Turning the clock back to the 2018-19 season, everything on the team (the Nets) is moving in a good direction. Kenny Atkinson has not only proven that he is a good fit for this team, but also far exceeds management's expectations. The starting five-man group, centred on De Angelo Russell, Spansay Dinwiddie and Calis LeVert, led the team to a 42-40 record and a successful place in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Although Brooklyn was eliminated by the 76ers in the first round of the playoffs, they proved themselves to be a potential stock. At the same time, such a young and talented team will become a strong contender in the league's East in the future.
However, while the blueprint for "growth and development" they painted was not yet fully formed, management saw an opportunity to become a strong team, which began in the summer of 2019 (offseason) and continued for the next two seasons.
Today, Brooklyn is one of the league's most talented teams, and only two players in the current roster belong to the original lineup for the 2018-19 season. How did they get the reconstruction done so quickly? Let's take a look back at which trades accelerated the Nets' rebuild and turned them into league leaders with the Big Three.
(1) The platform of the ninth floor, which originates from the soil
Before discussing those big moves to reshape the Nets' existing roster, it's worth looking back at some of the small deals that Nets general manager Sean Max made during the rebuilding effort.
In Garnett, Pierce's deal locked the Nets' salary space, and the draft picks they sent made the Celtics select Brown and Tatum, but Sean Max was able to dig up treasure from those NBA fringe figures and do his job well. Despite the lack of first-round picks with a higher pick, Max was able to make up for billy King's legacy and select some high-quality rookies and free agents in the draft and free agent markets.
Here are a few key operations by the Sean Max-era Nets:
I. 2016: Offseason signs a two-year, $2.03 million contract with free agent Joe Harris.
II. 2016: Mid-season (12.9) signed a three-year contract with free agent Spencer Dinwiddie for a three-year contract worth $2.9 million, the last of which was insecure.
III. 2016: Traded Thaddeus Young to the Pacers for a first-round 20-pick pick and Selected Calis Leville at the draft.
IV. 2017: Jarrett Allen was selected with 22 picks in the first round of the draft, while Kyle Kuzma was traded with Brook Lopez with the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Mezkov and russell.
Harris and Dinwiddie are the only two left in the current lineup to make a solid 2018-19 Nets lineup. Joha was signed by the Nets through free agency, and in 2015-16 Joe Harris was traded to Orlando by the Cleveland Cavaliers, after which the Magic cut him. In his five seasons with the Nets, Joha's three-point shooting percentage exceeded 41.9 percent in four seasons and managed to top the league's three-point list with 47.5 percent shooting in 2020-21. Meanwhile, Dinwiddie averaged 20.6 points and 6.8 assists per game in 2019-20, and if it weren't for the right knee ACL injury, Dinwiddie would be the team's best sixth man this season. Before joining the Nets, Dinwiddie was in the development league of the Pistons and Bulls, so Max didn't spend much money to sign Dinwiddie.
Overall, the convergence of the Big Three and the formation of the Nets' existing lineup mainly revolve around the trade of important players such as LeVert, Allen and Russell.
(2) Gather talents and take shape
The free agent market of the summer of 2019 may be one of the most talented free agents in league history, with three of the league's most talented players — Irving, Durant and Leonard all declaring full free agents , and Brooklyn getting two of them.
Irving's joining
Irving was the first of the Big Three to join the Nets. The seasoned veteran point guard is a full-length free agent, and the Nets have plenty of salary space to sign him.
Meanwhile, the feud between Irving and Boston makes him want to have a stage to prove himself again. In the 2018-19 season, the death of his grandfather gave him the idea of changing to a work environment closer to home, and Brooklyn naturally became the New Jersey native's first choice. In the summer of 2019, Irving announced that he would join the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent (not a signing) for a four-year, $136.5 million contract.
Durant's deal
KD's situation is relatively complicated, the Nets do not have enough space to sign him directly, but they chose to renew Russell and trade him to the Golden State Warriors to get Durant, so KD's joining is done in the form of a signing. The Nets received an additional first-round pick in the deal, which protects the first 20 picks in the first round. The specific transaction details are as follows:
Warriors get: D'Angelo Russell
Shabaz Napier
Trewayne Graham
Nets get: Kevin Durant
2020 first round pick (first 20th pick protection)
With the end of the 2019-20 season, the Warriors' bottom record in the league did not make the Nets get this first-round pick, which in turn turned into a second-round pick. But it remains an important asset for Sean Max and the Nets to exploit. Aside from getting Irving and Durant, the Nets didn't make any other significant moves in the summer of '19, but there are some trades that still need to be mentioned.
On the day of the draft, they got Tyshon Prince from the Atlanta Hawks on a trade. They sent Alexander Walker, Alan Crabbe and a 2020 first-round pick from the Hawks to Prince as well as a second-round pick. The deal gave them a cheap starter, while clearing up some of the salary space that allowed them to get kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant at the same time. Irving and Durant expressed their desire to play with DeAndre Jordan, so the team signed the seasoned center for four years and $40 million as a helper for the two cores.
