The offseason ends Sunday. Monday is Media Day, the beginning of pre-season. Hurrah!<\/p>\n
A week later, after six practice sessions at HSS Training Center, the 20 players \u2014 15 on standard deals, three on two-ways and as of now two on Exhibit 10s \u2014 will fly to Charlotte for their first pre-season game vs. the Hornets on October 8, a week. Three more preseason games, starting with a home game vs. the 76ers at Barclays Center two days later on October 8, will follow, giving fans their first look at the Nets newest era.<\/p>\n
The regular season starts October 21 in Brooklyn, also vs. Charlotte, in the friendly confines of Barclays Center. Then, it\u2019s really on through Sunday, April 11, vs. the Raptors. Hopefully, it will mean something.<\/p>\n
So, the wait is over, the truth will soon be told. Here comes both the excitement of a new season with its new hope \u2026 and more than a little anxiety, too.<\/p>\n
The offseason was a disappointment for some fans who had hoped the Nets would make a big move or two, using all that cap space, all those draft picks to move beyond the hurt of the tank. What made it worse was the first event of the off-season, the NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago. The Nets\u2019 whole rationale for losing all but 46 games the last two years: getting top lottery picks, didn\u2019t work out the way they planned. After finishing with the sixth worst record and winding up with the eighth pick in 2025, they dropped again last June, picking at No. 6 in what was then seen as a four-star draft. The Nets had hoped that by finishing with 20 wins, third worst in the league, they\u2019d finish higher. Didn\u2019t the basketball gods understand they were owed?!?<\/p>\n
Instead of making incremental moves, Sean Marks & co. stuck to their mantra that the team would not expend all those precious assets for anything less that a player who would \u201cabsolutely and automatically change the trajectory of the franchise\u201d, aka a superstar. Call it the Marks Doctrine if you want. Just before the Draft, as he does virtually every year Marks made what was the biggest move of the off-season: acquiring Julius Randle, a power forward \u2014 emphasis on the power \u2014 and another first round pick at No. 28 in return for Nic Claxton who by every analysis had run out his time in Brooklyn plus a second rounder.<\/p>\n
Randle may have made three All-Star teams and been honored with two All-NBA draws; may have averaged 21.7 points and 8.9 boards over 551 games the last eight seasons, may have played 79 games last season. But no one thinks he is the man who will \u201cchange the trajectory of the team.\u201d But getting a player with that resume\u2019 in a salary dump \u2014 putting aside his baggage \u2014 is pretty, pretty good as one Brooklyn native might say. Even if he could wind up a rental \u2014 he has a player option in July and will soon turn 32 \u2014 the deal has to be seen at worst as intriguing, at best a lot more than that. (If you think we believe that trade is under appreciated, you\u2019re right. Despite everything, he wants to be here! Even Michael Porter Jr. later admitted he initially hated the idea of moving from a title contender to a rebuild.)<\/p>\n
The night of the Draft held one mystery. Would the Nets get a player they wanted at No. 6? They absolutely loved Caleb Wilson but none of the top four teams were entertaining offers. After that, there was Mikel Brown Jr., who they loved almost as much. The Clippers had the fifth pick and it looked liked they would take Keaton Wagler, but ya never know until Adam Silver walks to the podium. And walk he did to announce LAC would take the Illinois sharpshooter. There was cheering in the War Room and it was not perfunctory. They wanted \u2018Kel and he wanted Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
At No. 28, the other piece in the Randle\/Claxton trade, they took Joshua Jefferson. While everyone was celebrating Brown Jr., the scouts also liked Jefferson a lot. Marks publicly said Brooklyn had followed him from early in the season. The scouts saw and still see the 22-year-old as a steal, a player who if he had been two years younger might have been a lottery pick. It is not an exaggeration \u2014 at all \u2014 to say the Nets wanted that exchange of picks \u2014 No. 28 for No. 33 \u2014 out of the Randle\/Claxton trade specifically so they could take the 6\u20199\u201d in the first round. Marks hinted at it on Draft Night and another insider confirmed it to ND.<\/p>\n
After the Draft, the off-season was a series of small to medium signings \u2014 some like Day\u2019Ron Sharpe and Josh Minott solid young adds, others like Keon Ellis and Moe Wagner promising rotation players and veterans as well. There are intriguing players among the two-ways as well. Grant Nelson, the athletic 7-footer, Chaney Johnson, who looks a bit like Bruce Brown-lite from a couple of years back and Tyler Bilodeau, the 6\u20199\u201d 3-point specialist taken at No 43 in the draft, will spend time in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
