As Nets face another rebuild, there are a lot of question marks
Nets GM Sean Marks speaks to the media as head coach Jordi Fernandez looks on during a press conference at the HSS Training Center in Brooklyn on Thursday. Credit: Louis Lanzano
The Nets may be in a rebuild but they’re not starting this season from scratch. Maybe it’s because they’re still figuring out who will be scratched from this roster.
They open training camp Monday with seven players on expiring contracts. Veterans Cam Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith have been rumored as trade bait since last summer.
For first-year coach Jordi Fernandez, it’s a chance to shape a young team in his image. But that’s only part of this season’s outlook as general manager Sean Marks has to decide who’ll be part of the core Fernandez builds around.
“For me, myself, from the front office side, we're looking at it from, 'Who are the next Nets?,’ " Marks said Thursday. “Who do we look at and say, OK, this person can be part of this rebuild and this person is on the team for the next two, three years. That's going to be important for us.”
Those questions apply two-fold. Not just who on this team will return 12 months from now but who’ll be added in June during next year’s draft. The Nets have four first-round picks, part of 16 first-round picks between now and 2031.
But any outside buzz around this season left when the Nets traded Mikal Bridges to the Knicks for five first-round picks. It means that Fernandez faces an uphill battle coaching a team most expect to be near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
Several betting sites, along with ESPN in August, projected the Nets to win between 19-22 games. But it’s a challenge Fernandez is ready for after spending the last two seasons in Sacramento as an assistant under Mike Brown.
“Having all the answers is not a problem for me right now,” Fernandez said. “The energy that I'm going to bring, and the coaches, I think we're going to have a really good training camp. Because what we can do this second is control the controllables. Everything else, what I cannot control, I don't worry about.”
There are tangible questions that must be answered this season. Will the Nets trade Johnson and Finney-Smith for more draft picks? Will the Nets extend Cam Thomas, last season’s leading scorer and an upcoming free agent?
More importantly, how will fans react to another rebuild. It was a situation Marks had to handle when he was hired in 2016 and oversaw the Nets’ climb from bottom dwellers to a playoff team in 2019.
This rebuild will require similar patience. Marks was fine with that even if outsiders think the Nets are in for a long season.
For now, it’s about watching a roster come together before deciding how it looks going forward.
"I think it's important not to get wrapped up in potentially what Vegas odds look like, where media pundits have you,” Marks said. “Everyone's got a job to do. Our job out here and Jordi's job on the court is to help develop a culture, develop an identity and establish that as the season goes on."
Simmons healthy for start of training camp, Bogdanovic not
Marks added Ben Simmons is a full-go to start training camp after back surgery in March.
The surgery, Simmons’ second in three years, was a microscopic partial discectomy to help deal with a nerve impingement in his lower back that limited him to 15 games last season.
Simmons, who’s owed $40.3 million in this final year of his contract, has played just 57 games with the Nets over three seasons.
Veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovic, however, won’t be available to start camp. The 35-year-old is still recovering from surgeries on his left wrist and foot last spring.
The Nets acquired Bogdanovic in June from the Knicks as part of the Bridges trade. Bogdanovic injured his foot during the Knicks’ first-round playoff series win over the 76ers last April.
“He's in a very good place," Fernandez said. "We see him every day putting in his work.”
Evan Barnes covers the Nets for Newsday. He previously covered Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
