Nets have two clear choices in how to approach critical offseason
The rebuilding Nets have spent years — none more painful than this one — accruing assets.
What would it take for the front office to cash them in this summer?
In a rare moment of transparency, GM Sean Marks in essence said a superstar could turn them into a contender.
Otherwise, the Nets are keeping their powder dry.
“You’ll always have those opportunities. Whether we do or not, when we go in, those are questions that I cannot answer,” Marks said the day after the Nets wrapped up a 26-56 campaign.
“If you’re going after max-level talent, they have [to] automatically and absolutely change the trajectory of your team. This can’t be like ‘Let’s go get this [guy] and lock ourselves into being a six or seven seed.’ When we go all in, you’re going in to compete at the highest level and contend.”
There are a host of players like Trae Young, LaMelo Ball, Ja Morant or Domantas Sabonis that could get moved.
But changing the team’s trajectory sounds like Giannis Antetokounmpo or bust. Or more accurately Antetokounmpo or tank.
The Nets’ first lottery pick since 2010 — along with first-rounders from the Bucks, Knicks and Rockets — will be the foundation of their rebuild.
They paid Houston dearly to reacquire their own selections this year and next, a steep price for the right to rebuild at their own pace through consecutive generational draft classes.
In a fluky summer where nobody can spend big except the Nets (who’ll have $45 million in cap space even after the holds for their own free agents and four first-round rookies), the Nets could have a free run at free agents like Josh Giddey, Jonathan Kuminga, Santi Aldama, Quentin Grimes and Ty Jerome.
But could isn’t the same as should. Those solid-but-unspectacular signings — like the aforementioned trade targets — would just lift a play-in team into the sixth or seventh seed, not contention.
Contention means Antetokounmpo — or more likely, a slow build and stacking another lottery pick in 2026.
“We need to be opportunistic,” Marks said. “In this market we’re always going to have various different free agents and opportunities thrown at us, just simply being in a top five market in the league; that’s going to happen. We don’t want to get sped up. We’ve talked multiple times about being systematic and strategic in how we build here. We know we have 15 first-round picks in the next six, seven years.
“So, there’s a lot of draft assets at stake. There’s a lot of cap room at stake. And how we use that, it’s probably too early to determine. But there’s a variety of different pathways we can go, and it’s just about being opportunistic as to how we build and when we go all in again, so to speak. And that could be going all in with whether it’s free agents or trades, but it also could be go all in with systematically growing some homegrown talent. We’ve done that in the past and grown some guys here, developed guys here, as well as attracted top-tier talent from elsewhere.”
Getting top-tier talent from elsewhere now is done through trades, not free agency.
The new restrictive CBA makes signing multiple stars like Brooklyn did with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving essentially impossible.
It also makes developing draft picks in-house even more vital.
Enter Marks, and assistant GM B.J. Johnson, his draft guru.
“I do think it’s important to have guys under contract that you control the contracts. You drafted them, you developed them, and they got to their second contract under your watch,” Marks said. “It’s difficult when you’re trying to acquire max-level talent on max contracts. Those days are probably gone, of going and getting two or three max free agents. Those are gonna be more difficult to do.
“But it’s important to have some value contracts on your roster. How we do that? We’ve got to draft right. I think our draft process has worked. We know what’s at stake this year. BJ’s done a heck of a job the last several years running that draft process for us. He’s excited about what lays ahead over these next several years.”
