Brooklyn Nets: 3 free agent centers BK must avoid this offseason
By Mike Luciano
The Brooklyn Nets’ season may be over thanks to some bad injury luck in the postseason, but Nets free agency is about to kick off the second Sean Marks is allowed to negotiate. This roster had some holes, and Marks has made no bones about the fact that he will likely need to make some changes this offseason.
The center position is the biggest question mark for the Nets in the near future, as playing Blake Griffin at that spot did little to quell the effectiveness of a Milwaukee Bucks team that feasted on Brooklyn’s lack of depth.
The free agent market is full of promising centers that could help Brooklyn fix their issues, but there are some players that would be completely rancid fits on this roster, as their name recognition and box score stats won’t be duplicated with the Nets.
If the Nets come up with enough money to spend, they need to avoid signing one of these 3 free-agent centers, as doing so could actually set their championship aspirations backward due to the poor fit.
Sean Marks on Nets offseason: "Inevitably, there's going to be change here."
— Matt Brooks (@MattBrooksNBA) June 21, 2021
3 centers the Brooklyn Nets must avoid signing
3. Hassan Whiteside, Sacramento Kings
Whiteside is a good litmus test to use in order to find out who watches the NBA and who doesn’t. Raw box score stats make Whiteside look like an elite rim protector and solid finisher, but if that were the case, why did the NBA’s leader in blocks and a double-double machine have to wait forever before he signed a cheap one-year deal as a backup in Sacramento?
Whiteside’s offensive rating of 107 on a Kings team that openly sacrificed defense for the sake of a potent offense was pitiful, and it led to him getting benched late in games. At least his defense was amazing, right? Nope! His 111 defensive rating was the lowest mark of his career. Oops.
Hassan Whiteside wouldn’t be a great fit with the Brooklyn Nets.
As the Clippers proved in their demolition of Rudy Gobert, if your big man can’t at least help out on the perimeter in the modern NBA, you leave yourself open to a barrage of 3-point attempts. The Nets struggled with his idea at times, and Whiteside wouldn’t do much to help them in that regard.
The Nets need a quality perimeter defender with enough skill to finish off looks in the paint and help with rebounding. Whiteside looms like an ideal fix, but his per game averages are fool’s gold, as he is frequently targeted on defense and disregarded by his own offense. Brooklyn is better off looking elsewhere.