Grading the off-season at this point in the process though seems silly. The games are about to begin and rankings, ratings and grades will all be forgotten, be irrelevant. We\u2019ve seen grades from D- to A+ with most marks closer to the latter than the former.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll hear more about how BBOps and players feel about things Monday but Tsai, Marks and Fernandez appear satisfied with their progress, even if slow and steady.<\/p>\n
In his interview with David Rubenstein for \u201cInside the Owner\u2019s Box,\u201d Tsai even congratulated Nets fans on their patience, enlisting them in his long march.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brooklyn Nets have a sophisticated fan base,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have very strong opinions. You think the fan base is always about \u2018win now, get the best players pay the highest price.\u2019 Right now, they\u2019re saying, unanimously, that we should be going through a multi-year rebuilding process. we need to be patient, We need to build through the Draft. It\u2019s a very knowledgeable fan base.\u201d Emphasis added.<\/p>\n
(Memo to Tsai who said he derived his sense of the fan base through Twitter: The Nets fan base, \u201cknowledgeable\u201d or not, is not unanimous about anything!)<\/p>\n
Bottom line of the off-season: the tank is over, but the rebuild is far from it. Despite their bad luck in the lottery the last two years, they\u2019re very happy with Demin and Brown Jr. who sure looked like the point guard of the future in limited minutes. Demin didn\u2019t just bulk up physically after going down with an episode of plantar fasciitis in March. He looked more confident in Summer League, more willing to drive the lane, giving Fernandez more options. Moreover, the two worked well together in Sacramento and Las Vegas. Also, the team\u2019s marketing apparatus seized on them as the face of the franchise, present and future.<\/p>\n
There were other positives in off-season as well as some negatives \u2014 Ben Saraf looked marginally better in Summer League play, particularly on defense but he, Drake Powell and Danny Wolf didn\u2019t give anyone goose bumps on offense. Nolan Traore has bulked up, maybe even added an inch in height, but he didn\u2019t play in either Sumer League after getting his knee scoped. He\u2019s expected to be in training camp. Bilodeau showed sparks in Sacramento and Las Vegas as well as did Jefferson, but their minutes were limited.<\/p>\n
Still, as Tsai preached, the \u201cbuild\u201d will be \u201cmulti-year.\u201d Fourteen of their 18 players are under 25. They have the youngest team in the league \u2014 again \u2014 and with eight guys on rookie contracts they\u2019ll top the NBA \u2014 again \u2014 in that category. Plus, they added a couple of 20-point scores to tide things over. Scout, draft, develop, repeat till Mr. Absolute Automatic arrives on a white horse. However, one cavalier is already suited up.<\/p>\n
Over and over, you hear, that finally, after two years, Fernandez will be unleashed. They\u2019re extremely happy with him and his staff, rewarding all 10 of them with contract extensions and raises (one of the more under appreciated moves of the summer in that it showed great confidence in the future.) They\u2019ve also added an assistant to the head coach to the basketball operations staff. Reports from inside 168 39th Street in Sunset Park indicate he is raring to go, believing he has a team that can surprise all those nasty pundits and reward all those forsaken fans.<\/p>\n
And who can forget flexibility!?! (What\u2019s the over\/under for the number of times Marks uses the word Monday?) To recap, Brooklyn still has $4.9 million in cap space, the $9.4 million room exception, the full $8.5 million in cash considerations plus 32 draft picks. You know the math \u2026 or should by now! 13 firsts, 10 of which can be traded, and 19 seconds, all of which can be traded. And at the moment, no Nets player has a contract that extends beyond 2027-28. That could change with MPJ getting an extension but don\u2019t hold your breath. The smart heads who track these sorts of things keep noting that Brooklyn can move in a number of different ways. The fans are less analytical. They are less interested in counting draft picks than wins.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been a big turnover. A number of players left the team since last year this time, some of them seen as key pieces at one point or another. Cam Thomas and Dariq Whitehead were first rounders in 2021 and 2023. Both are currently out of the league. Jalen Wilson was a fan favorite and he wound up on a two-way with the Hawks. There was divided feeling on Ziaire Williams now making the vets minimum \u2014 less than half what he earned in Brooklyn \u2014 with his hometown Lakers. There was no market for any of them which should tell you something, actually a number of things. Tyrese Martin is playing in Spain, E.J. Liddell in Greece, Tyson Etienne in France, Tre Scott in Germany. Ochai Agbaji is just across the river, but on an Exhibit 10 fighting for a deal to keep him out of the international market. Based on all that, you\u2019d have to say this year\u2019s roster is better, a lot better.<\/p>\n