It took four years of short-sighted contracts, selling out for the short term and failed promises for Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov to finally accept that there is no such thing as taking a short route when it comes to building an NBA championship contender. Following a fourth-straight loss to fall to 10-27 on the season, Prokhorov hit the reset button by firing Lionel Hollins as head coach and reassigning GM Billy King in what he called a “reset” for the franchise. The Nets will commit to the traditional route for rebuilding their roster with the club’s long-term future in mind and for as bleak as things look at this point there is reason to believe they can ultimately thrive in time. Here is a look at the key steps Brooklyn will need to take in order to become a legitimate NBA title contender.
It seems like just yesterday that the Nets pulled the trigger on a mega deal that landed them Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry from the Boston Celtics but they mortgaged a big part of their future in exchange for those pieces and ultimately failed to achieve their ultimate goal of delivering a championship to the city of Brooklyn. None of those pieces are on the roster anymore and while they managed to rid themselves of Deron Williams it certainly didn’t help them that Joe Johnson fell off a cliff. The Nets aren’t likely to find a trade partner for Johnson but his contract does expire after this season so they might be able to find a way to move him if they give potential suitors a reason to consider it. Jarrett Jack will miss the remainder of the season and is locked in at a decent price tag for next year but other than bringing back the veteran point guard they might be best off trying to clean house. Thaddeus Young is talented but limited while Brook Lopez is still owed a ton of money over the next couple of years so Brooklyn would be smart to try and move both players if possible. The fact that Shane Larkin could very well be the fourth-best player on their roster right now means they would probably be better off trading as many roster players as possible in order to build up future assets, which is something they are severely lacking right now.
The conventional way to build up assets is via the draft but the Nets don’t own their No. 1 pick for this year because they traded it to the Celtics as part of the mega deal they made to acquire Pierce, Garnett and Terry. The lack of first round talent has really hindered Brooklyn’s ability to remain a playoff team and this year finally represented the breaking point as the Nets can’t go any further as a postseason contender in the Eastern conference moving forward. Brooklyn might not be able to attain many high picks in exchange for the remaining players they have on their roster but it would make a lot of sense for them to try and acquire what they can for pieces that clearly won’t be a part of their future.
In order to get to the point where they can make the necessary moves to improve their future outlook the Nets will need to first find the right personnel to lead them in to the future. King ultimately took the fall for Prokhorov’s poor decisions but the past is the past and the best thing for the franchise now is to find a capable replacement that can bring in the right personnel and players to re-establish themselves as contenders. The most important thing for the franchise now is patience and a commitment to doing what it takes to build from the bottom up so as painful as things might get from here on out the focus must remain on the long-term future. It will take some time before they get to where they want to be but that was always going to be the case and now it’s on those in power in Brooklyn to do what it takes to build a winner from the top down, one step at a time.
