Brooklyn Nets: 2018-19 NBA season preview

The Brooklyn Nets are about to take a step into the most pivotal season of their most recent rebuild. How will they fare, and what is there to look out for?

It’s finally here. The NBA offseason is coming to a close, and the gears of the new season are finally starting to turn. For the Brooklyn Nets, it will be crucial for several reasons.

In case you haven’t heard, the Nets have a boatload of salary cap space to work with in the summer of 2019. How they make use of it will be determined heavily by what ensues throughout the 2018-19 campaign.

In just three offseasons, general manager Sean Marks and his crew have built this team up from nothing.

By finding outside-the-box avenues to acquire young assets, such as taking on albatross contracts and hitting on late first-round picks, the Nets suddenly have a respectable young core in place.

But just as quickly as the front office has built it up, they face a new challenge: keeping the right ones.

Who plays well enough to earn their next contract in Brooklyn? Who gets exported so that the Nets can avoid paying him? Is the current young core good enough to build around going forward?

These are all viable questions, and the hops is that at least a few of them get answered throughout this upcoming season.

From the external additions to internal improvements, the Nets have set themselves up for a solid season. At best, they could scratch and claw for a playoff berth; at worst, injuries could force them to pack it in and bottom out. How they get there is the fun part.