Changing the Brooklyn way: A Brooklyn Nets Dynasty

[Funkycorm]

It is July 17, 2020 and the 2020 NBA Draft is here and now. Before we get into the draft, let’s recap the draft lottery:

1. Phoenix
2. New Orleans
3. Boston
4. Milwaukee
5. Miami
6. San Antonio
7. New York
8. Houston
9. Brooklyn
10. Dallas
11. L.A. Lakers
12. Memphis
13. San Antonio (via L.A. Lakers)
14. Chicago
15. Detroit
16. Charlotte
17. Denver
18. Brooklyn (via Minnesota)
19. Utah
20. Sacramento
21. L.A. Clippers
22. Indiana
23. Orlando
24. Toronto
25. Cleveland
26. Washington
27. Philadelphia
28. Portland
29. Golden State
30. Oklahoma City

We own the 9th and 18th picks in the draft. We do not have a second round pick this year.

Our primary target in this draft is SF Wally Carlisle from St. Joseph’s. He is projected to go to Miami at number 5, so we need to make a move to jump up in the draft.

In talks with the high pick teams, Phoenix would not budge with their pick, and neither would New Orleans. Luckily for us, our number 1 player on our draft board was still there at the 3rd spot. That spot belonged to the Celtics. The Celtics had taken picks from us in the past and left us where we sat in 2016, and were also in need of a small forward. We had to be swift and make them a tempting offer. Again, luckily, we were both.

At the All-Star break, we made some trades to acquire some draft picks and those picks we acquired were hopefully about to pay off. Boston ended up accepting the following offer for the 3rd pick in this draft. We would only get the third pick in the draft but we felt it was for a player who could change our culture and be the face of our franchise.

We traded: our 9th pick this year, a 2021 1st round pick (via Cleveland, lottery protected), a 2022 1st round pick (via L.A. Clippers, lottery protected), and a 2021 2nd round pick (via Toronto).

We gave up a lot, but none of the picks, other than our 9th this year, were original Brooklyn picks. We did not have much in the way of players on our team to use as trade bait, and we were not going to give up either Bradford Ford or Johnnie Watson.

So, with the 3rd pick, we select, Wally Carlisle, small forward, from St. Joseph’s.

There were some big trades for picks in this top 10:

1. Miami traded the 5th pick and C Hassan Whiteside to Milwaukee for the 4th pick and PF Jianlian Yi. Milwaukee clearly got a better deal with this trade. They got a good center and only had to move down 1 spot.

2. Milwaukee then trades the 5th pick and their second rounder to New York for SF Giannis Antetokuonmpo. Giannis left Milwaukee 3 years ago, for a massive 4 year/$100M contract and now is back with Milwaukee. Milwaukee did not draft any players in the draft and ended up with 2 proven players. They are attempting to make a move in the Central on the Cavaliers it looks like.

3. New Orleans trades SF Tyreke Evans and Patrick Beverly to New York for the 7th pick. With the trade above, this trade benefits New York in the short term.

4. Memphis trades PG Ricky Rubio to Dallas for the 10th pick. Dallas already has PG Mike Conley from a trade with Memphis during the draft a few years back and now they land another point guard.

Here is a recap of the top 10 picks:

2020 NBA Draft - Top 10 Picks
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	Phoenix	Kelvin Long (81A+)	PG	6'5"	187
2	New Orleans	Bradford Stafford (74A+)	C	6'9"	246
3	Brooklyn (trade Boston)	Wally Carlisle (78A-)	SF	6'8"	241
4	Miami (trade Milwaukee)	Howie Marion (78B)	PF	6'8"	225
5	New York (trade Milwaukee)	Isaac Marks (77A+)	SG	6'4"	181
6	San Antonio	Chuck Hood (73B)	PG	6'0"	174
7	New Orleans (trade New York)	Ivan Petrovic (70B-)	SF	6'8"	240
8	Houston	Diamond Lane (69B)	PG	6'1"	165
9	Boston (trade Brooklyn)	Floyd Westbrook (73B+)	PF	6'10"	239
10	Memphis (trade Dallas)	Brevin Lloyd (71A-)	C	7'1"	247

I was surprised when New Orleans drafted a center at number 2 instead of Carlisle, as they have a center in Anthony Davis and are in need of a small forward. They ended up getting their small forward at 7, but I think they lost out on Carlisle. Either way, their loss on him is our big gain.

