Brooklyn Nets show there's more than 1 path to a rebuild

The Brooklyn Nets were in dire straits when GM Sean Marks was hired in February 2016. But that terrible team with no future assets is now playoff-bound.

Since the Brooklyn Nets clinched their first playoff berth since general manager Sean Marks was hired in February 2016, the reactions across the NBA spectrum have been varied.

There has been praise for the job Marks and coach Kenny Atkinson have done in resuscitating a franchise that many thought would be on life support for the better part of a decade thanks to what was left behind my the previous GM.

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That was a team that would finish the 2015-16 season with a 21-61 record and would be without its own first-round pick in 2016 and 2018, with the very real possibility their 2017 selection would be swapped with that of the Boston Celtics.

(Narrator: Of course it was swapped.)

Marks hired Atkinson shortly after the regular season ended in the spring of 2016 and in their first full season at a GM-coach tandem, Brooklyn got a game worse, ending the 2016-17 campaign with a 20-62 mark.

The Nets had zero incentive to tank, of course. No, they were just legitimately that bad.

When former GM Billy King was reassigned within the organization in January 2016, a writer at HoopsHabit declared the job to be the “most thankless job in sports.”

The writer went so far as to write a help-wanted ad on the Nets’ behalf:

"Help wanted: General manager for NBA team. Must be willing to lose now and lose later. Will take over team that is bad now and will likely not have a first-round pick in the lottery for at a minimum of four more years. Great location in America’s largest city with the world’s most impatient fans and most incessantly negative media. Send inquiries to Barclays Center, Brooklyn."

Full disclosure: Yes, I was that writer.

Marks made some moves during and after the 2016-17 season and the 2017-18 edition of the Nets improved by eight victories to finish 28-54. The last of the picks owed to the Celtics conveyed via Boston to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In the offseason, fans dreamed of a Philadelphia 76ers-style tank job in order to start down the long, dreary path toward a rebuild.

But something happened along the way to the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery show in Chicago… the Nets got better. Lots, lots better. So much better, in fact, that there will be no trip to the Midwest for the lottery show on May 14.

Instead, the Nets could be opening the playoffs on April 14 (or April 13, but the symmetry was too good to pass up).

Marks’ moves, big and small, mostly paid off. Atkinson’s reputation as a player-development guy proved well-earned.

Brooklyn picked up a draft pick from the Indiana Pacers for Thaddeus Young.

That draft pick, Caris LeVert, is the last remaining player on the Nets’ roster with ties to King’s disastrous “entire future of the franchise in exchange for a bunch of old guys who could have helped us win a title … five years ago!” trade. The Nets had acquired Young for Kevin Garnett.

Without a lottery pick to draft a future star, Marks traded his franchise’s all-time leading scorer — Robin Lopez — and ate one season and $16 million of Timofey Mozgov‘s monstrosity of a contract to land former No. 2 overall pick D’Angelo Russell.

After his first season in Brooklyn was short-circuited by a knee injury, Russell blossomed into the franchise’s star and leader this season.

Throw in some salary dumps that turned into solid role players such as DeMarre Carroll and Jared Dudley, a savvy free-agent signing in Ed Davis and another late first-round pick with upside in Jarrett Allen and the makings of a playoff team emerged.

Marks also appears to have struck gold with second-round pick Rodions Kurucs, selected with a Los Angeles Lakers pick via the Toronto Raptors in the Carroll trade.

After the Nets clinched a playoff berth on Sunday, some New York Knicks fans crowed about how the Knicks have better attendance than the Nets.

That’s a position I’ve never understood. Unless you’re helping owner James Dolan count his money — or are getting some of it yourself — why would a fan be concerned about attendance?

From some in Philadelphia came criticism that the Nets should have tanked. Hey, your Process (copyright likely pending) worked for you. But — and this may come as a shock, so you might want to sit down — it’s not the only way to rebuild.

The Nets are being talked about as a potential destination for a star-studded free agency class this summer. People in and around the NBA are noticing what Marks has built and what Atkinson has tended and both have been receiving rave reviews.

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Marks is a definite candidate for Executive of the Year. Atkinson is in the Coach of the Year discussion, even if it’s likely his former boss with the Atlanta Hawks, Mike Budenholzer, will win the award for a second time and a second team for what he’s done with the Milwaukee Bucks.

It hasn’t been a conventional path the Nets have traveled. Marks on Monday told WFAN’s Benigno and Robertsmarks another milestone that the playoff berth for the franchise.

"“It’s another great little stepping stone in how we’re trying to build this. You have to try and go through teams that have had success and they’ll show you how to perform, how to prepare and so forth.”"

The Nets have had some success, to be sure. They’re 13 wins better than a season ago, with a chance to make it 14 in Wednesday’s season finale against the Miami Heat. They have an All-Star for the first time in five years in Russell.

And they improved from 1-15 against their Atlantic Division geographical partners last season to 8-8 this season, taking three of four from the Knicks, dropping three of four to the Raptors and splitting with both the Celtics and 76ers.

A playoff berth in Marks’ third season was as unexpected as the manner in which Marks built this group was unconventional.

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But it does show definitively that there is more than one process than can bring a team back from the wasteland to respectability.

Brooklyn Nets show there’s more than 1 path to a rebuild

By Phil Watson | Apr 9, 2019

The Brooklyn Nets were in dire straits when GM Sean Marks was hired in February 2016. But that terrible team with no future assets is now playoff-bound.

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