After being swept by the Boston Celtics, it’s clear the Brooklyn Nets have an important offseason ahead of them as they look to upgrade their roster.
Much of the attention will be on Kyrie Irving who has the option to opt out of his contract this offseason, but there’s also some other key pieces the team will have to look at.
Bruce Brown emerged as the third option late in the season, and he’s an unrestricted free agent this offseason. While his shooting still needs to be improved, he showed a lot of promise this past season and even had a good showing in the playoffs. He’s not going to be your number one option on a championship team, but he can play an important role on any team.
A source speaking to Heavy.com says the Nets will prioritize bringing him back.
Brown Wanted Back
GettyBruce Brown is being valued highly be the Nets.
At just 25 years old, Brown still likely has his best days ahead of him, and the Nets want them to be in Brooklyn.
One of the few definitives coming out of Brooklyn since the team was swept out of the first round is that, according to a source, the team will, “make it a priority,” to keep free-agent guard Bruce Brown, who averaged 14.0 points and was one of the bright spots of the Nets’ postseason. Brooklyn has his Bird rights.
With his emergence with the Nets, there will likely be other suitors around the league for him if the price is right. When asked if he’d like to back, Brown was open to the idea.
“Yeah, hopefully,” he said. “If there’s a chance to stay, we’ll talk about it. But we’ll see.”
Players don’t get a ton of chances to get paid in professional sports, so it makes sense for them to take the best deals available. Something working in the Nets’ favor is the fact they hold his Bird Rights. This means they’ll be able to go over the salary cap to resign him and they can give him a bigger deal than anybody else.
Unfortunately the Nets do have some other holes in their roster to plug, so they won’t be able to shell out a massive contract for Brown, so the chance of him leaving is certainly there.
Lots of Questions
GettyBen Simmons confused his teammates according to a report.
For what it’s worth, Bruce Brown might be the simplest question to solve in the offseason as it’s just a matter of finding the right contract.
Somebody who’s under contract for several more years and hasn’t even suited up for the team yet is Ben Simmons. Simmons was planning on making his Nets debut in the playoffs, but that never came into fruition and by the time the next season begins it’ll have been more than a year since he played NBA basketball.
Reportedly, there were concerns from teammates that he wasn’t even trying to get on the floor to play, so there are definitely a lot of questions around his commitment and those will continue to grow over time.
When that’s coupled with the Kyrie Irving contract, the Nets have a make-or-break offseason ahead of them.
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