Brooklyn Nets: 3 big questions heading into 2019-20

3. Has the culture taken a hit?

Though the Nets improved their talent base this summer, it came at a bigger cost than money.

Many teams in Brooklyn’s position last season would have a hard time getting its vets to buy in considering how many were on one-year deals. Guys like Jared Dudley and Ed Davis were all ticketed for free agency in 2019, which made it understandable if they got selfish to inflate their stats.

But instead, Brooklyn was able to get those guys to buy-in. Dudley became a leader in the locker room, DeMarre Carroll praised the locker room culture left and right and the youngsters followed suit. Losing those quality guys this summer might have a bigger impact than thought before.

Signing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant doesn’t just change the roster or basketball hierarchy, it gives a culture shock too. They are now the faces of the franchise, meaning that they dictate the culture as well.

Joining Irving and Durant was DeAndre Jordan, who got blatantly overpaid at four years and $40 million so he could play with his friends. Do the Nets want to be known as the team who gives favors like that, or did they bite the bullet this time because they had the cap space to do so?

Besides, it’s unknown whether the other new vets can replicate what the 2018-19 Nets did. Not that Garrett Temple and Wilson Chandler are bad dudes or anything, but can they do what Dudley and Carroll did last year? That remains to be seen.