This past week’s moves — the Mikal Bridges trade and getting their draft picks back — committed the Nets to a rebuild.
But what kind, measured or full-on? How long, just a single season or several?
If they haven’t come to that decision, they need to. And if they’ve already made it, they need to have the stomach to stick with it, even if they’re tempted to swerve.
“Yeah, so that’s the challenge. Is this a half rebuild, or a full rebuild?” ex-Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks, now with ESPN, told The Post. “A full rebuild takes two or three years, and you’re moving expiring contracts and taking back salary and adding draft picks. Or do they say we did enough as far as the Bridges trade, we’ve got our Rockets picks back. … Hopefully we get a top-four pick, and now we’re going into the summer of 2025 with $80 million in room to go get a player or two.
“It’s hard for me, because — I know they struck gold in 2019 with [Kyrie] Irving and [Kevin] Durant — that doesn’t happen. Besides them, Houston’s the only team recently that’s been able to revamp their roster; they went from [22] to 41 wins. That presents a challenge. But of course, building a roster the path is to build with your young players and then add free agents with cap space. You don’t want to trade picks away or deplete what you have. So those are the options they have.”
The Nets’ avenues are clear.
They can make four first-round picks in 2025’s loaded draft and spend $80 million in free agency.
Or they can commit to a longer, deeper rebuild.
Instead of letting expiring contracts — Ben Simmons, Bojan Bogdanovic and Dennis Schroder — come off the cap next summer, they could move them now to take on salary dumps and hoard even more picks. But that turns the rebuild into a two- or three-year sludge — at least. Would Nets owner Joe Tsai do that?
“It depends on what’s your stomach, what’s your appetite for?” Marks said. “Do you have an appetite to sit and rebuild for two years and stare across the river while they probably try and compete for a championship? If you’re fine with that — which you should, because what New York does shouldn’t dictate you trying to accelerate your rebuild — then you take the direction of continually trying to stockpile draft assets. It’s a matter of what you take back.”
That’s an ownership-level call, and it’s unclear which way Tsai is leaning.
He saw Houston take the first approach and reach .500 after just two years.
But Tsai also watched Detroit go into a deep rebuild that’s lasted five years, only to see them go 14-68 this season and lose an NBA record-tying 28 straight. Washington looks set to be awful for awhile. And OKC’s tank lasted just three years only because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“You’ve got to get lucky in the lottery,” said Marks. “Because even if you’re 15-67, you might be the fifth pick. So it doesn’t guarantee anything. … I mean, I sat through it in ’09-10; we went 12-70 and wound up getting the third pick.”
Losing an NBA-record 18 straight to start that season, Marks’ Nets tanked for John Wall and ended up with Derrick Favors. The lottery requires a lot of luck.
But so does landing big free agents next summer.
Whatever path the Nets choose, they need to stay the course.
“You have to have a plan in place you have to embrace,” Marks said. “You’re in a big market but a rebuilding team; usually that doesn’t go hand-in-hand. What happens if they overachieve next year?
“What happens if this team we all think will win 20, 25 games wins 30 or 35? Then you go into next offseason and you’re in the same situation you were in 2019, if [free agents] want to come. Or what happens during the year [if] you maybe want to improve the roster at the cost of picks. So you have to have a plan [and] stick to the plan.”
Whichever plan Tsai has chosen.
