Brooklyn Nets: Why 2019 shouldn’t end up like 2010

Brooklyn Nets Anthony Morrow Johan Petro Travis Outlaw Jordan Farmar. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
Brooklyn Nets Anthony Morrow Johan Petro Travis Outlaw Jordan Farmar. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)
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Brooklyn Nets
EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – JULY 14: Anthony Morrow #22, Johan Petro #27, Travis Outlaw #21 and Jordan Farmar #2 pose for a photograph during the New Jersey Nets media signing announcement on July 14, 2010 at the PNY Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)

Preparing for the summer of 2019, the Brooklyn Nets can look at their own recent past for a blueprint of exactly what not to do.

The Brooklyn Nets are coming into a possibly franchise-changing summer in 2019. This isn’t the first time the Nets are poised to go into an offseason with an abundance of salary cap room and a chance to get well in a hurry.

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With a mysterious, rich benefactor in Mikhail Prokhorov, a new head coach with playoff pedigree in Avery Johnson, a star spokesperson in Jay-Z and what seemed like all the money in the basketball world for new general manager Billy King, the New Jersey Nets in 2010 were set to not only make waves, they were set to restart the NBA landscape. 

Instead, in a series of strange moves, the Nets became the butt of the joke yet again.

Nearly a decade later, the cycle has come full circule.

Only this time around, the Nets have an established head coach in Kenny Atkinson, a young core of emerging talent and a smooth-talking GM in Sean Marks who has rebranded the team as a San Anrtonio Spurs-like organization built on the development of its players.

Taking a quick look back at what went wrong during the offseason of 2010, one could find the seeds of desperation that were sprinkled everywhere during the Nets’ first years in Brooklyn.

Hopefully, reminiscing on past regrets can lead to a reignite a franchise, avoiding the pitfalls and ultimately reaching the mountaintop of NBA basketball.

Beware: We may be opening up some bad Net memories. We can get through it if we stay calm and stay together.