Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Nets Gonna Net

As I imagine you may have heard, The Brooklyn Nets recently made a trade that sent Anthony Morrow, Jordan Farmar, Jordan Williams, Johan Petro, and DeShawn Stevenson, and a lottery protected first round pick to Atlanta for the talented, but wildly overpaid Joe Johnson. For Atlanta, I liked the deal well enough. They got an eventual first round pick, and they were able to dump the huge mistake of a signing that was Joe Johnson. Not that they shouldn't have tried to get him back, but not for the biggest deal in the league. For a guy that is (was?) unaffectionately known as "Iso-Joe" throughout the Atlanta area, making him the highest paid guy in the league isn't really the desired outcome. But, with new GM Danny Ferry in charge, they were able to dump that contract, get some cap room, and also nab a first round pick to help rebuild in the future. Good for them.

But, for the Nets, I (for whatever you think my opinion is worth) am not exactly fond of the deal. From a purely basketball perspective, it makes sense. Joe Johnson is a good scorer, and is a top 7 SG in the league. He can create for himself off the dribble as well as shoot the ball fairly well. After you get past his scoring ability, he can become pretty one-dimensional though.

But, unfortunately for the Nets, this deal cannot be viewed from only a basketball perspective. It has to also be viewed from a look at the salary cap. The acquisition of Joe Johnson puts Brooklyn over the cap, and pretty much takes away their ability to take on any other free agents (other than re-signing Deron Williams, someone for a $1.9 million exception, and whatever they want for a vet's minimum) for at least this year. Being cap-locked is never a good situation to be in as a team, but it's even worse considering the situation they are currently in also.

You see, they are the leading team on Dwight Howard's wish list. For those of you living under a rock the past few days, after waffling more than Eggo, opting into the last year of his contract, and getting his coach fired in the process (not to mention making many Magic fans hate him), Dwight Howard has requested a trade, and various sources around the league have come out and said that the Brooklyn Nets are the only team on his list that he wants to play for.

The problem with this, is that the Nets are really in no position to make a great deal for Howard at this time. The best thing they can offer consists of Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks, and several future first round draft picks. However, Lopez and Humphries would have to agree to sign-and-trade deals, and on top of that, due to the cap reasons, they would have to have a third team involved to make the trade work. It's all very speculative right now, and if you're the Brooklyn Nets right now, you cannot be happy with the current situation. What is even worse is that if the Nets hadn't traded for Johnson, they could not only put together a package for Dwight Howard (they would also have to take Hedo Turkoglu's contract, which is also more unlikely after the Johnson deal), but, if Orlando decides not to move Howard, they would still have enough cap room to give him a great deal in next year's free agency.

But since they rushed to trade for Johnson, they have lost all leverage in the deal, and it's now in Orlando's favor. Brooklyn could have waited to make sure that the Dwight deal got done, then used whatever other assets it had to get Johnson after that deal was done. In fact, none of the assets used for the Johnson deal were ever talked about for Howard, so it's very possible that they could have done the same deal, just later on in the calendar year.

But, alas, even though they have changed geographically, the Nets' mindset is still the same, led by their fearless GM, Billy King. In a classic Nets move, they were worried that Deron Williams would not come back to the team (he still could leave, which could leave them even worse off), so they panic-traded for an overpaid former All-Star who is known as "Iso-Joe". They should have been more patient, told Williams that they were working their butts off to get him a new toy in Howard, and that they could probably also gotten Joe. If the deal for Howard didn't get done in a timely matter, then they could have gone this route as a "Plan B" type option.

However, the Nets went with the contingency plan instead, and guaranteed themselves a lesser upgrade in Johnson, but they may have very well screwed themselves out of getting the best center currently in the league. But now the Magic hold all the cards. It's still possible that the Nets get Howard, but it's not more likely than any other option. The Magic could keep the Nets from becoming a contender in a couple of ways. They can either trade Howard to another team, if they feel they have a better offer (as of this writing their target seems to be Andrew Bynum). They could also just make Howard play out the year, and then due to the salary cap, the Nets wouldn't have enough money to get him.

For now though, it seems as though Howard won't be in Brooklyn any time soon. But, we shall wait and see. Anything is possible, but, as always, Nets fans shouldn't get their hopes up. I just hope that for their own sake the Nets figure out that patience is a virtue and that they learn to exhaust all of their best options before panicking and moving on to a contingency plan.

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