely creative this offseason in ways that improved the current Nets roster without sacrificing long-term goals.
The Nets are positioned to have enough salary cap to add two max contracts next offseason. But in order to attract the high-level talent who could garner a max contract, the Nets have to show a steady improvement this season. It’s a fine line that Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson must walk.
The front office was tasked with bringing in players that could help the Nets be competitive this season. They may even have their sights set on the playoffs in a diluted Eastern Conference. It’s still a long shot, but crazier things have happened.
In order to understand the importance of each offseason move, it’s vital to keep the team’s short-term goals in mind, while maintaining a firm grasp on the long-term goals. It’s a delicate balancing act, but in reality, the long-term goals should supersede the short-term desire to win.
Here is each major move of the offseason ranked from worst to best. And to be clear, even the “worst” moves made this offseason won’t break Brooklyn’s back. Marks showed extreme caution this summer to preserve the ultimate goals. It just so happens that some moves are better than others.
#9 Signing Treveon Graham
It almost feels unfair to put Treveon Graham at the bottom of this list. Graham signed a two-year deal worth $3 million—the first year is fully guaranteed while the second is not. It’s certainly not a high-risk move for Brooklyn.
The problem with this move is finding a spot in the rotation for the VCU-alum. The shooting guard is joining a team with a logjam at the guard position. In fact, Brooklyn traded away a proven, veteran guard this offseason to clear playing time for some of the younger players—but more on that later.
Calling this a bad move is wrong because the Nets are risking very little. Describing this move as a low-impact move is probably a much more fair assessment. Graham certainly brings a valuable skill set, but it’s unclear how much he’ll get to showcase it.
He shoots the ball well from three (44 percent for his career) and he can defend multiple positions. Two extremely valuable tools for a player in today’s NBA. If nothing else, Graham provides depth if the injury bug bites the Nets and perhaps he’ll surprise some people this year.
#8 Trading For Jared Dudley And A 2nd-Round Pick
It’s hard to complain too much about this move considering the fact that the Nets dealt Darrell Arthur, who had only been on the roster for a week—more on that later. Jared Dudley is an 11-year NBA veteran. He’s seen it all and more importantly, he’s played the role of mentor on a young Phoenix Suns team.
He will play that same role in Brooklyn, but that won’t be his only job on the Nets. Dudley was forced to take a backseat role on the Suns last season to make way for the youth movement. The Nets have a youth movement of their own, but they also needed a stretch four to knock down threes. Dudley can fill that role. How often he’ll fill that role is still a mystery, but nonetheless, he’ll give a boost to the current Nets roster.
And while Dudley is the centerpiece of the deal, the second-round pick is nothing to scoff at. Teams are growing increasingly protective of first-round picks, due in large part to the Nets disastrous trade with the Boston Celtics. Of course, second rounders don’t hold the same weight as a first rounder, but it’s an asset all the same.
If the Phoenix Suns can manage to escape the depths of the NBA standings—it’s a top-35 protected pick in 2021—then this trade will bring back an additional asset for Sean Marks to utilize as he sees best.
#7 Signing Shabazz Napier
Shabazz Napier joins a cadre of former Trail Blazers in Brooklyn. He had the best year of career in Portland last season. The combo guard has yet to live up to the hype (mostly due to a LeBron James pre-draft endorsement) he came into the league with.
But he has value coming off the bench for a competitive team. In fact, he was a solid rotational player for the three-seeded Trail Blazers last season. He’s another low-risk move as he’s on a very cheap deal with a club option in year two. There’s no huge investment from Brooklyn here.
And the former first-round pick could prove to be more valuable than ever before. Napier had his best year from beyond the arc during the 2017-18 season and perhaps Atkinson has a plan to utilize his shooting in the Nets’ three-point friendly offensive scheme.
But much like Graham, where does Napier fit in the logjam of guards? D’Angelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie, Caris LeVert, and Allen Crabbe are all likely ahead of Napier on the depth chart. Depending on how the rotations shake out, there may not be a whole lot of playing time left for Napier.