We also held the 18th pick in the draft. We traded up to 16th with the Charlotte Hornets. They gave us the 16th pick and we gave them our 18th pick and the 2nd round pick this year (via Phoenix).

We used that pick to draft James Michael Simpson, center, from Kentucky.

Here is a recap of our picks in this draft:

2020 NBA Draft - Brooklyn Nets Draft Picks
Pick	Player	College	Pos	Ht	Wt
3	Wally Carlisle (78A-)	St. Joseph's	SF	6'8"	241
16	James Michael Simpson (65B)	Kentucky	C	6'9"	229

Overall, this was a great draft for us. We believe Wally Carlisle will have a bright future in the NBA and with the Nets. He is the most NBA ready player we have drafted in our first 4 years here in Brooklyn. If we can put some solid pieces around him, we are confident his scoring ability can bring us the championship we desire.

It was a strong draft class for the league, with a couple of A+ potential players and a few others who will be great players for a long time.

Stay tuned for the rest of the 2020 NBA offseason.

Thanks for reading!

[Funkycorm]

The remainder of the 2020 NBA Offseason lay ahead of us. We just came out of a great draft for us. Wally Carlisle will be the face of this franchise for a long time to come. Let’s get into the recap of our offseason.

Rookie signings:

We signed both Wally Carlisle and James Michael Simpson to rookie contracts.

Team Options:

Brook Lopez: declined
Shaun Bridgeman: accepted
Dean Nealy: declined

Qualifying Offers:

Caris Levert: offered 1 year/$3.76M

My Free Agents:

Brook Lopez: We offered him a 2 year/$6M deal but he decided to accept a 3 year/8.49M deal from Utah. In hindsight, we should have attempted to move him when he was under his huge contract early on, but he was providing the only real solid offense we had. We didn’t move him then because we didn’t want bad contracts in return and not much in the way of picks. He played well for us for a very long time.

Caris Levert: With our qualifying offer out there, Chicago offered him a 2 year/$30.5M deal to play next to Jimmy Butler. We decided not to match this offer and let him move on.

Rondae Hollis Jefferson: He wanted a 3 year/$35M deal from us. With the drafting of Wally Carlisle, we decided not to offer him a contract. He accepted a 2 year/$23.3M deal from Atlanta.

Cole Aldrich: He wanted to test free agency. We let him walk.

Thomas: Robinson: We have been pleasantly surprised by his play on the defensive side of the ball, so we offered and he accepted a 2 year/$3.21M deal.

Jake Layman: He wanted to test free agency. We let him walk.

Norris Cole: He wanted to test free agency. We let him walk.

J.J. Barea: He wanted to test free agency. We let him walk.

Sean Kilpatrick: We should have probably let him go a year earlier as he is past his prime and declining in ability rapidly. Therefore, we let him walk and he remained unsigned through Free Agency.

Dean Nealy: We decided to let him walk. He was a decent pickup as a late 2nd rounder, but we do not want to expend our training to improve him when we have other players with higher potential and more upside to focus on. He provided some depth for us for a year and that was the most we could ask from a late second rounder in his rookie year. He remained unsigned through Free Agency.

Trade Alert:

We decided to trade Shaun Bridgeman, a 2023 2nd round pick, and a 2024 2nd round pick to Miami for a 2023 1st round pick and a 2021 2nd round pick. In 160 games for us, Bridgeman averaged 3.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 1.3 BPG over 20.1 minutes per game. He was solid on the defensive side of the ball, but he was never going to develop into the scoring low post threat power forward we wanted him to. It was time to move on from him and we got a first rounder in return for him.

Free Agency:
As a quick note, there are players that I have previously traded and are usually available in free agency. I do not offer them contracts as it would be unrealistic. Why would they return to a team that traded them 5 months earlier?

