https://player.anyclip.com/anyclip-widget/lre-widget/prod/v1/src/lre.js
The Brooklyn Nets are in the middle of a rebuild after resetting the timeline of the franchise by trading Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks last month. While it appears that Brooklyn will be focused on developing their young players, there are still opportunities for them to improve the roster.
Now that free-agency has come and gone for the most part, there are still players available for trades, such as Cleveland Cavaliers forward Isaac Okoro. It seems to make sense for the Nets to invest in a young player like Okoro in exchange for one of their veterans, but one NBA insider doesn’t believe talks between the two teams were ever that serious.
“I know there was some reporting about there being a Nets package idea where he (Okoro) would go to Brooklyn and there’d be something with Dorian Finney-Smith going back,” Yahoo! Sports NBA insider Jake Fischer said on a recent episode of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast. After Bridges was traded to the Knicks, HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto reported that as many as six players, including Finney-Smith, are considered trade candidates.
“I don’t think those talks ever got really substantial to my understanding,” Fischer said. “Also to my understanding, I just don’t think it can even happen right now after the salary stuff has all shifted out. I don’t think Brooklyn has the room to make that happen.”
Okoro is still a restricted free-agent and hasn’t signed a new deal with the Cavaliers at the time of this writing so it’s possible that if trade talks become more serious between both teams, the Nets may be able to make the money work to get the deal done. Per Spotrac, Brooklyn is hard-capped at the first apron so any trade would have to be include matching salaries.