Post by Andrei Kirilenko on Jul 30, 2018 6:49:52 GMT
Year In Review - Brooklyn Nets - 2017/2018
Last year, we said that the 2016/2017 season was a year of direction for us, as we traded Blake Griffin for a package of prospects that set us up to build around Devin Booker. In contrast, the 2017/2018 season was a year of refinement for us, as we shaped our young core through trades and drafting, and acquired Kristaps Porzingis to play alongside Booker. Trading continued to be our main team-building strategy, but we did finish in the bottom 10 for the first time ever in D5 and landed the #7 overall pick. We also had some success in regular season free agency, picking up some exciting players like Derrick Jones Jr. and Yogi Ferrell.
Lineup Comparison: 2017 to 2018
PG: Jrue Holiday --> Yogi Ferrell
SG: Devin Booker --> Devin Booker
SF: Rodney Hood --> Justise Winslow
PF: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist --> Kristaps Porzingis
C: Domantas Sabonis --> Domantas Sabonis
6: Zach LaVine --> Marvin Bagley Jr.
7: Bam Adebayo --> Bam Adebayo
8: Willie Cauley-Stein --> Cody Zeller
DEAL 1 - December 28, 2017 - New Orleans
Brooklyn Nets Send:
Rodney Hood
WAS 2019 1st
DAL 2020 1st
Brooklyn Nets Receive:
Andrew Wiggins
My first trade of the 2017/2018 campaign is the only one that still gives me anxiety. In retrospect, I bought Wiggins at the absolute worst time, as his value started tanking in January with the narrative of him being disinterested and not a good defender. Although he was later packaged as part of the Porzingis trade, I think I probably lost value in this move. I personally still believe Wiggins is going to have a very good NBA career, but even with Rodney Hood being terrible, it is hard to see either of those draft picks outside of the top 10. Hats off to Brian Scalabrine .
DEAL 2 - January 21, 2018 - Cleveland
DEAL 3 - February 17, 2018 - Cleveland
Brooklyn Nets Send:
Jrue Holiday
Willie Cauley-Stein
Zach LaVine
Andrew Wiggins
BKN 2020 1st
Brooklyn Nets Receive:
Kristaps Porzingis
Jeremy Lin
I've lump two trades together here as they were both with Cleveland and included some of the same pieces. This series of trades obviously was the most important for our team this season, and perhaps one of the most important trades in the entire league in 2017/18. We sent out a ton of value and even today we still cannot be sure that we won the trade, as Kristaps has not returned from injury and still presents some risk. Regardless, I feel like adding Porzingis gave my team some legitimacy. A combination of Booker and Porzingis catapulted us into a more respectable position in the league and gave us a path forward to eventually compete for a title. It's quality over quantity in this league, and so far I couldn't be happier with this trade.
DEAL 4 - February 21, 2018 - San Antonio and Los Angeles
DEAL 5 - February 22, 2018 - Miami
DEAL 6 - February 26, 2018 - Los Angeles and New Orleans
Brooklyn Nets Send:
Jeremy Lin
Austin Rivers
Zhou Qi
MEM 2020 2nd
Brooklyn Nets Receive:
SAS 2021 1st
SAS 2021 2nd
I've lumped three trades together here as they involved similar pieces and occurred within a 1 week span. This whole trading spree was a bit of a conundrum, as we traded MKG and then traded back for him but ended up with a 1st rounder. At the end of the day, I think we made out well here by picking up the SAS 2021 1st, essentially for Austin Rivers (as Lin would return to us for free as Troy Bolton wanted to dump his salary). We would use that pick in the trade below to move up in the draft.
DEAL 7 - June 25, 2018 - Washington
Brooklyn Nets Send:
7th overall pick (Trae Young)
SAS 2021 1st
Brooklyn Nets Receive:
5th overall pick (Marvin Bagley III)
This one is another tough one to evaluate with these guys never having playing an NBA game, but I am ecstatic to have a chance with a real superstar in Marvin Bagley. He is a bit undersized, sure, but his scoring, rebounding, and shooting is something to be excited about. As with any draft, there are a lot of moving pieces and a lot of ways this could have gone. I could discuss here other trades I had on the table, other players I was targeting, etc., but none of it matters now. Bagley is our guy and we are going to be following him closely over the next 12 months.
DEAL 8 - July 27, 2018 - Indiana and San Antonio
Brooklyn Nets Send:
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist
Three 2nd Rounders
Brooklyn Nets Receive:
Justise Winslow
Denzel Valentine
This trade feels like a very symbolic ending to the 2017/2018 season for us. We have had Michael Kidd-Gilchrist for a very long time, and he represents the history of our franchise and our failed team-building attempts in the past. To finally move on from MKG is tough, but it is also exciting. We have a talented and young squad going forward. Our two main core guys, Devin Booker and Kristaps Porzingis, are only 21 and 22, respectively. The players we have surrounded them with, such as Domantas Sabonis (22), Bam Adebayo (21), Justise Winslow (22), and Marvin Bagley (19), have extremely bright futures ahead of them. Even the rest of our lineup, which I like to refer to as my "youth pipeline" is full of rookie-scale players, of whom I believe Derrick Jones Jr. (21) and Dwayne Bacon (22) are the most promising.
The strategy going forward will be mostly the same. We have a plethora of big men right now with Sabonis, Adebayo, Zeller, and Bagley all fighting for the starting position alongside Porzingis. It will probably make sense to consolidate some of those guys into a star in the future, but I also think both Adebayo and Bagley have All-Star potential in the future and would like to see how they perform this season. We also have no real point guard in the lineup, but we are comfortable playing Booker there while Porzingis is out. We are likely "tanking" again this season with Kristaps injured, which is a tough pill to swallow as it is quite depressing when the playoffs come around and you are not in it. However, barring any injuries, I believe this will be our last tanking season and we will turn the corner in the 2019/2020 season with a healthy Kristaps to balance out our lineup.
We will chalk the 2017/2018 campaign up as a success here in Brooklyn, and are very excited to see what the future holds.