PG Matthew Dellavedova (76B-): 2 years/$3.01M; He can provide some depth and starts as Bradford Ford matures.

C Tyler Zeller (77B): 1 year/$1.61M; He is a former Cavalier and can help our front court continue to dominate the boards.

SF Solomon Hill (76B-): 2 years/$3.01M; He will provide some depth as small forward.

SG Ben McLemore (75B): 2 years/$3.01M; He will be good for some shooting depth off the bench behind Watson.

PG Darren Collison (75B): 1 year/$1.78M; He will provide more depth at point guard for us.

C Festus Ezili (77B): 1 year/$1.51M; He will provide some depth at center for us.

PF Richaun Holmes (74B-): 2 years/$3.00M; He is an inside scorer and can provide some power forward scoring off the bench. Something we have lacked for a while.

SG Jeremy Lamb (74B): 1 year/$1.61M; He will be bench depth.

SF Noel Whitney (73B): 2 year/$3.80M; This kid is young and has some potential to be a decent backup for us. We hope he can possibly develop into a 6th man role that we were hoping Caris Levert was going to fill for us.

Position Change:
We changed James Michael Simpson from C to PF, with center as his secondary position. This improved his overall by 2 points.

Player Progression:
Noel Whitney: +2
Johnnie Watson: +3
Bradford Ford: +2

All rookies were autogenerated with no changes made to the draft class.

Training Camp (untapped potential):
Wally Carlisle: A- to A
Johnnie Watson: B to B+
Bradford Ford: B to B+

Season Outlook:
We still have a long way to go and our overall roster depth did get worse than last year. There are no longer any original Nets players from the team I inherited in 2016. This upcoming season will be about growth and continuing to build a championship contender. The harder the journey the better the reward. As an organization we recognize this.

My prediction for this upcoming season will be a record of 25-57, coming in 5th in the Atlantic.

Stay tuned for the 2020-21 NBA Season preview.

Thanks for reading!

[mpac]

Very simple presentation but the write up is very good! Please keep this up. impressed how you manage to keep yourself from signing a superstar to which i would assume you have a very big cap space.

Hoping in 2 seasons you will finally reach 8th seed!

[Funkycorm]

Quote: Originally Posted by mpac

Very simple presentation but the write up is very good! Please keep this up. impressed how you manage to keep yourself from signing a superstar to which i would assume you have a very big cap space. Hoping in 2 seasons you will finally reach 8th seed!

Thank you very much! I appreciate the kind words!

At one point I think I had about $47M in cap space, which is just crazy... My plan is to build up the players I draft and give them big contracts if they earn them.

In terms of continuing, I am already at the end of season 6 (2 seasons past where I am at now) being completely written up and starting into season 7 so I definitely plan to keep this going.

[Funkycorm]

It’s that time of year again. It is time for the 2020-21 NBA Season. Our Brooklyn Nets are still experiencing growing pains as we lost more original members of our team from my takeover in 2016. This will mark our 5th season as owner of the Brooklyn Nets. I am optimistic if Wally Carlisle can have a big rookie year for us, the future will be sooner than later. This is also a big year because our defensive minded center Nerlens Noel is in a contract year, but we do not have bird rights yet so we must wait until season’s end to resign him.

That being said, let’s take a look at our team this year:

2020-21 Brooklyn Nets
#	NAME	POS	AGE	HT	WT	SALARY
8	Matthew Dellavedova (75B-)	PG	30	6'4"	198	2yr/$1.12M
7	Darren Collison (74B)	PG	33	6'0"	175	1yr/$1.12M
1	Bradford Ford (72B+)	PG	23	6'0"	178	1yr/$3.78M
30	Johnnie Watson (75B+)	SG	23	6'4"	200	1yr/$5.22M
9	Ben McLemore (74B-)	SG	27	6'5"	195	2yr/$1.12M
20	Jeremy Lamb (74B-)	SG	28	6'5"	185	1yr/$1.12M
41	Wally Carlisle (78A)	SF	21	6'8"	241	2yr/$4.05M
45	Noel Whitney (74B)	SF	26	6'8"	215	2yr/$1.86M
21	Solomon Hill (74B-)	SF	29	6'7"	225	2yr/$1.12M
15	Thomas Robinson (75B-)	PF	29	6'10"	237	2yr/$1.12M
33	Richaun Holmes (75B-)	PF	27	6'10"	245	2yr/$1.47M
50	James Michael Simpson (66B)	PF	21	6'9"	229	2yr/$1.61M
17	Nerlens Noel (81B+)	C	26	6'11"	228	1yr/$21.67M
31	Festus Ezili (76B-)	C	31	6'11"	265	1yr/$1.12M
44	Tyler Zeller (76B-)	C	30	7'0"	253	1yr/$1.12M

