I spend a lot of time on the Celtics sub, as I've been a huge Celtics fan for a long time. As such, I saw a lot of people before the trade deadline arguing that we should trade the Brooklyn pick now, since we have the 2017 and 2018 picks. I do not like that idea. I agree that with the surplus of picks and players we have as of right now, it would be idea to consolidate the picks into something of equal to the sum of those pieces. BUT the better picks to move are the right to swap in 2017 or the pick in 2018.
Those arguing that we should trade the pick now, and counting on Brooklyn to have another disastrous season seem shortsighted to me. You can't bank on Brooklyn being bad past this season. They have some good core pieces, they're just handicapped by John Johnson's 24m deal that comes off the books after this season.
With that gone, the Nets sit on just 45m in guaranteed deals with the salary cap projected to shoot to 89m for next season and then may balloon again to 107m+ the following season.
What is stopping Brooklyn from offering big money to the best guys on the market? Nothing. They have NOTHING to lose for. They could easily offer max deals to any number of players this offseason. They could sign any number of guys that would take them from a bottom 5 team to top 15 team.
Say they sign Mike Conley and Harrison Barnes in the offseason? Would a Conley-Barnes-Young-Lopez quartet win a championship? No. Would that team make the playoffs in the east? Maybe. Would that team produce a top 5 draft pick? Hell no! The argument for trading the pick makes the assumption the Brooklyn can't just overpay for decent players in the offseason and be a top 15 team trying to get the 8th seed.
Brooklyn is a big market, it has the money to overpay on decent players, and it is desperate it'd be smart to win as much as possible to maintain it's fanbase. They have a new GM under pressure to turn this ship around and going from a bottom 5 team with no draft picks to a low playoff team is a decent improvement.
I'm not saying Brooklyn is going to become a contender between seasons, but plenty can happen in an offseason. Don't bank on these picks being anywhere near as valuable than this season. There is a huge difference between top 5 and top 15 draft pick and that is the leap Brooklyn is looking to make this offseason.
tl;dr - Brooklyn can overpay for ok players making their pick go from top 5 to top 15. They have the money and motivation to do so. 2016 pick guaranteed good, 2017-18 pick could be mid lottery.
Submitted February 24, 2016 at 06:18PM by Hogman_The_Reductor