But then again there is little risk involved with this signing—if any at all. Napier edges out Graham here because the Connecticut product is the more proven commodity at this stage of their careers. Again, it’s unfair to call either of these signings bad moves, but it’s fair to question how much impact they will have on the team during the 2018-19 season and beyond.
Where you rank this move ultimately depends on where you rank Napier among the current roster.
#6 Trading Jeremy Lin
Jeremy Lin was flipped to the Atlanta Hawks amongst a number of second-round draft pick exchanges and the rights to Isaia Cordinier who currently plays his ball in France. It’s unlikely that Cordinier ever plays for Brooklyn. This deal was not so much about what Brooklyn gets back as it was about what they were giving up.
It’s becoming a common thread to this piece, but this move frees up playing time for the young guards, specifically Russell and Dinwiddie. Lin is a legitimate NBA player, when healthy, and he would certainly eat into the minutes intended for Russell and Dinwiddie. Both players are free agents in 2019—Russell a restricted free agent, while Dinwiddie is of the unrestricted variety.
It would behoove the Nets not to feature both of these players heavily in their rotations. They must see what they have before they know what they’re plan is for each player in the long-term.
Of course, Brooklyn supplemented the backcourt with the additions of Graham and Napier, but neither player is on Jeremy Lin’s level. Trading the veteran guard ultimately hands the reins over to the combination of Russell and Dinwiddie. It may make the Nets a slightly worse team in the short run, but it was a necessary move in the long-term.
#5 Drafting Dzanan Musa and Rodions Kurucs
This was one of the more difficult placements on this list. It’s unclear how much either of the draft picks will play this season. They are both incredibly young with Dzanan Musa checking in at 19-years of age and Rodions Kurucs slightly his senior as a 20-year-old. Musa is a scorer on the wing while the 6-foot-10 Kurucs is a gifted shooter as well.
Both must bulk up and improve their defense if they want to survive in the NBA, but these picks were about upside and the future, not the 2018-19 season. Their roles are yet to be defined and Sean Marks spoke during the European pair’s introductory press conference about his hesitancy to pigeonhole them into a certain position or role.
“I would hate to pigeonhole any of these guys into, ‘You’re a two-guard, you’re a three-guard, you’re a four.’ It goes back to how they develop, what their development plan is here,” said Marks. “Young guys coming into the league, there’s some stepping stones that they’ve got to go through. It would be far too early for me or anybody to decide this is the role or this is the position that they have to play. Let’s see how it pans out. But they do have a skill set – length, body size, IQ, all those intangibles.”
This “move” falls in the middle of this list because we still have no idea how either of these guys will pan out in the NBA. Of course, Nets fans would love to assume that Marks and the scouting department did their homework and nabbed two steals, but that’s just not the way the draft works. It’s a crapshoot. Sometimes you get Jarrett Allen with a late steal. Other times you whiff by drafting Chris McCullough. Regardless, this is more of a “wait and see” move more than anything else.
#4 Signing Ed Davis
Plain and simple, Ed Davis brings an attitude and a willingness to crash the glass. The Nets ranked 24th in offensive rebound percentage and 19th in defensive rebound percentage during the 2017-18 season. Davis should improve upon both of these percentages with his 7.4 rebounds per game average from last season.
Additionally, Davis averaged a career-high 14.1 rebounds per 36 minutes last year. Davis will bring a tenacity inside that the Nets desperately need.
And of course, it doesn’t hurt that Davis is coming in on a one-year deal on the cheap. The former Trail Blazer is determined to prove himself this season and he’s hoping Brooklyn will be a launch pad for him to sign a more lucrative, long-term deal somewhere in 2019. A hungry player in a contract year is never a bad guy to have on the roster.
The Nets were aggressive in pursuit of Davis this offseason. They’re hoping that Davis will show that same level of aggression on the court.
