NBN Roundtable: New Year’s Resolutions For 2017
By Sandy Mui
Max Prinz (@FreshPrinz5)
Easily the best thing that happened to the Nets in 2016 was the hiring of Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson. There will never be enough words to fully describe the awfulness of the Nets’ infamous 2013 trade with Boston. But the hiring of Marks and Atkinson was a loud, welcome signal that those days of trying get-rich-quick schemes were over.
It may be two or three long years before the Nets see signs that their rebuild is working, but hiring two smart, hardworking, and respected leaders is an excellent start. The Nets remain largely a blank canvas, and it will be exciting to watch Marks and Atkinson instill a culture and develop an identity in the years to come.
MUST READ: Nets’ Top 10 Moments of 2016
Now, the first six months or so of the Marks/Atkinson administration have been encouraging, but it’s about to get even harder. Right now, Atkinson has the Nets playing hard and competing every night. It’s fantastic to watch, but the team has just eight wins to show for it. Can they sustain the energy and intensity they’ve shown for the rest of the season? Will there come a point where the losing takes a toll on the players?
After that comes a difficult offseason where the Nets will most likely surrender a top-5 pick to Boston and select a player much later in the draft. Their draft pick for the following 2018 season similarly goes to Boston. In all likelihood, Brooklyn will be bad both this season and the next. Will the patience promised in the hiring of Atkinson and Marks still be there?
Right now, the Nets are correctly valuing development over wins, and that needs to continue into 2017. Surrendering any young assets or future draft picks for aging, but splashy-named veterans cannot be an option. The focus should be continuing to work with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Caris LeVert, and Isaiah Whitehead and take chances on younger players who need a fresh start. Losing those draft picks will be difficult to swallow, I’ll admit it. But the Nets desperately need to build a future–not mortgage it.