The Brooklyn Nets are in a precarious spot with their roster. While the team is not a clear cut winner, they can make some postseason noise. But the Nets have to do one thing before trying to make the playoffs.
That’s right. The Brooklyn Nets have to do one thing and one thing only: maintain their chemistry. Such a shocker, right? Maintaining a high chemistry team should be obvious. After all, the front office and coaches have to make sure everyone meshes.
If only it was that simple. Unfortunately, teams have shown that improvement comes with major roster moves, not keeping the squad together. Just look at the 2010-11 Miami Heat. The team went from third in the Southeast division to an NBA Finals favorite in the matter of two days.
Of course, free agency was the main driver there. But trades can be very tempting, especially close to the trade deadline. Granted the Nets have not made a bad deadline deal in recent memory, but as Kevin Garnett said, “anything is possible.”
Looking for talent can lead to some disastrous results. Do I even need to mention the 2013 Garnett-Pierce trade?
But the Nets should not focus on talent acquisition. The pieces are there, for the most part. A backcourt of Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell isn’t just fun, but has the potential to be deadly. Allen Crabbe and DeMarre Carroll can be absolute pests on defense and great scorers on the wing. The only exception here is the frontcourt.
Young, like-minded guys fill the team. That’s a good sign for any team looking to develop and grow, such as the Nets. It makes it easier for them to jell together. The more teammates can relate to each other, there’s more opportunities for cooperation. And that’s just a fundamental rule of teamwork.
Growing organically is actually a very sound strategy for building a championship caliber team. Just take a look at Golden State. Of its main core — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Kevin Durant — only two players were acquired from a trade or free agency. Curry, Thompson and Green were all Golden State draft picks. While Durant and Iguodala were added through free agency, the Warriors remain the most successful home grown story in NBA history.
But the Warriors are not the only team that has shown how successful growing organically can be. San Antonio repeatedly shows why it likes to grow players within the organization. In the late 90’s and early-mid 2000’s,Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker — all Spurs draft picks — led the team to three NBA Championships.
Now, the Nets are not the Spurs or the Warriors. While they might not achieve the same level of success as the two, the Nets do have a shot at success. But it depends on upper management’s decisions.
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Head coach Kenny Atkinson and general manager Sean Marks have an opportunity here. They can allow this roster to grow with each other and succeed organically. Or they could sell to try to win now. And as Nets fan know, the win now strategy worked soooooo well in 2013.