Bet on Brooklyn: The summer that made the Nets ‘cool’
The Brooklyn Nets season starts this Wednesday with a matchup with Timberwolves, and the team is worlds different compared to what the roster looked like just one calendar year ago.
This summer, the Brooklyn Nets made the NBA’s biggest splash to sign all-league talents Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. And while securing these top players gives them immediate talent, this strike of the gold was built on changes and decisions that have been made over the last three years.
Most people can point to when the Nets hired general manager Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson just a few months apart in 2016. Marks came to Brooklyn after a stint as the assistant general manager of the San Antonio Spurs, an organization with a seemingly impenetrable culture. Atkinson arrived from Atlanta, where he was a key assistant on Mike Budenholzer’s team that won 60 games in 2015.
When Marks and Atkinson came onto the scene in Brooklyn, the Nets were led by longtime center Brook Lopez, but had little else in terms of assets. They started the Nets’ rebuild by putting together a roster with players that could fit the chemistry they were trying to create.
While the strategy did not produce many wins at the time, Marks and Atkinson had the right idea in creating components that would set them up for success in the future. In their second next summer, the Nets traded Lopez, who had become the franchise’s all-time scoring leader, for point guard and 2015 second overall pick D’Angelo Russell.
After a 2017-18 season of improvement, the team went into last season with middle-of-the-pack expectations. Throughout the season, the team’s camaraderie and chemistry was put on full display, receiving national attention on their way to the sixth seed in the playoffs.
After a hard fought five-game series against the Philadelphia 76ers, the Nets were going home and getting ready for the offseason. The 2018-19 season showed the entire league that Marks and Atkinson had been creating something special, and a few key players noticed.
Kyrie Irving during a Nets practice. (Photo by NY Times)
The first catch was Irving, a kid from West Orange, New Jersey, who grew up rooting for Jason Kidd and the Nets. After Irving won a championship alongside LeBron James in Cleveland, he surprised everyone by requesting a trade, which landed him in Boston.
Though the Celtics had some misfortune with injuries, the Irving-Boston project did not work out, with Irving leaving after just two years for his “hometown” team.
With Irving in tow, the Nets were set-up to land Durant, the biggest free agent of the 2019 class. Durant joined the Golden State Warriors for the chance to pursue a championship with Stephen Curry and Klay Thomson.
After three years and two championships, Durant wanted a new challenge, but a torn achilles in the 2019 NBA Finals complicated things. Along with Irving and breakout Nets wingman Caris LeVert, Durant saw an impressive Nets medical staff and made his way to Brooklyn.
Though Durant is set to sit out the entire season, Irving, LeVert and company should put Brooklyn in playoffs for the second straight year. Next year when Durant returned, they will undoubtedly be considered a title contender.
Regardless of how this shakes out, Nets fans can still enjoy the huge win known as 2019 free agency.
(Feature photo courtesy of NetsWire/USA Today)
