Joe Johnson on Nets future: ‘I don’t see us coming back as the same team’

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/05/02/joe-johnson-on-nets-future-i-dont-see-us-coming-back-as-the-same-team/



Joe Johnson on Nets future: ‘I don’t see us coming back as the same team’
Brett Pollakoff May 2, 2015, 4:00 PM EDT







The Nets were eliminated from the postseason by the top-seeded Hawks on Friday, and though it took longer than expected thanks to Brooklyn finding away to stay competitive for most of the series, the reality is that the Nets need to undergo a serious set of changes to the roster in order to be more competitive next season.

Joe Johnson, the team’s highest-paid player, knows this perhaps better than anyone else.

From Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News:

“I have no idea. Something’s going to happen. I don’t know what. I don’t see us coming back as the same team. This is my third year here. I could see if we were getting better each year, but it’s kind of been the opposite. So to not even be a .500 ball club in the East. It’s disheartening and I don’t know. I think everyone in that locker room is unsure of the future here. So we’ll see what happens going into the summer.”

In a word: Yep.

Changes most certainly are coming, but exactly what they’ll be remains unclear.

Brook Lopez has a player option for next season, but even if he chooses to become an unrestricted free agent, the Nets seem to be extremely likely to re-sign him. Thaddeus Young is likely to be back, because his player option of $10.2 million is worth taking, especially when considering it will set him up to become an unrestricted free agent just as the salary cap is set to spike in advance of the 2016-17 season. Alan Anderson, who provided a much-needed offensive spark off the bench at times during the postseason, said he’ll be opting out of the final year of his deal to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and he may or may not be back depending on what the market decides.

Where it gets much murkier is with Johnson and Deron Williams — both of whom are vastly overpaid, and neither of whom are capable of being franchise players any longer. The Nets would love to move one or both of them to get some players who are on more reasonable contracts, or ones that could more readily contribute to a more consistent level of success.

Johnson is the more likely to be moved, because he only has one year remaining on his contract for $24.8 million, while Williams has two at $21 and $22 million respectively. But it won’t be easy to find any takers.

All we know right now is that changes to the Nets’ roster are, at this point, an inevitability. And Johnson knows it, as well.



bob
MY NOTE: That's it, burn it down, take a few years to find all the right pieces and build chemistry. We own their sorry asses until 2018. They have a bunch of over-the-hill, overpaid untradeables and no draft picks they can use to sweeten a deal. Danny has burned us down over the past two seasons, but he gained picks and talent as part of the fire sale. Brooklyn went for broke, went broke and now have nothing to attract trading partners with (except for Lopez). Brooklyn's draft pick next year, which we own, is starting to look VERY good, very good indeed.


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Not too surprised that the Nets will spend some time changing their roster this off season. It happens to most teams who are in the middle of the pack, but I have no sympathy for anything about the Nets.

bob is right, they took their shot and now will have a much longer rebuild than they probably will want. Untradeable contracts, no cap space and no first round picks (they lose their pick this year to Atlanta, too) will mean a 5-7 year struggle. They should be near the back of the Eastern Conference for a while.

The goal is to sweep these guys next year and take those four wins to move us closer to my prediction of 50 wins.

wide clyde wrote:Not too surprised that the Nets will spend some time changing their roster this off season.   It happens to most teams who are in the middle of the pack, but I have no sympathy for anything about the Nets.

bob is right, they took their shot and now will have a much longer rebuild than they probably will want.  Untradeable contracts, no cap space and no first round picks (they lose their pick this year to Atlanta, too) will mean a 5-7 year struggle.  They should be near the back of the Eastern Conference for a while.

The goal is to sweep these guys next year and take those four wins to move us closer to my prediction of 50 wins.

clyde,

And move them that much deeper into the lottery.


bob



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A pretty good set of objectives, guys.

Sam