#3 Re-Signing Joe Harris
It is extremely hard to dislike this move. Marks and the Nets bring back Joe Harris on a two-year deal worth $16 million. Harris has come into his own under Atkinson and there’s no reason to believe he’s done improving. After two disappointing seasons in Cleveland, Harris found his way to Brooklyn on a cheap deal.
But with the Nets, Harris began to find his stride. He’s found a home in Atkinson’s offensive scheme, developing into a knockdown three-point shooter. Harris shot 41.9 percent on 4.6 attempts per game from behind the arc last season. Harris is proof-positive of Brooklyn’s player development department.
Not to mention, Harris is a shining example of someone who chose the Nets over more secure and more lucrative options. Harris told Mike Scotto of The Athletic:
“I had some offers for longer-term deals, but ultimately from the get-go, I had basically said that I wanted to stay in Brooklyn and however we could come to an agreement on that.”
Don’t get it twisted, convincing Joe Harris to remain in town is a far cry from convincing a max-level player to come to Brooklyn, but this quote from Harris speaks volumes to the culture developing within the Nets organization.
Harris has the potential to be a key rotational piece for Kenny Atkinson moving forward and perhaps he can serve as an example of a player that yearns to play for the organization when Sean Marks is making his recruiting pitches to the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler and Klay Thompson. Don’t gloss over this move because it has implications in the long and short-term.
#2 Trading For Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur And A 1st-Round Pick
This was a huge move for Brooklyn and there’s no way to undersell this. This move was made primarily so the Denver Nuggets could create cap space and move off Kenneth Faried’s contract. But this move works for the Nets in a few different ways.
First off, Arthur was subsequently dealt to the Suns in the aforementioned Jared Dudley deal. Marks found a way to take the least appealing part of this trade and flip it into something—slightly—more appealing.
Second, Kenneth Faried fell out of Denver’s rotation last season, but it wasn’t because of a decline in performance. Unfortunately, Faried just happened to be the odd man out in a very deep frontcourt. His per 36 numbers were in line with his career production. Additionally, Faried brings a ruggedness to the inside that the Nets were sorely lacking. He isn’t exactly the kind of power forward that fits Atkinson’s style or the changing dynamic of the NBA. But he still brings value to this young Nets roster.
Finally, the Nets draft pick woes have been well documented throughout the years. After only having five low first-round picks since 2011, the Nets could potentially have two lottery picks next season. Of course, Denver’s first-round pick is 1-12 protected so what are the chances of that happening? Well, not good. But you’re telling me there’s a chance?
Perhaps it’s more symbolic than anything, but this feels overwhelmingly positive for a team living in draft pick purgatory for the better part of the last eight years.
#1 Trading Timofey Mozgov and Buying Out Dwight Howard
This was the most important move of the summer for Marks and company. This is the move that allows the organization the flexibility to sign two max-level contracts next season. Marks deftly moved Timofey Mozgov’s burdensome contract and bought out Dwight Howard to ensure that he has flexibility in the summer of 2019.
The aforementioned Leonard, Irving, Butler, and Thompson are a few of the names on the Nets’ wishlist next summer. It may seem farfetched at this point to expect any of those players to come to Brooklyn, let alone two. But the keys here are the many moves the Nets have made to get to this point. Building the roster from the ground up was not easy and it was anything but swift.
But the Nets saw in eight-win improvement from the 2016-17 season to the 2017-18 season. Another positive showing from Atkinson and his ball club may catch the eye of a couple superstars on the market. Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving are already rumored to have interest in playing with one another. A young Brooklyn team with a foundation in place is more enticing than one would think.
Of course, if Brooklyn whiffs in 2019, the work put in may all be for naught. But with everything we know, it’s hard to imagine Marks missing completely. Will they sign two max-level players? Maybe not. But if this year goes as planned, don’t be surprised when the Nets land a big fish in free agency. At that point, the Nets will be competitive in a weak Eastern Conference and finally relevant for the first time in years.
It’s all building to that moment.