The Brooklyn Nets have had a shortage of draft picks in recent years, due in part to their acquisition of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry from the Celtics in 2013. In this trade, the Nets gave up various players, 3 first-round draft picks(2014, 2016, and 2018) as well as the right to swap first-round picks in 2017.
Now, two years later, Terry, Pierce, and Garnett are all on different teams, and the Nets are an aging team with limited potential to improve through the draft. This year, the Nets have the 29th and 41st picks in the draft. These aren’t great picks. However, the Nets want to trade up in the draft. Billy King, per Thomas Duffy of NetsDaily.com:
“I will say that we’re trying to move up in the draft. We’ll explore options to get higher. … We already know of some teams who maybe want to move their pick so we’ll be talking to them next week.”
The Nets have limited young talent, and that’s something they want to change. Deron Williams isn’t a franchise player(at least according to Nets’ coach Lionel Hollins), Brook Lopez is extremely injury-prone, and Joe Johnson’s on the wrong side of 30. The Nets have a couple of promising young players in Mason Plumlee and Markel Brown, but outside of those two, the team’s future looks bleak. The Nets want to fix that.
It remains to be seen whether or not other NBA GMs will be willing to trade their first-round picks for Brooklyn’s limited assets, but Nets’ fans should have their fingers crossed.
