The Brooklyn Nets just couldn’t overcome their bad injury luck, as they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games following a Kyrie Irving ankle injury and James Harden soldering through a hamstring injury that normally would have sidelined him for weeks.
While keeping the Nets mostly intact is probably the philosophy that Sean Marks will adopt as he tries to get the team over the hump and into the championship, there will likely be a few moves made in order to shake things up to the point where Brooklyn comes out of the offseason more equipped for the postseason.
The lack of depth was a talking point all season long after the Harden trade, and that was really exposed against Milwaukee to the point where Durant played every single minute of both Game 5 and Game 7.
That can’t happen again.
These three Nets could bite the dust this offseason, as they could be byproducts of Marks retooling the roster to give Durant, Harden, and Irving some more support off the bench.
These 3 Brooklyn Nets may not be back next year.
3. SG Tyler Johnson
Early in the season, especially when Kyrie Irving missed time, the Nets were frantically scrambling to find someone who could eat up minutes at point guard. Johnson ended up starting a handful of games, as his ability to distribute the rock and finish off some tough looks inside made him a very valued commodity for Steve Nash.
Johnson might not have been the same scoring dynamo he was in Miami and Phoenix, but he appeared to give the Nets some solid minutes. However, when you step back and examine his whole body of work, it’s not as impressive as it seemed.
Nets PG Tyler Johnson might get booted out of town.
Johnson made just 39% of his shots from the field, was passed up in the rotation by a guy who started the season in Europe in Mike James, and was out of the mix when the playoffs rolled around. In all, Johnson didn’t do much to prove to Nash he should stick around next year.
The Nets have four draft picks this year, including possession of their own first-round pick at No. 27 overall. One has to assume that one of those picks will go towards a potential backup point guard. With the financial implications of letting him go a complete non-factor, don’t order any No. 10 jerseys anytime soon.