The question of how far Brooklyn wants to go in rebuilding is an ownership-level issue.
And so far, neither Nets owner Joe Tsai nor general manager Sean Marks have revealed their plans publicly or privately.
But agents and league executives who spoke with The Washington Post are reading into the situation, and it suggests a painful but short-term strategy rather than the death-by-a-thousand-cuts misery the Pistons have been through.
Each path carries risks.
But the NBA expects the Nets to opt for the short fork, and that’s probably the smarter fork.
Obviously, any franchise-altering decision must be made by a responsible person (or people).
The Kevin Durant-Kyrie Irving deal, trading both superstars for Mikal Bridges and four first-round draft picks.
Now they’re sending Bridges across the East River for five more first-round draft picks (and a pick swap) if that means watching the rival Knicks compete for a title if that’s the Nets’ best chance of doing the same thing in the future.
The shortcut to that path would be for them to continue down the path they’re on now, use the 16 first-round picks they acquired on Marks and spend a whopping $80 million in cap space for 2025 after the contracts of Ben Simmons, Bojan Bogdanovic and Dennis Schroder expire next summer.
Voila. Even if you don’t see immediate improvement, at least it will give you a starting point to improve.
At least, that’s what they hope.
To be sure, the NBA’s free agency system doesn’t work the way it did five years ago, when Brooklyn acquired Durant and Irving and the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard. Superstars, like Durant, can re-sign to maximum contracts now only to be forced to leave later.
Houston made a quick jump by adding young players a grade or two below them, such as Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks, but it only took two years.
But the alternative would be to repeat what Marks did in his first rebuild — trading expiring contracts to other teams for salary cuts to acquire more draft assets — and the risk could be even greater: The Nets become Detroit.
With the Pistons coming off a five-year slump, losing an NBA-record-tying 28 straight games last season and potentially being awful again, how long do even the most hopeful Washington fans think it will take for this team to turn things around?
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The market matters, and Brooklyn would be unwise not to take advantage of every advantage it can get next summer.
What Marks does over the next week or so of free agency will clarify his and Tsai’s plans. It’s entirely possible that a veteran like Cam Johnson or Dorian Finney-Smith could be moved, but who they move for — or, more importantly, the length of the contract they return on — should tell the tale.
Whatever rumors are circulating, don’t expect the Nets to move Simmons on a long-term, unprofitable contract (like Zach LaVine) this summer. And forget about any rumors of a reunion with D’Angelo Russell. It’s unlikely.
Tanking is on, and the rest of the league is expecting it to be the shorter route.
That may be a smarter approach.
It’s impossible to know for sure who the free agents will be (Jimmy Butler might opt out of his contract, Donovan Mitchell might sign an extension, etc.), but cap space is also valuable to bring back players via trade. And Brooklyn’s deep draft stock is valuable to make those deals. They already have 16 first-round draft picks over the next seven years, and they could add more by moving Johnson or Finney-Smith.
The reason the Nets traded Bridges was simply a confluence of events — their inability to pair him with an All-Star like Mitchell and Bridges’ desire to leave the team and join the Knicks — that a major rebuild was never a priority, but rather a change of direction.
The smart pivot would be to look ahead to 2025. And the league is counting on that.
