Nets' timetable for success hazy after moves at trade deadline
Nets general manager Sean Marks looks on before an NBA basketball game between the Brooklyn Nets and the Utah Jazz at Barclays Center on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Nets mostly did what was expected at the NBA trade deadline. They created cap space by trading two of their oldest players and held firm to building around Mikal Bridges.
Adding Dennis Schroder meant swapping one veteran point guard in Spencer Dinwiddie for another. Now the question is whether fans will accept what was done without a clear understanding of the Nets’ time line.
The Nets didn’t address the on-court need of adding another talented offensive player to Bridges. They lost another shooter when they traded Royce O’Neale to the Suns. More important, they didn’t do much on the surface to help improve a team 10 games under .500.
For general manager Sean Marks, the plan remains to look toward the future while evaluating what’s here now.
“We know what fits with our timetable right now, what we’re looking for and what we’re judging these guys on,” Marks said Thursday. “And part of that is the moves we made at this deadline, the moves we’ll be making in the draft and then into free agency.”
Fans are right to ask about the Nets’ time line. Bridges and Cam Johnson are the only two rotation players signed through 2025, although Dorian Finney-Smith has a player option for 2025-26.
The Nets likely will re-sign Nic Claxton this offseason, and Cam Thomas also is eligible for a rookie extension this summer. Yet it seems the Nets are content to play the waiting game through next season while hoping something or someone accelerates that plan.
“I don’t want to say we’re on a three-year timetable or four-year timetable,” Marks said. “It could be faster than that. We’ve seen it move quicker than that in the past.”
Marks is encouraged that Bridges, Thomas and Claxton will be entering their prime the next few years. But in the present, that plan hasn’t panned out.
The Nets (21-31) are 33-46 since Bridges and Johnson arrived a year ago via trade. Since Dec. 27, when they decided to rest starters against the Bucks, the Nets are 6-16 and tied with the Pistons and Spurs for the second-worst record over that span.
They still can make the play-in tournament, but they sit 2 1⁄2 games outside of the final spot. Ben Simmons’ impact since his return has been positive, but the Nets have to hope he stays healthy.
Can fans accept having the play-in tournament as a ceiling the next year or so? Time will tell, but right now, what they’ve done hasn’t worked.
Any hope fans have is being drowned out in losses and cheering by visiting fans at Barclays Center. The players have no choice but to be optimistic because there’s always a slim chance every game could go their way. “Everybody just wants to get better, and we got the guys do it,” Bridges said Thursday.
After a quiet trade deadline, it’s unclear if the Nets have the personnel or the plan to do so. For the fans, the hope is that Marks’ long game pans out because the short game hasn’t justified faith in the future yet.
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
