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The Brooklyn Nets began their offseason with the goal of adding more talent in support of their franchise player in Mikal Bridges following his acquisition by way of the Kevin Durant trade with the Phoenix Suns. However, Brooklyn quickly changed course by trading Bridges to the New York Knicks, a decision that many around the league reviewed positively.
In an article by Keith Smith of Spotrac, he expressed that he liked what the Nets did this offseason despite the fact that the team is likely to be one of the worst in the Association next season. Not only did Brooklyn trade Bridges to the Knicks in exchange for as many as five first-round picks and three players, but they also finally made a trade with the Houston Rockets to regain control of some of their own draft picks.
“The Nets are probably going to be awful next season. Maybe worst-in-the-NBA awful. But that’s ok! At least they have a direction,” Smith wrote. “Keeping Mikal Bridges and making some moves around him probably puts Brooklyn where Atlanta is: Play-In Tournament, but without much upside. That’s…not great.”
Not only did Smith, like many others, approve of the Nets giving up on the idea of having Bridges as one of the best players on the team with the goal of getting back to the playoffs, but also recognized that Brooklyn’s ceiling was only so high in that scenario.
Ironically enough, the Atlanta Hawks are still trying to figure out how they’re going to move forward since they haven’t been past the first round of the playoffs since the 2020-21 season.
With the Nets making the tough choice of going into a rebuild, they have given themselves the chance of possibly drafting their next superstar as early as next season with players like Duke’s Cooper Flagg and Rutgers’ Dylan Harper expected to be the top of next year’s class.