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The Brooklyn Nets are one of the many teams in the middle of the NBA in terms of not being a title contender while not necessarily being a bottom-feeder either. With the 2024 NBA Draft taking place later this month, Brooklyn is in the unenviable position of not having a draft pick coming off a 32-50 record this season.
With the Nets trying to find their way back to relevancy following the downfall of the Big 3, there is plenty of discussion within Brooklyn’s fanbase in regards to how the team should make decisions moving forward. John Schuhmann of NBA.com was the latest to give his take on what the Nets look like ahead of the draft.
For starters, Brooklyn’s main priority is re-signing unrestricted free-agent center Nic Claxton to a deal that doesn’t break the bank since the franchise does not have much cap space to work with this season. Outside of that, unless the Nets trade for a star-level player this offseason, they will be virtually the same roster that was on the floor this season.
“The Nets have some solid players on their roster, but the whole has seemingly been less than the sum of the parts, and they’re 45-65 (11th in the Eastern Conference) over the year-plus since they traded Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. There’s no benefit to taking another step backward, as the Houston Rockets control Brooklyn’s first-round picks for the next four years. There’s also no clear path to taking a big step forward,” Schuhmann wrote.
At the moment, the Nets will be hoping that Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson can bounce back from their underwhelming seasons, Cam Thomas continues to improve as a player on both ends of the floor, and that Ben Simmons can remain relatively healthy for next season so that he can finally provide some production for the organization.