It’s A Long Way Up For Brooklyn Nets
It’s been a rough year for the Brooklyn Nets. However, this 8-23 season could be the foundation for a bright new era.
The Brooklyn Nets whipped their sellout crowd at the Barclays Center into a frenzy on Monday, Dec. 26th.
Their high-scoring matchup against the Charlotte Hornets went down to the wire. Forward Bojan Bogdanovic inbounded the ball to guard Randy Foye with 2.3 seconds remaining.
Despite a quick close-out by Hornets guard Kemba Walker, Foye was able to get enough space and the right angle to knock down a buzzer-beating three-point shot.
The Nets prevailed over the Hornets 120-118.
Related Story: 25 Best Players to Play for the Brooklyn Nets
It is their eighth, and most recent, win of the season.
This 8-23 campaign has not been pretty for the Brooklyn Nets. They have yet to win back-to-back games this year. The Nets nearly accomplished that feat this week.
However, they were thwarted by a Jimmy Butler step-back dagger in a 101-99 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday Dec. 28th.
The team also ranks in the bottom half of the NBA in almost every major statistical category besides free throw shooting (12th best percentage) and defensive rebounds per game (fifth in the league).
They concede the most turnovers per game (17.2) and hold the second-worst winning percentage in the league (.258).
Despite those facts, it’s perfectly understandable for Nets fans to believe that things will work out in the end. This floor could very well be the foundation for something bigger in Brooklyn.
Nets general manager Sean Marks is in the midst of his first full season at the helm after accepting the job in mid-February. He replaced Billy King, who spent six seasons in the position before being removed and reassigned.
Marks spent 12 seasons as an NBA player and three as an assistant coach. Three of his playing years and all three of his coaching years were with the San Antonio Spurs.
Marks’s experiences in San Antonio are greatly shaping how he wants to do things in Brooklyn. He even hired a head coach than was an assistant to a former Spurs assistant.
Kenny Atkinson spent three years with the Atlanta Hawks under Mike Budenholzer, who assisted Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich for 17 years.
Marks expressed in a September interview with NBA.com that he wanted to emulate how the Spurs share an open dialogue and common goal amongst their organization.
"It wasn’t a dictatorship there by any means. We all knew that it was their [Popovich’s and R.C. Buford’s] final decision, without a doubt. But at the same time, the authority that was given helps people grow. I saw it first hand and that’s a huge selling point. I can sit here and say, ‘I’d like you to come and join my team, but, by the way, it’s our team. It’s not me. It’s us. We’re all in this together. It’s a collaboration. Run with it and have fun with it.’I want to empower the staff here. I want everybody, whether it’s some of the in-house guys and girls we have here, a scout, the analytics team, I want them coming to me more than I’m going to them."
Building that type of culture will surely take time. Marks indicated in a September preseason press conference that team owner Mikhail Prokhorov is OK with the plan.
"“Our owners know exactly what the expectations are, so they’re 100 percent on-board, they’ve been on-board all summer long. They were on board when I first took the job, they were on board when Kenny took the job,” Marks said. “We wanted to be very clear on how we’re going to build. This is not going to be something that’s turned around in two or three months."
Prokhorov infamously said upon buying the team in May 2010 that they would win a title in five years. He and then-GM King went into Win Now Mode with a team that had gone 12-70 the prior season.
Over the first three seasons they traded for big names such as Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry. Numerous draft picks were sent in the other direction.
For their troubles, the Nets went 177-217 over that span. They went through four coaches in the process, made the playoffs three times, and never got past the conference semifinals.
Prokhorov, Marks, and the Nets organization now find themselves back at square one, and anything is possible.
Brook Lopez and Jeremy Lin are the current cornerstones of the franchise. However, they are both 28 and are under contracts that don’t extend very far into the future. Will a future Nets contender revolve around either of these two?
The Nets also have several role players in Trevor Booker, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Sean Kilpatrick. These three have proven to make an impact on the game in various ways. Booker is a rebounder, Bogdanovic is a reliable outside shooter, and Kilpatrick is a microwave scorer.
Any of these guys can either play a role for a good team in the future. However, they can also be used as an asset in a trade.
There are also plenty of young prospects worth evaluating. Caris LeVert is someone the front office is excited about, and he is under a five-year deal. Isaiah Whitehead is a raw prospect waiting to be molded.
Chris McCullough is another project that he currently performing well in the D-League. Anthony Bennett is working hard to shed the “draft bust” label and has become a solid rebounder. Lastly, Juan Pablo Vaulet is a young Argentine draft-and-stash who is still developing.
However, he could hit our shores at anytime down the line.
More from Hoops Habit
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
- NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers
Fans of rebuilding teams normally get excited by this amount of youth. The untapped potential means that anything can happen with them. They could develop into role players, into trade bait, or could truly become that big star.
Marks and the Nets front office has already used creative means to acquire assets. The Nets came into the night of the 2016 NBA Draft with a single second round pick. But they walked out with two rookies, acquiring LeVert and Whitehead through draft day trades.
The team has also gambled on the restricted free agent market. The Nets made qualifying offers to Tyler Johnson and Allen Crabbe over the summer, and recently made one to former Houston Rockets holdout (and now free agent) Donatas Motiejunas.
Each team matched the offer, but the low-risk, high-reward attempts show how shrewd they are about acquiring talented players.
But however the Nets go about team-building, Sean Marks stated at the September press conference that it would not be done in a rush.
"“As we’ve said before, we want something that’s done strategically and systematically, build a strong foundation and not something that’s a fleeting moment, something that will last and the couple of acquisitions that we’ve made so far and developing as Kenny said the young guys, that will help to establish that foundation.”"
Sean Marks has a vision crafted by his experiences with the best basketball teams in this millennium. It’s not clear which players will still be Nets heading into the next decade, or how long it will take to contend again.
However, if Marks’ collaborative culture takes in Brooklyn, this team will eventually become the franchise Prokhorov envisioned when he made those initial promises.
Next: NBA Injuries: 20 Stars That Deserve Career Do-Overs
The Nets close out the 2016 portion of their schedule on Friday in D.C. against the Washington Wizards.