Many people have had lots and lots to say about the Brooklyn Nets and their off-season spending splurge. Most of those reports have been positive and it’s time to add another one to the heap.
ESPN.com’s John Hollinger writes in his report of the Nets off-season:
They had a mandate to bring a decent team with them for their first season in Brooklyn, regardless of what it cost, and now they have one. The Nets weren’t a playoff team or anything close to it over the past few seasons, but may very well be a top-four seed in the Eastern Conference after an offseason spending spree that saw them trade for Johnson’s behemoth contract, retain Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace at extravagant salaries, and get Williams to stay put in free agency.
They’ll pay millions in luxury tax and won’t have much of a bench, and defensively this team remains seriously suspect. Nonetheless, they accomplished Part I of their mission. This wasn’t a destination team in East Rutherford, but as Howard and Williams showed, it now is in Brooklyn.
I mostly agree with what Hollinger writes, although I do think the Nets’ bench will be better than he is giving them credit for, but a lot of that is going to be hinged upon how well Mirza Teletovic’s game translates to the NBA.
As for everything else, it’s mostly just “been there, done that” jargon. Hollinger echoes sentiments that most other noted analysts have had: the Nets spent a lot of money this off-season. The Nets now have a good team.
Everything else at this point is just hypothetical narrative derived at trolling fans or gaining a click. All we can for now is speculate upon how these pieces will fit together, but the expectation for this team has certainly been raised and that’s a good place to be heading to Brooklyn.