Depth Chart:

Brooklyn Nets Depth Chart - 2020-21
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
PG	Matthew Dellavedova	Darren Collison	Bradford Ford
SG	Johnnie Watson	Ben McLemore	Jeremy Lamb
SF	Wally Carlisle	Noel Whitney	Solomon Hill
PF	Thomas Robinson	Richaun Holmes	James Michael Simpson
C	Nerlens Noel	Tyler Zeller	Festus Ezili

Roster Assessment:

We still have a roster in a lot of need of work. Wally Carlisle will be solid for us for a long time and Watson and Ford are growing for us. Our team will struggle against stronger opponents, but we are looking for growth this year as the playoffs with the current roster is unrealistic.

Draft picks we hold:

2021: 1st round, 1st round (via Minnesota, top 5 protected), 2nd round (via Miami)
2022: 1st round, 1st round (via Memphis), 2nd round
2023: 1st round, 1st round (via Miami)
2024: 1st round

Our draft pick outlook continues to be promising as we continue to acquire draft picks. We have 9 draft picks over the next 4 years with 7 of those being 1st round picks. We have 2 first round picks in each of the next 3 offseasons.

Let’s look around the league and see how everyone is predicted to fair this year. I changed the rankings we follow this season to the NBA.com rankings.

NBA.com Preseason Power Rankings:

1. Cleveland
2. Minnesota
3. Golden State
4. Philadelphia
5. Oklahoma City
6. L.A. Lakers
7. Indiana
8. L.A. Clippers
9. Chicago
10. Atlanta
11. Utah
12. Sacramento
13. Boston
14. Miami
15. Washington
16. Orlando
17. Dallas
18. San Antonio
19. Denver
20. Detroit
21. Portland
22. Memphis
23. Houston
24. Phoenix
25. Milwaukee
26. Toronto
27. New York
28. New Orleans
29. Brooklyn
30. Charlotte

We sit at 29th in the preseason power rankings. With our roster having some major changes and our organization not willing to go out and land big free agents at this time, this is where we expect ourselves to be.

We have some new rookies on the team this year, including rookie SF Wally Carlisle.

Prospect Profiles:

Wally Carlisle, SF:
He is a 21-year-old, 6’8”, 241 pound, 78 overall, A potential, small forward out of St. Joseph’s. He averaged 28.9 points per game, 6.4 rebounds per game, 4.4 assists per game, and 1.3 steals per game over 33 games in college. He rates 3 stars in strength, 2 stars in layup and dunks, and 2 stars in shooting off the dribble. He is scouted as a versatile offensive wing rating B in mid-range shooting, C+ at inside shooting, and B in playmaking. Our head scout tells us he knows what to do with the ball when he gets it and we can expect him to grow as he matures. He needs to improve at the defensive end of the court and work on his 3-point shooting. We traded up to draft him for a reason. We feel he can be an offensive force for a long time for us.

James Michael Simpson, PF:
He is a 21 year old, 6’9”, 229 pound, 65 overall, B potential power forward from Kentucky. He averaged 12.1 points per game, 11.0 rebounds per game, and 2.0 blocks per game in 31 games in college. Simpson played center in college but we immediately moved him to power forward because he fits the size profile of an NBA power forward, not a center. He is scouted as an interior defender with 3 stars in strength, 1 star 1 post scoring, and 1 star in defending. Our scout indicates he can control the low post very well with a knack for blocking shots. He needs to work on his offense and speed, and can seem lost at times in new offenses. We feel he is a solid first round pick that could add some bench depth for us as he progresses.

