5 Teams In Need Of Major Changes Before Deadline
By Jon Shames
1.) Brooklyn Nets
Nobody should be making phone calls this deadline like the Brooklyn Nets ought to be.
In what was likely the most one-sided deal in NBA history, the Nets elected to send a handful of young players, some expiring contracts, and not one, not two, but three unprotected first-round picks to the Boston Celtics in the summer of 2013, in exchange for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry — all of whom were over the age of 35 at the time.
The trade didn’t make Brooklyn the contenders that management hoped it would, and with the three veterans all gone now, Brooklyn is in an awkward and painful situation.
The Nets, the league’s third-worst team, have won 11 games in 42 tries. Somehow, they have the sixth-highest salary commitment, but have zero direction, zero draft picks this year, and just a sum of miscellaneous (and very average) parts to show for it.
On top of that, starting point guard Jarett Jack is set to miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Any hope of contending for the playoffs is gone for Brooklyn, and this team won’t even have a pick in June’s draft to supplant their awful record. It goes without saying that Brooklyn needs to change something up.
The first move would be finding a suitor for center Brook Lopez, who will be turning 28 in April. He’s having another good season this year, averaging just under 20 points to go along with 1.9 blocks and 8.4 rebounds per game. His new three-year, $60 million contract makes him a little more difficult to move, but there are multiple teams looking to add a go-to scorer (Boston, LAL, etc.) that Brooklyn could call about Lopez.
Beyond that, there are a few names that could go either way. Thaddeus Young is the Nets’ second-best player, but he’s a utility forward that would surely garner interest from teams in need of a do-it-all forward — Houston, Indiana, and perhaps even Portland all come to mind.
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Shane Larkin will likely stay on the roster until at least the end of the season due to Jack’s injury, and Joe Johnson‘s contract, even as an expiring deal, will be tough to move for Brooklyn. Thus, the team may elect to ride out the season with him instead and shave some committed salary this summer by letting him walk in free agency.
Either way, something has to budge for this Nets team, because this fan base can’t stay patient forever.