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The Brooklyn Nets are at an interesting point of their franchise as they are looking to get back to the playoffs after completely missing the postseason this year. As fans look at the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks battling each other for the championship, plenty of those in the Nets fanbase are wondering how Brooklyn could get to that point.
As many fans of the Nets know, their hopes of competing for titles ended when the big 3 of James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant were traded away within a year’s time. The trade of Harden brought the beginning of the Ben Simmons saga with the organization and the trades of Irving and Durant signaled that Brooklyn was trying to move on from a competitive, but drama-filled era.
While Harden, now with the Los Angeles Clippers, and Durant, in a somewhat unenviable situation with the Phoenix Suns, are home watching the Finals just like the Nets are, Irving is a different story. After a breakup between Irving and the Nets that seemingly became polarized within the Nets’ fanbase that led to his being traded to the Dallas Mavericks, Irving is now competing for a title less than two years after being traded by Brooklyn.
For the Nets, they have a roster that is not one of the worst rosters in the league as they’re led by players like wing Mikal Bridges, center Nic Claxton, and guard Cam Thomas, but after finishing the 2023-24 season with a disappointing 32-50 record, it’s clear that the team needs more talent if it wants to get back to the playoffs.
Most of the core of the team is under contract for next season as Claxton, an unrestricted free-agent, is the main priority for the Nets when it comes free-agency. Outside of that, Brooklyn will not most likely be making any other big moves in free-agency as the team has nearly $135 million in salary committed for next season before Claxton potentially getting a new deal worth somewhere between $20 million and $25 million.
The Nets are also in the interesting position of having a significant amount of draft capital, but not having control over their own first-round picks until 2028 as a result of the trade that brought Harden to Brooklyn in the first place.
With plenty of reports throughout the year of the Houston Rockets giving the Nets multiple chances to get their own picks, there are also a number of reports saying that Brooklyn is not willing to trade Bridges or the Suns picks they gained in the Durant trade to make that deal happen.
As it stands, it seems that the Nets are in a holding pattern as they are trying to maintain cap space for the 2025 offseason when plenty of star players are hitting the open market. Until then, it appears that Brooklyn is hoping to improve on the margins in the meantime.