Stay tuned for our midseason update.

Thanks for reading!

[Funkycorm]

The 2020-21 NBA All-Star break has come and needless to say, it could not come soon enough for our Brooklyn Nets. We are 5th in the Atlantic, 15th in the Eastern Conference, and 30th in the NBA.com Power Rankings. We sit at a record of 12-45.

Roster Breakdown:

Overall: 12-45
Division: 3-5
Conference: 8-25
Home: 7-22
Away: 5-23

Month by month:
October/November: 4-13.
December: 4-10
January: 3-15
February (thru All-Star Weekend): 1-7

We started out the year 0-5, not recording our first win until a 116-112 win over Portland. We had a losing streak of 12 games, running from January 14 to February 3, finally being broken by a 104-97 win over Chicago. We could not muster to win more than 2 games in a row at any given point so far this season.

What happened:
Wally Carlisle got injured for a few weeks early in November and again in January, where he broke his left ankle and will be out for 4 months. This essentially destroyed his rookie campaign. The good news though is that in those 17 games, her averaged 23.6 points per game, 4.6 rebounds per game, and 3.5 assists per game. So even though he will miss most of the year, we got a small glimpse of the impact he will be making on this team. For his stellar play during the span he was not injured, he was named Rookie of the Month for November and December. The first time any Nets player has won a monthly award since I took over.

We were not represented in the All-Star game or skills challenges. We were represented by Bradford Ford and Johnnie Watson in the Stars vs. Elites game, playing for the Stars.

Some player stats:
Points per game: Carlisle 23.6, Noel 11.0, Watson 11.0, Holmes 10.5
Rebounds per game: Robinson 9.0, Noel 8.2, Ezili 7.5, Zeller 6.4, Holmes 6.3
Assists per game: Dellavedova 7.6, Ford 7.0, Collison 5.6
Steals per game: Dellavedova 1.5, Carlisle 1.2
Blocks per game: Noel 1.4, Holmes 1.4, Ezili 1.3, Zeller 1.1
Minutes per game: Carlisle 32.1, Watson 28.4, Dellavedova 28.1, Noel 26.8, Holmes 25.2

Let’s look around and see how the league has fared via the NBA.com Power Rankings:

1. Golden State (48-10)
2. Minnesota (41-16)
3. Philadelphia (36-20)
4. Orlando (36-20)
5. Washington (35-20)
6. Oklahoma City 32-29)
7. Chicago (32-23)
8. Houston (33-23)
9. Utah (34-23)
10. Dallas (30-26)
11. Indiana (29-28)
12. Milwaukee (29-28)
13. Toronto (30-27)
14. New York (28-29)
15. Atlanta (28-29)
16. Portland (28-29)
17. Charlotte (30-28)
18. Cleveland (25-32)
19. Detroit (25-30)
20. Phoenix (25-31)
21. Boston (22-34)
22. Sacramento (25-31)
23. Denver (25-31)
24. L.A. Clippers (26-31)
25. Memphis (27-31)
26. L.A. Lakers (22-35)
27. New Orleans (25-32)
28. Miami (20-36)
29. San Antonio (10-48)
30. Brooklyn (12-45)


Trade Deadline:

1. We traded Darren Collison and a 2022 2nd round pick to Philadelphia for a 2022 1st round pick and PG Jerian Grant (70B-). This move was about getting another 1st round pick and to bump Bradford Ford up to second on the depth chart.

2. We traded Festus Ezili to Houston for C Boban Marjanovic (75B-) and a 2023 2nd round pick. This move was solely done for the pick.

3. We traded Tyler Zeller to Houston for a 2023 1st round pick (top 3 protected). We shopped Tyler Zeller and the Rockets were willing to give us a 1st round pick so we jumped at the deal. They wanted Zeller even though they just traded for Ezili.

4. Lastly, we traded Jeremy Lamb and the 2023 2nd round pick we just got from Houston to San Antonio for a 2024 1st round pick. This too was solely done for a 1st round pick. San Antonio is in the midst of a rebuild so this pick may be very helpful to us.

