Getty Head coach Jacque Vaughn of the Brooklyn Nets.
There are still a lot of questions about just what the next intentional version of the Brooklyn Nets will look like. They have gone from a star-studded title contender to a mishmash of promising parts and serviceable veterans in a matter of days.
This offseason could (and probably should) lead to even more changes this offseason and there are some suggestions about what at least one of those changes should be.
“Consider this a (small) leap of faith…Naz Reid should immediately catch Brooklyn’s attention if it opens up the $11.4 million MLE,” argues Dan Favale of Bleacher Report. “He doesn’t turn 24 until August, and at 6’9″, with the bandwidth to attack off the bounce, he can soak up time alongside any of the Nets’ other frontcourt members. They can steal reps with him at center, and even though his three-point clip has ducked below 34%, he opens the floor enough to work in tandem with [Ben] Simmons or Nicolas Claxton.”
NAZ REID WITH SECONDS LEFT IN OT.
TIMBERWOLVES WIN.
Reid’s ability to spread the floor – 35.1% on 2.5 threes per game in 2021 – is critical if he is going to share the floor with either Claxton (whose shot profile is at or near the rim while) or Simmons whose game has devolved to the point that head coach Jacque Vaughn detailed the difficulty in playing him right now.
“You put a big next to Ben, then you got to figure out what the spacing is around him,” Vaughn said via the team’s official YouTube Channel after the 124-106 loss to the New York Knicks on February 13. “Then if you put a playmaker next to him, then you got to figure out what Ben looks like without the basketball. Then if you go small with Ben, then you got to figure out can you rebound enough with him…You see the challenges that lie ahead”
Reid is averaging 10.2 points and 4.7 rebounds this season.
Perhaps he can at least provide a remedy to playing Simmons amid the reality he may be tough to move with over $78 million owed to him over the next two years.
“I’ve heard from league sources that the Nets have also inquired about Reid,” reports Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, “so there would be competition for him if Minnesota chose to move him, though the price for the upcoming free agent wouldn’t be significant.”
Brooklyn Has to Thread The Needle
“Brooklyn doesn’t have an incentive to burn it all down when Houston controls its next four first-rounders,” Favale says noting the Nets risk paying the luxury tax given what it could take to keep forward Cameron Johnson, in the fold, “but it’s also not competitive enough to float a roster that belly-flops into the luxury tax.”
Johnson was acquired in the trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Phoenix Suns and previous estimates have him pegged for a deal worth around $20 million per year.
Reid is coming off his four-year, $6 million rookie contract.
Brooklyn did well to recoup some draft capital in that deal and the one sending Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks but those are far enough out and they still don’t control where they will fall in the draft order.
They will have to thread the needle as a likely taxpayer next season but not one with title aspirations unless they can land the next disgruntled superstar, whomever that may be.
Nets Sitting on a Gold Mine?
The Nets got back five first-round picks and one pick swap for Durant and Irving in addition to a bunch of second-rounders from that and the deal re-routing Jae Crowder from Phoenix to the Milwaukee Bucks.
They also turned down sizeable offers for Mikal Bridges and Dorian Finney-Smith.
There is enough ammunition to go and get that next disgruntled franchise cornerstone or to include it in a package along with Simmons for something more palatable.