In the end, the Nets offered LeVert a three-year, $52 million extension contract that was seen as an important part of the team's future assets and made him an attractive reserve in the mid-value exchange market.
(3) The transactions did not stop, and the character lineup was upgraded
Due to salary cap restrictions, the Nets did not have much trading action in the middle of the 2018-19 season, and Durant also suffered a reimbursement for the entire season of 2020 due to the rupture of the Achilles tendon in the 2019 season, and he was also infected with the new crown pneumonia of the global pandemic. But during the 2020 draft, the Nets were dynamic in the trade and free markets, making a positive impact on the team's existing roster.
The three-way deal got Bruce Brown and Landry Shamet.
At the November 2020 NBA Draft, the Nets reached a three-way deal with the Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Clippers in order to upgrade the team's bench. The deal involves a lot of players as well as draft picks, and here are the specific details of the tripartite deal:
Nets get: Bruce Brown
Landry Shamet
Reggie Perry
Pistons get: Sadiq Bay
Jaylen Hanz
Zanan Moussa
Rodney Maglod
Second round picks for 2021
Clippers get: Luke Kennard
Jay Scube
Justin Payton
4 second round picks
Sadiq Bay looks like he'll be doing well on NBA-level teams, but Brown has become an important bench rotation and defensive stalwart for the Nets. At the same time, Shamet provides a good firepower output for the team's outside line, and Perry can also provide support in terms of team rebounding. In the short term, they filled the team's bench depth, which Hanz, Skub and Moussa could not do.
Free Market signed Jeff Green
Brooklyn doesn't seem to have enough salary space to make a difference in the free market, but they signed Jeff Green. They signed the 34-year-old veteran on a base salary of about $2.5 million a year, and the team hopes Green will be the fifth in the small-ball lineup and provide support on the defensive end. But Jeff Green averaged 11.0 points per game in the 2020-21 regular season and shot a career-high 41.2 percent three-point shooting.
(4) "Landing" in New York and parachuting into the Nets
James Harden's trade puts the Nets in the league's top brawl. The unpleasantness between Harden and the Houston Rockets forced the team to finally complete the deal. The Nets did everything they could to get James Harden through a four-way trade.
The Nets traded to get Harden
In order to get Harden, the Nets paid for the team assets and draft picks that are relatively valuable to the entire league. Here are the specific details about the Harden deal:
Nets get: James Harden
Second round picks for 2024
Cavaliers get: Jarrett Allen
Tyshawn Prince
Walk the horse to get: Calis Leville
Second round picks for 2023
Rockets get: Victor Oladipo
Dante Exam
Rodions Kuruc
Three first-round picks, four first-round picks
Bucks 2022 First Round Pick (from Cavaliers)
The deal created the Nets' Big Three lineup, and they were able to do that because they dug up and accumulated enough assets. There is no doubt that the first-round picks accounted for a large part of the deal, but the deals of important starters and role rotation players such as LeVert, Allen, Prince and others freed up the team's salary space, which in turn contributed to Harden's arrival.
After coming to the Nets, Ha's average performance of 24.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 10.6 assists helped the team relieve the pressure of Durant and Irving's absence due to injury.
Griffin and Aldridge joined
The Nets' stable team core and roster depth have allowed them to recruit good free agents in the buyout free agent market with strong attraction: Ramacus Aldridge and Blake Griffin.
Griffin made a buyout deal with the Pistons and joined the Nets on a base salary, and after coming to the Nets, he shot 49.2 percent of the season and 38.3 percent of the three-point shooting. Unfortunately, Aldridge was forced to retire due to a mixed heart rate. But it turned out that Ard was indeed the good guy the Nets had tapped into in the buyout market that made them salivate.
epilogue:
Sean Max had a tough job when he first took over as nets general manager, but now he and his team have turned the Nets into an offensive explosion and a deep lineup. The way they operate is impressive.
And when you compare the squads of the two seasons, you'll be amazed at how dramatic the squad has changed in just two years.
2018-19 squad vs. 2020–21 squad
D'Angelo Russell James Harden
Joe Harris, Kyrie Owen
Spencer Dinwiddie Kevin Durant
Calis Leville Joe Harris
Alan Crabbes Millsap
Jarrett Aaron Mills
Demare Carroll Bruce Brown
Langdy Holly Jefferson Aldridge
Jared Dudley, Blake Griffin
Rodions Kuruc, Jevin Wright
Trewayne Graham Nicholas Clarkston
Ed Davis Carmela Thomas
Shabaz Napier, Daron Sharp
Theo Pinson David Duke
Kenneth Faried Deventa Kacock
Mitch Creek DeAndre Bembry
Tahre McCall Jordan Storm
Alain Williams
The voluntary addition of Durant and Irving may require some luck, but make no mistake: it was the excellent work of Max and management that turned the team into a strong contender for the championship.
It's not just about signing big players.