Player signings:
To make up for lost players from trades, we had to sign 2 free agents. These moves were made solely for depth.

C Ian Mahinmi (71B): 1 year/$1.12M
SF Quincy Pondexter (70C+): 1 year/$1.12M

We have had a poor season so far with the injury of Wally Carlisle during his rookie campaign. He was on course to win Rookie of the Year, but at this point probably won’t even make the all-rookie team. We will have a big decision to make this summer in resigning Nerlens Noel. There are a couple of quality centers near the top of the draft and with us projected to pick in the top 5, we may have to see what the future holds. Noel has been a positive for us for 3 years and we would like to keep him around, but he is wanting to test free agency he says. I also would like to refocus on the power forward position as well.

It has been rough so far this year and it is hard to watch us lose year after year, but we must stay positive. We feel as if we are starting to get the right pieces in place. Our future is getting closer. We must be patient and persevere and stick to our plan of building through the draft. Even though this season is all but lost, we feel like this is a turning point for us. When on the court, Carlisle played like we thought he would. He played with leadership and purpose. His injury was an unfortunate setback for us.

Stay tuned for our end of season recap.

Hopefully we can salvage some positives from this season!

Thanks for reading!

[Funkycorm]

Our 2020-21 NBA season mercifully came to an end. We ended with a record of 19-63 and finished 5th in the Atlantic, 15th in the Eastern Conference, and 30th in the NBA.com Power Rankings. We ended the year with losing streaks of 6 games, 7 games, and 12 games at various points of the season and could not muster more than 2 wins in a row at any point this year.

The good news is that Wally Carlisle came back off the bench in the last game of the season and looked good for us. We lost him for 4 months of the season and that is a big reason why we had our worst season to date since my takeover 5 years ago.

Monthly record:
February (post All-Star)/March: 3-15
April: 4-3, including a big win over Atlanta in the last game, 109-84

Record breakdown:
Overall: 19-63
Division: 7-9
Conference: 15-37
Home: 12-29
Away: 7-34

Here is how the league fared at season’s end:

NBA Standings - Updated: Apr 15, 2021
ATLANTIC	W	L	GB
Philadelphia	53	29	-
New York	44	38	9
Toronto	43	39	10
Boston	32	50	21
Brooklyn	19	63	34
CENTRAL	W	L	GB
Chicago	42	40	-
Milwaukee	41	41	1
Cleveland	39	43	3
Indiana	38	44	4
Detroit	38	44	4
SOUTHEAST	W	L	GB
Washington	54	28	-
Orlando	53	29	1
Charlotte	48	34	6
Atlanta	37	45	17
Miami	26	56	28
EAST PLAYOFF RACE	W	L	GB
Washington	54	28	-
Orlando	53	29	1
Philadelphia	53	29	1
Charlotte	48	34	6
New York	44	38	10
Toronto	43	39	11
Chicago	42	40	12
Milwaukee	41	41	13
NORTHWEST	W	L	GB
Minnesota	56	26	-
Oklahoma City	48	34	8
Utah	43	39	13
Portland	42	40	14
Denver	40	42	16
PACIFIC	W	L	GB
Golden State	64	18	-
L.A. Clippers	44	38	20
Sacramento	38	44	26
Phoenix	37	45	27
L.A. Lakers	29	53	35
SOUTHWEST	W	L	GB
Dallas	44	38	-
Houston	42	40	2
Memphis	38	44	6
New Orleans	38	44	6
San Antonio	20	62	24
WEST PLAYOFF RACE	W	L	GB
Golden State	64	18	-
Minnesota	56	26	8
Oklahoma City	48	34	16
Dallas	44	38	20
L.A. Clippers	44	38	20
Utah	43	39	21
Portland	42	40	22
Houston	42	40	22

Here are the award winners:

2020-21 NBA Award Winners
Award	Player	Pos	Team
Most Valuable Player	Steph Curry	SG	Golden State
Rookie of the Year	Isaac Marks	SG	New York
Sixth Man of the Year	Tyreke Evans	SF	New York
Defensive Player of the Year	Kawhi Leonard	SF	San Antonio
Most Improved Player	Wade Baldwin	PG	Memphis
Coach of the Year	Ron Adams		Golden State

Wally Carlisle led all rookies in scoring and was Rookie of the Month twice. He would have been Rookie of the Year and 1st team All-Rookie had he not broke his ankle in January. We are sure he would have and instead ended with no accolades playing only 18 games.

