How do the Nets move forward?
The Brooklyn Nets (30-47, 11th in the Eastern Conference) were recently eliminated from the Eastern Conference play-in tournament after the Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday. Despite the fact that Brooklyn took care of business on Wednesday by beating the Indiana Pacers, they still found themselves being out of contention for the postseason that they strived for.
Now that the Nets’ season is effectively over, it’s fair to wonder how the franchise moves forward. The 2023-24 season saw Brooklyn go from possibly being a top-6 seed in the Eastern Conference during their 13-10 start to begin the season to a team that sees itself amongst some of the worst teams in the NBA in terms of record since that good start to this campaign.
This season saw the rise of a player like guard Cam Thomas, who is showing more of his talent with each game while increasing his numbers across the board compared to his first two seasons in the league. Also, Brooklyn’s fanbase has seen glimpses of what players like Lonnie Walker IV, Day’Ron Sharpe, Trendon Watford, Jalen Wilson, and Noah Clowney can bring to the table.
Moving forward, the Nets do not have control of their own first-round picks until 2028. Until then, the Houston Rockets will be able to use Brooklyn’s situation as their gain in 2024 and 2026 while Brooklyn will get whatever pick Houston does not want during the 2025 and 2027 seasons due to the pick swaps acquired in the James Harden trade.
That means that the Nets currently do not have any draft picks heading into 2024 and while there is speculation that Brooklyn could acquire a second-round pick, that is a far cry from what could have been given that the Nets’ ineptitude this season is rewarding the Rockets with a lottery pick.
In terms of players on the roster, Brooklyn has some tough choices to make as center Nic Claxton will be a free-agent after this season ends while Ben Simmons and Thomas are eligible for extensions. On the open market, as written about by Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, Claxton could net a contract between $20 million and $25 million.
More to the point, the Nets will have almost 82% of their salary cap for the 2024-25 season tied up in five players: Simmons ($40.3 million), Cam Johnson ($23.6 million), Mikal Bridges ($23.3 million), Dorian Finney-Smith ($14.9 million), and Dennis Schroder ($13 million).
Assuming that Brooklyn wants to bring back Claxton while possible giving an extension to Thomas, there may need to be some serious salary cap gymnastics if the team is going to keep all of those players.
One thing that is clear from this season is that the Nets as presently constructed are not good enough to compete with most teams in the NBA and yet, they have issues to address in terms of draft picks and salary cap along with deciding if interim head coach Kevin Ollie is the right man for the head-coaching job next season or if someone else is going to lead the team going forward.
