Don’t forget B’klyn
Why Garden may not be best Durant home
The Nets have lingered on the periphery of the mainstream conversation for much of the season. Not nearly contenders, but not nearly the doormats they had been in seasons past, either. This offseason, they may step into the limelight. Why? They have the cap space for Kevin Durant; they have the market to intrigue him; and unlike the Knicks, they have demonstrated tangible progress this season.
So how about recruiting the league’s biggest free agent to Biggie’s borough? With the league cracking down on tampering — even LeBron James is watching what he says these days — Spencer Dinwiddie, Brooklyn’s ascendant suc- cess story at point guard, talked around a good idea.
“Why would I actively recruit arguably the best player in the world to come to our team when he would fill the exact spot that we need and potentially take us from just being an eighth-, seventh-seed or so, to an Eastern Conference championship team? Oh please write this down,” Dinwiddie teased to the Daily News. “Why would I do that because then I’ll get in trouble for tampering?”
Dinwiddie has a point. So, we indeed wrote it down and decided to expound. Durant, in the weakened Eastern Conference, undoubtedly pushes the Nets into contention. They’re already hovering around a playoff spot despite Caris LeVert being out indefinitely with an ankle injury, and they finally own their draft pick this year to maneuver the roster.
The only Eastern Conference team with a better record than Brooklyn AND enough cap space for a max free agent is Indiana. Let’s face it, none of these superstars are signing off on a career in Indianapolis. If the Nets don’t at least get a meeting with Durant or Kawhi Leonard, they’re not doing a good job selling themselves. Mikhail Prokhorov abandoning his bluster and championship declarations was good for recouping draft picks, but not for promoting the franchise (which was Prokhorov’s second-greatest contribution to his early tenure as owner, right after funding Barclays Center).
So we’ll leave it up to the outgoing Dinwiddie, and take it a step further. The Nets could perform some cap gymnastics and come close to enough space for two max free agents, getting there by trading Allen Crabbe for an expiring contract and renouncing the rights to D’Angelo Russell. Coincidentally, as Dinwiddie referenced, most of the top 2019 free agents occupy the forward position (Durant, Leonard and Jimmy Butler).
And the Nets look promising elsewhere.
“I don’t see why we wouldn’t (be a destination for the stars this summer). Especially, I guess, at the forward spot,” Dinwiddie told the News. “That’s where all the big free agents are and our biggest hole is probably at the forward spot. You got Jarrett Allen at the 5. We got (Russell) and Caris at the 1 and the 2. And which spots to fill? The 3 and the 4, right?”
Dinwiddie is also being modest. He can start at point guard if the Nets decide to trade Russell or renounce his rights, and Dinwiddie already got his commitment in the form of a $34 million extension last month.
Either way, the Nets should be players in free agency. And if it’s really about the New York market for Durant, the team in Brooklyn is in a better position.