Brooklyn Nets: 5 biggest offseason questions

4. How valuable was the veteran leadership?

Much praise was heaped on veteran Jared Dudley for his contributions to the Brooklyn Nets this season and fellow veterans Ed Davis and DeMarre Carroll were also lauded for the leadership and mature voices they brought to what was otherwise a very young team.

We’ll find out this summer how valuable all of those intangibles really were.

All three players will (a) be at least 30 by the time next season starts and (b) hit unrestricted free agency on July 1.

Carroll and Dudley are coming off contracts that will likely be the last big ones of their careers. Dudley, who will be 34 in July, was in the final season of a three-year, $30 million deal he signed with the Phoenix Suns in 2016.

Carroll, 33 in July, wraps up a four-year, $60 million contract he signed with the Toronto Raptors in 2015.

It’s doubtful either of those players will see another eight-figure salary in their careers, but the Nets will retain Bird rights to both so long as they are willing to eat the cap hold initially ($14.3 million for Dudley and $23.1 million for Carroll, so unlikely given the Nets’ intentions in free agency).

On the other end of the spectrum is Davis, who turns 30 in early June. Davis took the Nets’ biannual exception last year — one year at $4.45 million — after playing out a three-year, $20 million contract with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Davis’ cap hold is only $5.34 million, by comparison to the other vets, but the Nets hold no Bird rights after a one-year deal and Davis is likely going to be looking for a bump after signing for below market value a season ago.

According to Brian Lewis of the New York Post, all three veterans would like to remain in Brooklyn … but all three understand the business side of the game.

Few players on the roster were as polarizing within the fan base as Dudley. Some came to appreciate the intangibles he brought to the floor and the locker room, but many aw the 4.9 points and 2.6 rebounds per game and wondered why the heck he was getting 20-25 minutes a night.

Carroll bounced back from ankle arthroscopy just before the opener that cost him the first 11 games to average 11.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game and started the final eight games of the regular season and the first two games of the series against the Philadelphia 76ers.

But his left knee requires management and he missed four games at various times with soreness in the knee. He also shot just 39.5 percent overall and 34.2 percent from 3-point range, less than ideal for a combo stretch forward.

Davis was a rebounding banshee, leading the next at 8.6 boards per game despite playing just 17.9 minutes a night and it wasn’t coincidental that the 76ers won all four games after Davis injured his ankle while putting up a double-double in Brooklyn’s Game 1 victory.

Davis probably has the best chance of returning … if the price is right.