Sean Marks has acquired several players in 2017. Andrew Nicholson, K.J. McDaniels and Archie Goodwin, among others, have all found themselves donning the black-and-white for the Brooklyn Nets recently.
Kenny Atkinson has been able to give us a decent sample size thus far of what these three players bring to the table. McDaniels has logged 1059 minutes as a Net, and Goodwin and Nicholson have seen the court slightly less. However, Goodwin and Nicholson have already provided a good feel about their respective skill-sets from previous stops in their careers.
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Sean Marks acquired Andrew Nicholson on deadline day in addition to a protected 2017 first-round pick. The deal also sent Bojan Bogdanovic and Chris McCullough to Washington. Nicholson was clearly the lesser asset in this deal and was likely not Marks’ preferred return due to his long-term salary. The Wizards have fared quite well since this trade, as Bogdanovic is averaging 14.8 points per game on 42 percent shooting from behind the arc since the deal was completed. He is at long last fulfilling his destiny to be an elite scoring punch off the bench for a playoff team.
K.J. McDaniels was sent to Brooklyn in a pure salary dump to help the Rockets clear cap space and move the Nets a bit closer to the cap floor. This move cleared some room for Houston to potentially add another piece to put around James Harden. While the Rockets will still only have less than $10 million in cap space once July rolls around, any little piece may be the key to putting Mike D’Antoni’s squad over the hump.
Finally, Archie Goodwin is in the midst of a second 10-day contract. Marks scooped him up on March 15, also filling the Nets’ 15th roster spot in doing so. When arriving in Brooklyn, Goodwin had not seen the court since November, when he had a short stint with the New Orleans Pelicans. He only played in three games for the Pelicans and totaled 15 points over that time span.
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So far, the newest Nets appear to benefitting the team. Brooklyn is 3-2 in games where Goodwin has seen the court, and 4-4 in contests where McDaniels plays at least 15 minutes.
In his 14 months as a general manager, Marks has done a fantastic job with finding diamonds in the rough. His in-season acquisitions so far have included Sean Kilpatrick, Spencer Dinwiddie and Qunicy Acy, in addition to the three obtained over the past few months.
However, the Nets are in a transitionary period. They are nowhere near being able to compete with contenders and are likely to see a lot of change before that faithful day arrives. The question then arises: what is the status of these new additions in the long, and short-term?