A slow start to the season has given way to a run that has the Brooklyn Nets sitting fourth in the Eastern Conference. If they want to keep up their momentum, they might want to address their woeful work on the glass.
Brooklyn ranks dead last in offensive and defensive rebounding percentage, per Cleaning The Glass, though teams are only connecting on 62.5% of their looks.
That is good enough to rank fourth in the NBA.
Still, there are murmurs around the league that they will be one of the teams to keep an eye on as we draw closer to the trade deadline with Yahoo! Sports NBA insider Jake Fischer floating an emerging big man playing for a team in the middle of a rebuild that could come available and help solve their biggest issue.
The Brooklyn Bamba
“Mo Bamba may be the Magic’s greatest trade chip,” Fischer writes. “There are teams like the Lakers and Clippers, as well as Toronto, Sacramento, and Brooklyn, that front-office personnel expect to sniff around the big-man market ahead of the Feb. 9 trade deadline and may be willing to cough up a pair of second-round choices for Bamba.”
The 7-foot Bamba was drafted sixth overall in 2018 but did not find his stride until last season when made a career-high 69 starts in 71 total appearances averaging 10.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, and 1.2 assists while blocking 1.7 shots per contest.
This season, he has seen his role reduced with the emergence of 7-foot-2 Bol Bol, Wendell Carter Jr. (when healthy), and the arrival of first-overall pick, Paolo Banchero.
Orlando re-signed Bamba to a two-year, $20.6 million deal this past offseason.
“League executives expect Orlando to hold out for a protected first-round selection or a late first-round pick to part with the 24-year-old rim presence,” Fischer adds.
That would pose a serious problem for Brooklyn who has a very complicated draft situation following the various transactions that put the current roster together. They can’t trade a first-round pick outright until 2027 thanks to the NBA’s Stepien Rule restricting teams from being without first-round picks in back-to-back years.
They can trade their 2023 first-rounder on draft night but that does nothing to help them this season.
Claxton Doesn’t Complicate Things
It’s not as though Nic Claxton has been bad. It has been quite the opposite with the 2019 31st overall pick averaging 11.6 points, 8.6 boards, and 1.2 assists this year – a line very similar to Bamba’s.
What Claxton does not do is space the floor as Bamba can.
Bamba has turned himself into a fairly reliable shooter knocking down over 38% of his looks from beyond the arc for the second consecutive season on 2.9 attempts per game, down from his 4.0 takes per game last season.
But he is seeing fewer than 20 minutes per game and could use a change of scenery while the Magic clear the way for the bevy of young big men.
Getting A Deal Done
Pulling a deal off gets complicated unless the Magic are willing to take back Joe Harris while coughing up additional assets to match salaries. But they are said to be looking to move on from veteran swingman Terrence Ross as it is leaving a potential deal – which would be prohibited until January 15 when Bamba’s trade exception expires – difficult to cobble together.
They could look to move Seth Curry and, say, Day’Ron Sharpe. But is that enticing enough for the big man-rich Magic?
It’s also not as if the Nets are necessarily in any rush to shake up the locker room right now.
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Nets Linked to Emerging Two-Way Big Man Amid Recent Surge