The Nets‘ first season with their Big Three is over, and they now enter a period of reflection and planning. As BrooklynNets.com’s Chris Dowd details, GM Sean Marks held his end-of-season press conference on Monday, addressing the team’s Game Seven overtime loss to the Bucks and looking towards the future.
“It hurts. It should hurt, but life moves on,” Marks said of the series loss. “Nobody is feeling sorry for the Nets, and we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves. That’s pro sports.”
Marks touched on the fact that all three of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden are extension-eligible this summer for deals that could run through the 2025/26 season and be worth a combined $540.4MM. While Marks declared it too early to discuss such matters, he reiterated the team’s commitment to building a sustainable winner around them.
He also addressed the question of Nets players participating in this summer’s Olympics, saying: “That’s a collective decision where we’ll sit down with the player and also with the performance team and map out, this is what it looks like.”
Finally, he addressed guard Spencer Dinwiddie‘s free agency: “We’ll deal with Spencer when the time comes. And, obviously Spencer has put himself in a position to secure his future long-term. We’d obviously love to play a role in that, whether that’s here or whether we can help them. But you know, we’ll focus on that at a later date.”
We have more from the Nets:
- Dinwiddie has been cleared to participate in all basketball activities, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The 28-year-old guard tore his ACL in December, and – before the Nets were eliminated – had been hoping to return for the Finals. Charania reports that Dinwiddie’s surgeon, Dr. Riley Williams, said that Dinwiddie “looks and feels and moves like the pre-injury Spencer Dinwiddie.” Dinwiddie will be a free agent this summer, and is one of the higher-profile point guards on the market.
- Joe Harris had a nightmare end to the Nets’ series with the Bucks, averaging 7.0 PPG on 24.2% shooting from three in almost 40 minutes a night over the final five games, but the Nets reaffirmed their support for the three-point champion, writes The New York Post’s Brian Lewis. “We have to be careful with what-have-you-done-for-me-lately,” Marks said. “He’s a huge part of this culture and driving it, and we owe a lot of that just to who Joe is as a person both on and off the court, how he’s developed, how he’s sacrificed, the work he’s put in.” However, Marks stopped short of confirming that Harris would be with the team long-term. “In terms of his future on the team, there’s no comment: Joe is a Brooklyn Net until otherwise, whether that’s his decision or mine.” Harris called the experience a motivating factor for him moving forward.
- Marks and head coach Steve Nash are optimistic about the future, but they have plenty of decisions to make, writes Alex Schiffer of The Athletic. One such decision will be how to handle the team’s many free agents — Brooklyn has nine of them, including Dinwiddie, breakout guard Bruce Brown, Blake Griffin, who started at center throughout the playoffs, and Jeff Green, another key contributor. With cap space so tight, the Nets may look at trades for center DeAndre Jordan, who is owed nearly $20MM over the next two seasons and lost his place in the rotation during the playoffs. The team also expects to lose one or more of its assistant coaches, as Mike D’Antoni, Jacque Vaughn and Ime Udoka are all candidates for head coaching positions.
Joe Harris has $25 million overpaid contract but he has positive trade value
Good asset, not liability
Trade
Good luck moving Jordan. He STINKS
DeAndre is going nowhere unless the Nets decide not to extend his 2 buddies KD & KI. They’re a total package.
I’d like the Knicks to try and get Dinwiddie and DeRozan. Not sure if anyone willing to come to NY yet.
Too much nonsense being posted about Joe Harris being overpaid. He got a market contract for what he is, an elite floor spacer who more than holds his own defensively, and can guard multiple positions. If he were the first shooter in NBA history who was impervious to a poor shooting stretch, the market for such a unique player would have been higher. So, his shooting %’s in a span of a few weeks don’t indicate he’s overpaid. If he could make his own shot, the market would certainly have been higher. So, that he didn’t score as a 2nd option doesn’t indicate he’s overpaid.
Of course, the Nets or any other team can decide that they would prefer not to meet market for this type of player or any other; and spend their $$ on other skill sets while exploring the bargain bin for floor spacers. Doable (although risky for a taxpayer). Either way, individual teams don’t determine salaries, the market does.
Lol the nets are paying injury prone big three to much. Please continue and extend all three.
They will probably add another injury prone player in Griffin. He cannot play a full season + playoffs on those knees.
Dinwiddie is all ready now, but not a couple weeks ago after six months out. It’s not like he just rolled out of the hospital bed. But Nash was just no way to a faster return. I don’t think Harden was an asset; they were down and went down.
The Nets signed DJ just to attract his 2 buddies KD and Kyrie! Unreal! Teams are becoming hostages of these ego maniac players! I’ve been watching NBA since 80’s and never seen anything like this! The league handed over the power to players and now they paying for it! Game becoming soft, players not respecting contracts, league becoming too political ! Soon they gonna force players to hug each others if they get into it. College basketball is better than this fraud!
We all know a healthy Nets team probably wins it. Probably not definitely. That’s why you play the games. Nets were arrogant to think they could just show up for playoffs and win. Kyrie injury can happen anytime. To any team. Look at Clippers now. Harris had a bad series, it happens. He’s still a good fit there. Green is solid. Nets could use some wing defenders. A small retool and they are fine. They will get a player or two. Who will take less to ring chase. They’ll be back stronger and more focused. At least they should, right.
Joe Harris looked like he was thinking about too much. This was not the year for Nets stability though.
If Kyrie didnt get hurt, they would have advanced. Let’s not over react.