Nets officially hire Sean Marks as GM

[cman88]

if he is truly serious about a rebuild, Nets may have to get worse which would help us because they need to blow that team up for picks.

[JSD]

if he is truly serious about a rebuild, Nets may have to get worse which would help us because they need to blow that team up for picks.

What is the incentive for them getting worse is the short term? I don't understand that. For 2016, 2017, 2018 they have ZERO incentive to be bad. Therefore, they will use their cap space and to try to bring in solid players to value contracts while building a culture of working hard.

[hwangjini_1]

if he is truly serious about a rebuild, Nets may have to get worse which would help us because they need to blow that team up for picks.

What is the incentive for them getting worse is the short term? I don't understand that. For 2016, 2017, 2018 they have ZERO incentive to be bad. Therefore, they will use their cap space and to try to bring in solid players to value contracts while building a culture of working hard.

i think the idea being put forth is that by selling off any and all credible players they might be able to acquire a hefty haul in draft picks. the downside, for them, is a team that is even suckier than now, but they would be a sucky team with draft picks at least.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I mean, as sad as the Nets are, there are still people going to the games.  If they sold off everything, that might change.  It's going to depend on how much they care about the opportunity cost of having a team play to an empty stadium every night.  If they brought in say Teague and Al Jefferson, they might be an 8 seed.  They will probably get us like the 9th or 10th pick or something.  They won't ever win a championship, but they'll put butts in seats.  What's the downside to them?  They will sell enough tickets to pay for their salaries at that point.  If they trade Brook, they're getting maybe a mid first tops. 

[BDeCosta26]

if he is truly serious about a rebuild, Nets may have to get worse which would help us because they need to blow that team up for picks.

What is the incentive for them getting worse is the short term? I don't understand that. For 2016, 2017, 2018 they have ZERO incentive to be bad. Therefore, they will use their cap space and to try to bring in solid players to value contracts while building a culture of working hard.

Trouble with that is, they're a terrible team that no one WANTS to play for. It's hard to build any kind of culture when your signing guys to overpriced contracts just to get them to play for you.

The thing is, the picks are going to Boston no matter what happens. You can try hard to build a mediocre 8th seed out of veteran FA's but then, in 2019 when you have picks again, you have no young talent base to build on, no culture, and a bunch of overpriced contracts and your back at square one, where you have a mediocre overpriced team that's too old and doesn't have a lot of hope for the future.

If your trying to do this rebuild thing right in Brooklyn's situation, you're pretty screwed, but you can at least ship off the last two fairly valuable assets you have for a few 1st rounders in the years you don't have them. RHJ is a good start. Maybe you can trade Lopez and Young for at least a few first rounders, and start building a core/culture you can really build on when you get your picks back.

At this point, what does it matter if you give the Celtics the 2nd or the 8th pick in the draft the next few years? You have to make the moves that are best suited toward a future where you compete for a championship, and considering the massive bill your paying Boston for the next 3 years, that's not gonna happen any time soon, so you may as well set yourself up as well as possible to be relevant again when that bill is paid.

[TheSundanceKid]

if he is truly serious about a rebuild, Nets may have to get worse which would help us because they need to blow that team up for picks.

What is the incentive for them getting worse is the short term? I don't understand that. For 2016, 2017, 2018 they have ZERO incentive to be bad. Therefore, they will use their cap space and to try to bring in solid players to value contracts while building a culture of working hard.

Trouble with that is, they're a terrible team that no one WANTS to play for. It's hard to build any kind of culture when your signing guys to overpriced contracts just to get them to play for you.

The thing is, the picks are going to Boston no matter what happens. You can try hard to build a mediocre 8th seed out of veteran FA's but then, in 2019 when you have picks again, you have no young talent base to build on, no culture, and a bunch of overpriced contracts and your back at square one, where you have a mediocre overpriced team that's too old and doesn't have a lot of hope for the future.

If your trying to do this rebuild thing right in Brooklyn's situation, you're pretty screwed, but you can at least ship off the last two fairly valuable assets you have for a few 1st rounders in the years you don't have them. RHJ is a good start. Maybe you can trade Lopez and Young for at least a few first rounders, and start building a core/culture you can really build on when you get your picks back.

At this point, what does it matter if you give the Celtics the 2nd or the 8th pick in the draft the next few years? You have to make the moves that are best suited toward a future where you compete for a championship, and considering the massive bill your paying Boston for the next 3 years, that's not gonna happen any time soon, so you may as well set yourself up as well as possible to be relevant again when that bill is paid.

Le me counter that first statement. Brook Lopez and Thaddeus Young re-signed for that team last summer. Yes they were able to get extra money by re-signing but if they had wanted to get away from "such a bad situation" then they had the opportunities.

