Nets not looking to rush the rebuild
NEW YORK >> The Brooklyn Nets own two first-round draft picks, though not the one that has a 25 percent chance of being No. 1 overall.
They have money to spend in free agency, if they want to go that route.
So there are ways to upgrade the worst team in the NBA. They just won’t rush it. “Listen, I know we have big strides to make and 20 wins, not enough. It’s not good enough for any of us, but I do think we’re going to reap the benefits of going through this struggle,” coach Kenny Atkinson said Monday.
The Nets finished 20-62 in their first season under Atkinson, getting most of those victories during the final two months of the season. It was expected to be a rough season and it was, as they undertake a rebuilding process under general manager Sean Marks after years of sometimes reckless spending that never brought them close to a championship.
They won’t get near one anytime soon, either. Marks used the work “strategically” about a half-dozen times Monday in his season-ending news conference to describe the way he will build the team.
The easiest chance for an immediate score in a promising draft is long gone, because the Nets have to swap picks with Boston as they continuing paying for the trade that landed them Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. So the Celtics will have no worse than the No. 4 pick in the draft.
But the Nets do have the Celtics’ pick and acquired Washington’s during the season, giving them two selections later in the first round.
“I like having two picks, that’s for sure,” Marks said. “I think it just gives us another swing at it.”
Beyond that, the Nets could try to sign a veteran star to become the headliner of the team, but that doesn’t sound like the plan.
“I think we’ve got to really evaluate the roster and if you go after one of the top-tier guys, you obviously would hope to get them — you hope to get all your targets that you go for — but does that really make you better? Does it get you to 30 wins, 35 wins?” Marks said.
“The objective here is for us to be in the playoffs. When that comes, we’ll have to wait and see, but you don’t want to go and sign free agents and next thing your payroll is capped out and so forth and you’re a 25-win team.”
Nets executives are bound this week for Europe, where they will meet with Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov and do some scouting. The makeup of the roster for next season seems wide open beyond point guard Jeremy Lin, with center Brook Lopez perennial trade bait even as he adapted his game well this season to fit Atkinson’s offense.