Changing the Brooklyn way: A Brooklyn Nets Dynasty

[Funkycorm]

I am the new owner of the Brooklyn Nets. I have one goal. That is to make this team into a dynasty that rivals those of the Bulls, Lakers, and Celtics of years gone by. That will be no easy task. The old management has left this team with little hope of a future. The future was traded away for players to win now and that did not work. I am here to fix that. I am here to make the Brooklyn Nets great.

The question is simple: How?!?!?

Before I divulge my plan, let us go over some basic housekeeping. I play on the PS4. All games are simmed. Simulation difficulty is set to 50. All sliders are set to 50 for myleague options with the exception of career ending injuries which are turned down to 20. The league has their current pick status set as well. League expansion is turned on but there will only be the 30 teams to start. We are going to keep this as realistic as possible, so I am not going to make crazy trades or anything else like that. I will also be doing minimal league rule changes, if any. Again, we want realism here. My goal for posting will be to do a preseason preview, a review of the team at the all-star break, and again at the end of the season. The preseason preview will hold all offseason activities from the previous year.

So, how do we turn the Nets into contenders? Well, it won’t be easy, as I said, the old management left us with very little for the future and bad contracts. Management used to have a win now mentality, no matter what it does for the future. That is not the approach we are going to take this time. We are going to build our team through the draft and smart trades. We will not be trading bad contracts for bad contracts unless is nets us draft picks, and the player is on the last year of a deal. The players we have with inflated contacts will not get us much in the way of draft picks, but we will do what we can.

We are going to turn this team around through the draft, good coaching, good off season training, and smart off seasons.

I have sat down with the current coach, Kenny Atkinson. He is signed to a 1 year contract. We discussed that we are going to be losing for a while, so my expectation of him is to keep morale on this team up. It’s going to be hard when we are losing 55 to 60 games a year.

Our roster for the 2016-17 season looks like this and their contract years remaining. Player overall and potential are in parentheses:

PG Jeremy Lin (76 B-): 2 years
PG Isaiah Whitehead (68 C): 2 years
PG Yogi Ferrell (66 C-): 1 year
SG Sean Kilpatrick (76 B-): 1 year
SG Caris Levert (72 A-): 2 years
SG Randy Foye (72 C+): 1 year
SG Joe Harris (68 C+): 1 year
SF Bojan Bogdanovic (76 B-): 1 year
SF Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (72 B): 1 year
PF Luis Scola (74 B-): 1 year
PF Trevor Booker (73 B-): 2 years
PF Anthony Bennett (70 C+): 1 year
PF Chris Mccollough (69 B+): 1 year
C Brook Lopez (81 B): 2 years
C Justin Hamilton 72 (B-): 2 years

Roster Assessment:

Looking at the roster, we have players like Lin, Booker, and Lopez who are all over payed for their skill level. None of those 3 are bad players, but the contracts are bad. It will be hard to find a buyer for any of these players, especially with the huge cap hit that Lopez’s $21 million salary will cause. There are a few players that have some potential for a future on our team, granted they get into training camp over the summer. Mccollough and Levert will be the focus of training camp over the summer. They are 21 and 22 years old respectively, and can have a bright future if coached the right way. Bogdanovic is another player we will probably keep around. He is 27 and at his max potential, but he can be a good place holder for the future of this team, as will Kilpatrick. No player on this team is untouchable though. There will be no trades or free agency signings, unless warranted by roster injuries until the Trade Deadline.

Training camp during the offseason will be untapped potential for those players aged 24 or less, who will have a future with this team.

The teams currently held draft picks: 2017 1st round (swap worst with Boston), 2017 2nd round, 2019 1st round, 2020 1st round.

As can be seen by the utter lack of draft picks, a lot of our future has been traded away for players that no longer wear the black and white of the Brooklyn Nets.

We do not have a set timeline for us to be contenders. It will be a process. A long process.

So, with that said, I present my Brooklyn Nets dynasty. This is also my first dynasty on here.

Thanks for reading!

[michaellowll]

Good luck in the long long seasons before to become a contender

fingers crossed

[Funkycorm]

Thanks! Looks like to you as well for your Nets Dynasty!

