Only two teams finished with a worse record than the Brooklyn Nets last season. That gives you an idea of how far this team has fallen. Strapped with bad contracts and declining veterans, the Nets simply had no other choice than to go into the tank and start their rebuild.
Looking ahead to the 2016-17 season, it would truly be a surprise if even one team has a worse record than Brooklyn. Terrible decision-making and forcing the issue before they were ready to contend has led to the Nets ending up in arguably the worst possible position of any NBA franchise heading in to this season. Brooklyn certainly has the least talent of all 30 teams and we aren’t expecting anything more than the worst record in the NBA from them this season.
Offseason Changes
The Nets pushed hard to try to infuse their roster with some young talent but it didn’t work out. In the end, it might before the best. They signed both Tyler Johnson and Allen Crabbe to offer sheets, but the Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers matched those offers and Brooklyn ended up with nothing. The Nets made the mistake of spending all of their draft picks in trades for aging veterans over the past few seasons, so they weren’t in a position like the Philadelphia 76ers or Boston Celtics where they could infuse a lot of talent via the 2016 NBA Draft. Those moves have finally caught up to them. The most painful of the moves would be the Andrea Bargnani trade as he proved to be useless for them but they ended up giving up the eight overall selection in this year’s draft. Brooklyn took flyers on former first round pick Anthony Bennett and veterans like Jeremy Lin, Greivis Vasquez and Randy Foye but the overall talent is still sufficiently lacking. They are one of the most talent-deficient teams in the league.
Strengths
Brook Lopez remains one of the top offensive centers in the game but it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Brooklyn Nets attempted to move him at some point this season. He’s an asset but he’s wasting away on a team that won’t be contending for many years. Lin is an underrated point guard but we’re past the Lin-sanity era. He’s better served as a backup, but there aren’t many strengths beyond him and Lopez. Bojan Bogdanovic is a quality outside shooter and the hope is that he’s a breakout player this year. That would form a mini trio with Lin and Lopez to build a foundation upon. he will have every opportunity to emerge as a primary scorer on this team. The Brooklyn Nets will likely experience with different combinations but Lopez, Bogdanovic and Lin will be the core players on this year’s roster. The cupboard isn’t completely bare but there really isn’t much inside either.
Weaknesses
The lack of star talent on this roster is that much more glaring when looking at the lack of young talent on this roster with the potential to eventually develop in to stars. Brooklyn didn’t have a first round pick and the majority of the young players on their roster already failed at opportunities to prove they belonged with other teams. The overall lack of talent means it will be extremely tough for the Brooklyn Nets to improve on either side of the ball and that should lead to their continued downward trend in the standings.
Outlook
New head coach Kenny Atkinson has developed a reputation for being able to develop and get the most out of the talent at his disposal. That reputation will certainly be put to the test this season with Brooklyn projected to be the worst team in the NBA. The Nets could help Atkinson by trading Lopez for some intriguing young talent that could help the team’s future outlook. Brooklyn should continue its free fall to the bottom of the Eastern Conference and the reality is that things are bound to get much worse before they get better for the Nets.
Prediction: 5th in Atlantic division; 15th in Eastern Conference