Here are our player stats:

Brooklyn Nets Stats - 2020-21
Player	GP	MIN	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TPG	FPG
Matthew Dellavedova	71	1953	8.5	2.0	7.4	1.3	0.2
Bradford Ford	27	566	6.8	0.4	6.3	0.3	0.3
Jerian Grant	7	105	7.7	1.0	2.7	0.0	0.4
Johnnie Watson	82	2376	12.2	4.2	2.6	0.1	0.4
Ben McLemore	55	1098	8.7	2.0	1.2	0.6	0.3
Wally Carlisle	18	561	23.6	4.4	3.6	1.3	0.9
Noel Whitney	80	1815	8.6	2.5	0.5	0.6	0.3
Solomon Hill	68	1501	8.0	4.0	1.8	0.6	0.3
Quincy Pondexter	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Thomas Robinson	81	1836	7.4	9.4	0.7	0.5	1.0
Richaun Holmes	76	1920	10.4	6.6	1.2	0.3	1.5
James Michael Simpson	0	0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Nerlens Noel	82	2266	11.3	8.3	1.8	0.8	1.6
Boban Marjanovic	48	810	4.3	6.1	0.5	0.1	1.1
Ian Mahinmi	11	176	7.0	4.0	0.2	0.0	1.1

Thomas Robinson was 18th in the league in rebounds per game and Nerlens Noel was 17th in the league in blocks per game.

Team stats (league rank):

PPG: 89.7 (28)
PAPG: 100.2 (22)
FG%: .394 (30)
FT%: .750 (25)
3P%: .352 (10)
RPG: 52.1 (6)
APG: 21.8 (30)
SPG: 5.3 (30)
BPG: 7.5 (7)
Bench Scoring: 34.8 (8)

In the playoffs, the Golden State Warriors came back from a conference finals loss a year ago to beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals, 4 to 0. Kevin Durant was the MVP of the Finals averaging 32.0 points per game. The Cavs were starting to slip in the East, missing the playoffs entirely, and potentially signaling a start of the changing of the guard in the East.

At season’s end, Tony Parker retired and had his number retired by San Antonio. There were no Hall of Fame inductees from this season. Former 2nd round draft pick, Dean Nealy, also retired from the league after not being picked up this last season after we did not resign him. On the coaching front, Gregg Popovich and former Nets assistant coach Jacques Vaughn retired.
No rule changes or league realignment occurred during the offseason.

Staff Changes:

We retained our CFO, trainer, and head scout on 4 year contract extensions.
Even though we just came off of a 63-loss season, we offered Head Coach Jeff Hornacek a 2 year/$3.36M per year extension. We feel he is doing a good job helping to foster the growth of our young players and keeping team chemistry up despite mounting losses. We did set the expectations that we need to see improvement over the next 2 years though.

With the draft lottery looming, we held a 25% chance for the first pick. And for the second time in 3 years, we end up with the number 1 pick. We also hold the 15th pick and the 33rd pick in the draft.

We have some big choices to make this summer during the draft and after.

Next update will be NBA Draft coverage.

Stay tuned for the next update!

Thanks for reading!

[Funkycorm]

Today, we will discuss what we want to do as an organization for the draft, our Draft Board, and all things draft.

The 2021 NBA Draft Lottery:

1. Brooklyn
2. Miami
3. Memphis
4. San Antonio
5. L.A. Lakers
6. Boston
7. Atlanta
8. Phoenix
9. Memphis (via Detroit)
10. New Orleans
11. Indiana
12. Sacramento
13. Cleveland
14. Denver
15. Brooklyn (via Milwaukee)
16. L.A. Lakers (via Houston)
17. Chicago
18. Portland
19. Toronto
20. Utah
21. Memphis (via Dallas)
22. L.A. Clippers
23. Dallas (via New York)
24. Charlotte
25. Oklahoma City
26. Philadelphia
27. Orlando
28. Washington
29. Minnesota
30. Golden State

The top 3 prospects on the board this year are small forwards, with a shooting guard and center rounding out the top 5.