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/240096/The-Maximum-Available-2016-Cap-Space-For-All-30-NBA-Teams

If every team went for the most cap flexibility this summer then there are 8 teams with more cap space than Brooklyn (this may have altered slightly at the trade deadline). Those teams are; Lakers, 76ers, Celtics, Mavs, Wiz, Blazers, Rockets, Hornets.

1) Hornets, Rockets - These two both have free agents they will likely re-sign (Batum, Howard) who will limit their flexibility with free agents.

2) Lakers, 76ers, Blazers - For varying reasons be it how bad they are or smaller market these teams are really not any more attractive than Brooklyn for a free agent. So the Nets will at least be in the discussion for someone considering those teams.

3) Celtics, Mavs, Wiz - These teams could all be in the first category too but to a lesser extent. They'll take a shot at Durant and if they miss then they could turn elsewhere or they could build for 2017 FA

Teams with similar amount of cap space to Brooklyn are Memphis, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, Toronto, Utah, Denver, New York, Indiana. Although I imagine Detroit have used much of their potential cap space now. These are all more likely destinations for a FA to consider. But once the main FAs have decided their destinations. (Horford to Miami, Whiteside then leaves for somewhere, Durant stays, DeRozan stays, Beal stays as examples) some of these teams get knocked off this list.

So we get to the next tier of players like Jordan Clarkson, Ryan Anderson, Brandon Jennings, Evan Fournier, Arron Afflalo. They will all get inflated deals from one team or another, teams cap space will get eroded faster than we think. Then take out the teams who don't want to commit to long term money this year (teams like Boston, Perhaps Utah have an eye on 2017 FA for a point guard, ditto with the Knicks) and there will still be some guys who can play left on the market and they will have the choice of taking less money to play a lesser role with a playoff team or take more money and play on a team like the Nets or Lakers. That is the point where the Nets can seriously improve their talent level.

They can offer more money and less years if they want to which could be more appealing for some guys who want to cash in for a few years and then sign a long term deal when they hit their prime.

I might look at doing a rough estimation of where the top FA go and then see how much cap space each team has left because that should show in a better light where Brooklyn will stand when the second and third tier guys are signing contracts. My fear and belief is that those FAs won't have as many options as they appear to have now

[JBcat]

Even if the Nets do well in free agency the middle of the east is stronger than it has been in recent years.  It's going to be very tough to leap frog the teams ahead of them to get into the playoffs.  Not to mention I think Philly might flip the switch and go into win now mode.  Lopez has been healthy all year for the first time in a while.  It's not a guarantee that will continue.

I see at worst us getting a late lottery pick in 2017, and hopefully another high one.

[slamtheking]

if he is truly serious about a rebuild, Nets may have to get worse which would help us because they need to blow that team up for picks.

What is the incentive for them getting worse is the short term? I don't understand that. For 2016, 2017, 2018 they have ZERO incentive to be bad. Therefore, they will use their cap space and to try to bring in solid players to value contracts while building a culture of working hard.

you're missing the point. 

No one's disagreeing that the Nets have no incentive to stink while we own their picks and that they will make every effort to get better each year. 

Thing is, it takes 2 to tango.  What good FA is going to go there to play on a bad team?  seriously, ask yourself that question and you'll realize, no one who'd make a major impact for that team would go there.  The players that would make a major impact to that team will be chased by the rest of the league, who also have all kinds of cap room, and those major impact players will sign somewhere besides Brooklyn.

Ok, now that the major players are off the board, that leaves the decent players -- the ones that could move the needle for whoever signs them.  well, there's only a handful of top players that will be signed, few of which will change teams, so that leaves a bulk of the teams with their cap space still intact to chase these second tier players.  They have the same desire to play for the better teams that are offering the same money as Brooklyn.  No incentive for these players to go to Brooklyn.  I'm anticipating Brooklyn striking out on this level as well.

That leaves players that won't move the needle much for a team that signs them.  decent players, typically bench fillers.  There will still be teams better than Brooklyn with cap space left to scoop up the best of that bunch to fill out rosters in a shot to become better.  Sure, Brooklyn should be able to sign a couple of these types of players by having more cap space than most other teams at this point but now they're handing out ridiculous contracts to players to get them to sign.  While the Nets will have more talent on their roster overall than what they have this year, I think it's highly unlikely that the talent they added will have kept up with the talent added by the teams better than them.  The extra issue they face is that by handing out overpayments to sign players, they end up putting themselves in cap hell by the end of the year --> cap room expended on low caliber players that end up being lousy trade chips and leave Brooklyn with too little cap room to manuever until those contracts expire.

so the "Net" result is that Brooklyn still has a lousy record the next couple of years until they can start adding talent via the draft and not having to rely on outbidding other teams for players in free agency.