Brooklyn Nets Looking To Build Culture, Expectations Set Aside

Nets general manager Sean Marks opened up his solo statements yesterday following a press conference introducing the new Nets additions admitting the obvious. The Brooklyn Nets missed out on their top two targets, a pair of restricted free agent guards in Portland Trail Blazers Allen Crabbe and Tyler Johnson of the Miami Heat. Not big names but names the Nets were looking at to help them build and grow. That has been their main goal since the duo of Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson began their tenures with the Nets, build something and grow.

For Marks, expectations for this team are gone. There is none, they are not putting a win-loss mark on anything to be considered a success.

“I think it’s going to be progress throughout the season”, Marks said. “We’ve said enough about bringing in competitive guys. I think Kenny (Atkinson) is going to be able to bring the best out of those guys, and all these guys have come here to win, that’s the bottom line. They haven’t come here to say ‘we’re going to win 10 games or 15 games or 20 games’. They want to win and they want to compete hard every night, so that’s what we’re going to be seeing from the vets and they’ll be taking the younger guys with them.”

Kenny Atkinson also sees the chance and opportunity he has before him. The team is now littered with guys who haven’t made the most of their shot in the NBA, veterans looking to establish their name in the league and younger talents, some coming off an injury issue. You name them and at least one of those boxes are checked for guys like Brook Lopez, Jeremy Lin, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Chris McCullough, Anthony Bennett, Sean Kilpatrick, Trevor Booker and even Randy Foye. It appears they have a squad full of guys who have chips on their shoulders in one way or another. It’s a group with a lot to prove and Atkinson appears to be very excited to get them going this season.

“This is an exciting group,” Atkinson proclaimed, “We’re thrilled to get started. All these guys are going to fit the style we want to implement here with the Nets. We’ll figure out specific roles, but I like the blueprint.

The Nets are young and rebuilding. That’s the harsh reality of it, so they might not win 30 games. Winning 20 games might even be a struggle but it’s the right thing to do. When the old Brooklyn regime was removed, the Nets started on a path of returning to relevance and it all started with Marks. He sees the vision and he wants everyone to understand, they might not immediately find success but they will find a way to continue building.

“It’s about bringing high-character, high-quality guys here,” Marks told reporters at the press conference. “That’s what we went out and tried to find, and we did that.”

One of those guys high-character, high-quality guys the Nets are looking to help them build is Trevor Booker. The forward joins the Nets after leaving the young, upstart Utah Jazz squad that many already have pegged for the playoffs. Yet despite the Jazz being on the cusp of the playoffs Booker decided to join a team looking to rebuild. He noted the unselfishness of the team and the aspirations of building chemistry.

“Just spending a little bit of time with these guys today, I can say that they are very high-character (guys),” Trevor Booker said. “No big egos, that’s a big thing. We’re building chemistry, so I’m looking forward to spending time with these guys and getting the ball rolling.”

Joe Harris, another new Nets signee, also noted the path the team wants to take. He acknowledged the team wants to rebuild and he could be an important piece to that process.

“Coach Kenny is really big on trying to emphasize trying to improve every day,” said Harris “Him and Sean, they’re not the guys where they’re foreseeing a whole thing about where they want this season to be, how many wins they want to have. It really is kind of like starting it from scratch, coming in and revamping the whole thing.”

The Nets big name free agent signing was Jeremy Lin. He brings his name recognition back to New York after a thrilling tenure with the Knicks. Lin and Atkinson were both members of the Knicks organization when Jeremy took over New York for a few weeks in 2012. While Jeremy and Atkinson are both looking to make a name for themselves with the Nets, Lin in particular noted the Nets as a team that has some similarities to a startup when it comes to their growth.

“The way I was thinking of free agency was like when you invest in a startup company,” Lin said. “You don’t necessarily look at the product right then and there. That is a big part of it, but you’re kind of betting on the founder a lot of times. You’re betting on what that person is capable of doing, because sometimes as you go through the process, the final product is going to chance a lot. That’s very common in startups and I feel like that’s kind of how this is. I’m betting on certain people, I’m betting on Kenny, I’m betting on Sean, I’m betting on myself, I’m betting on Brook Lopez, I’m betting on the way I feel. If I didn’t feel like this has a chance to go where I want to go, then I wouldn’t have signed up for it. Right now, and last season, if you look at last season, we weren’t where we wanted to be but it’s a process and it’s a challenge and I think the biggest thing I would say is I believe in this, I believe in what we’re capable of becoming.”

At the end of the day for Brooklyn, it’s all a process. They’re taking chances on guys while trying to build a culture, establish something as a base for success. The win-now, championship chasing mentality in Brooklyn is gone. Expectations are gone and the only thing the Nets are looking to chase is guys who will help them develop.

The Nets youngest player at the introductory press conference, 21 year-old 2016 draftee Caris LeVert, simply summed up Brooklyn’s situation.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”