Our Draft Board:

Our primary target is the center Rick Huestis, who is projected to go 3rd to Memphis. He is projected at 73 overall with B+ potential and is labeled as an inside scorer.

We like Huestis, but not at the top pick. We know Memphis is overloaded at center and could probably trade down with them and hope they draft a small forward and that Huestis is still there at 3. We will be working the phones draft night to see what we can pull off.

Projected Top 5:

1. Brooklyn: SF Lou Braxton (78A+)
2. Miami: SF Franklin Shelton (71A+)
3. Memphis: C Rick Huestis (73B+)
4. San Antonio: SF Kelvin Justice (72A-)
5. L.A. Lakers: C Alfredo Rogers (74B-)

The above being predicted by Draft Express. Once draft night hits, we will see if we can land our center of the future.

Draft Night:

Draft night is upon us. Let’s get to it and see what we do next as an organization.

We decided to trade the number 1 pick to Memphis. We traded out 1st pick and a 2022 1st (via Philadelphia) to Memphis for the 3rd pick and a 2024 1st round pick (top 3 protected). This gives us the 3rd pick this year and the 15th pick this year. The pick from Philadelphia was going to be late round anyway as they just came off of a NBA Finals appearance this year and will be looking to go back next year. This trade hopefully still lands us Huestis at number 3 and gets us another potential pick in the future.

The next draft trade comes from Atlanta. They trade a 2023 1st and C Hassan Whiteside to the Lakers for the 5th pick. This marks the second year in a row Whiteside was traded on draft night.

Atlanta then trades their 7th pick to Utah for a 2nd round and a few role players.

Detroit trades into the top 10 at the 9th pick, trading back for the pick they originally owned at number 9 overall with the Grizzlies. Detroit also sent a second rounder this year getting Tobias Harris from Memphis in return.

After just drafting SF Frankie Shelton, Miami trades SF Justice Winslow and PF Jianlian Yi to New Orleans for the 10th pick and SF Doug McDermott.

Here is a recap of the top 10 picks:

2021 NBA Draft - Top 10 Draft Pick Recap
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	Memphis (trade Brooklyn)	Lou Braxton (77A)	SF	6'7"	230
2	Miami	Frankie Shelton (72A)	SF	6'8"	232
3	Brooklyn (trade Memphis)	Rick Huestis (73B)	C	7'1"	276
4	San Antonio	Kelvin Justice (72A-)	SF	6'8"	218
5	Atlanta (trade L.A. Lakers)	Sammy Bowden (67B-)	SG	6'2"	180
6	Boston	Caris Emerson (72B)	SF	6'7"	225
7	Utah (trade Atlanta)	Alfredo Rogers (74B-)	C	6'11"	251
8	Phoenix	Marshall King (70B-)	SF	6'7"	220
9	Detroit (trade Memphis)	Edgar Wheeler (71C+)	SG	6'4"	196
10	Miami (trade New Orleans)	Niko Novac (68C+)	PG	6'2"	177

When our turn came up at the 15th spot, we traded the pick, our 2nd round pick, 33rd overall, and SG Ben McLemore to San Antonio for their 2022 1st round and their 2023 1st round. This trade means we now hold San Antonio’s 1st round pick for the next 3 years as we had also acquired their 2024 1st at the trade deadline. They have traded their future for a chance to win now and they are still falling at the bottom of the West. These trades may be what finally gets us our championship. Time will tell.

Here is a recap of our pick:

2021 NBA Draft - Brooklyn Nets Draft Pick Recap
Pick	Player	College	Pos	Ht	Wt
3	Rick Huestis (73B)	Florida	C	7'1"	276

Overall, this was a solid draft for us. We got the center we wanted and we secured some more future 1st round picks.

Stay tuned for the remainder of the offseason.

Thanks for reading!