Getty Lakers stars Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook
Now that the Kevin Durant trade saga is now behind the Brooklyn Nets, they can shift their focus on filling out the rest of the roster with the pursuit of an NBA championship in mind.
With Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge not expected to return to the team, and Andre Drummond joining the Chicago Bulls, the team is in need of finding some more big men to fill the void.
Nic Claxton will be starting in Drummond’s absence, but he won’t be able to play every minute and while Ben Simmons might spend some time playing center, nothing will replace a true backup.
Dwight Howard, who spent last season on the Lakers and won a championship with them in 2020, has been floated as a possible target for the Nets. However, HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto reports the team doesn’t have interest in bringing on the 8-time All-Star.
No Dwight
At 36 years old, Howard’s best days are well behind him, but the 3-time Defensive Player of the Year has shown he can still be effective in small spurts, so being a backup for a championship contending team could be his best bet at this stage in his career.
If those are indeed his hopes, it seems like he’ll have to search for a team other than the Nets, and according to Scotto, the same goes to Carmelo Anthony.
“Despite separate reports about the Nets considering Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony as free agent additions, Brooklyn doesn’t have interest in adding either veteran currently, HoopsHype has learned,” Scotto wrote.
This isn’t the end of the world for the Nets, but it does eliminate a prominent name for them. As it stands right now, Claxton is the only center on the team, so something will have to be done there unless the Nets plan to run a small-ball lineup.
In the days following Durant confirming he’ll return to the Nets, Brooklyn has been linked to a number of free agents, and even in rival big man John Collins.
John Collins?
While he’s not a center, the Nets have shown an interest in the 24-year-old Atlanta Hawks big man. Collins was once a 21 points per game scorer for the Hawks, but his role has shrunk over the course of his tenure in Atlanta, and that could lead to him finding a new team when the timing is right.
Brooklyn has made it known they are interested, but he wasn’t enough to be a headline in a Durant trade.
“Multiple members of Brooklyn’s front office have been admirers of Atlanta’s John Collins from afar for years, league sources told HoopsHype,” Scotto reported. “However, Collins wasn’t enough to be the headline player in a trade package with the Hawks for Durant.”
Getting Collins wouldn’t solve the team’s issues at center, but it would add another explosive weapon to a team full of them. With Kyrie Irving, Durant and Ben Simmons in the lineup, perhaps the Nets are betting on the fact that they’ll be able to outscore most teams in the NBA on any given night.
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