[Funkycorm]

As we have approached the all-star break of the 2016-17 NBA season, we will review some stats and some notable games from the first half of the season. Afterwards, we will get into any roster changes that the Nets have made.

Stats

PPG: Sean Kilpatrick 18.3 PPG, Brook Lopez 17.5 PPG, Bojan Bogdanovic 16.4 PPG, Jeremy Lin 16.3 PPG

Minutes per game: Jeremy Lin 34.8 MPG

Assists per game: Jeremy Lin, 8.5 APG

Rebounds per game: Trevor Book 8.1 RPG, Brook Lopez 7.3 RPG

Blocks per game: Brook Lopez 1.7 BPG

Steals per game: Jeremy Lin 1.7 SPG

Brook Lopez had a team single season high in points with 35. Trevor Booker had a team high 16 rebounds, and Yogi Ferrell had a team high with 15 assists.

Though we had some memorable moments as a team the first half of the season, we are where we expected to be at this point. With a record of 17-39. We are 5th in the Atlantic, 15th in the conference, and last in the league in the 2k power rankings. We beat Boston 114-104 in our first game of the year and again in our next meeting with them later in November. We also had a big 98-91 win against San Antonio. Our longest win streak of the first half was 3 wins. Our longest losing streak was 10 games.

We had no players make the All Star team, though Isaiah Whitehead did play for the Elites in the Elites Vs. Stars game

As the break approached, we were shopping some of our players, namely Brook Lopez and Jeremy Lin to the league. They both had decent first halves of the year and we thought this would be to our advantage. We looked to acquire draft picks for these players. Unfortunately, we were not successful. The most we could get were bad contracts and second round draft picks, so as a collective unit, we decided not to follow through with those offers.

That being said, we made the following moves at the trade deadline: None.

Boston was on the edge of the playoffs, in the 7th spot only 1 game ahead of 8th and 3 games ahead of the 9th spot. We decided we were going to take a calculated gamble and hold on to our 1st rounder from them.

We could not find any players that would help our team in the future, and with very little in draft assets, we decided to stay pat. This move may come back to haunt us, but we cannot gamble any more of our future picks on a single trade or two to get more picks earlier. Again, our plan is to win in the future. We are not in win now mode.

We are going to play out the year and see if we can move Brook Lopez and Jeremy Lin ahead of the All Star Break next year.

Stay tuned for the offseason and a recap of our first season in Brooklyn.

Thanks for reading!

[Funkycorm]

The end of the 2016-17 NBA season has arrived. The Brooklyn Nets finished with a record of 25-57, which puts them 5th in the Atlantic Division, 15th in the Eastern Conference, and 30th in the league for record. We finished 30th in the 2k Power Rankings. Our longest win streak of the year was 3 games, from January 8 to January 12. Our longest losing streak was 10 games, between December 18 and January 6. The good news is here is we broke our longest losing streak with our longest winning streak of the year.

The Boston Celtics finished at 43-39, which put them in the 5th spot in the weak Eastern Conference. The calculated risk we took hoping the Celtics would not make the playoffs and get us a chance at a lottery pick did not pay off. The Celtics did finish with a record of 43-39, so we should be in the top 20 picks.

Here are the final standings for the season:

NBA Standings - Updated: Apr 13, 2017
ATLANTIC	W	L	GB
Toronto	58	24	0
Boston	43	39	15
Philadelphia	34	48	24
New York	27	55	31
Brooklyn	25	57	33
CENTRAL	W	L	GB
Cleveland	59	23	0
Detroit	51	31	8
Chicago	46	36	13
Milwaukee	39	43	20
Indiana	36	46	23
SOUTHEAST	W	L	GB
Atlanta	41	41	0
Charlotte	36	46	5
Orlando	34	48	7
Miami	32	50	9
Washington	32	50	9
EAST PLAYOFF RACE	W	L	GB
Cleveland
Toronto
Detroit
Chicago
Boston
Atlanta
Milwaukee
Charlotte
NORTHWEST	W	L	GB
Oklahoma City	48	34	0
Denver	47	35	1
Portland	44	38	4
Utah	34	48	14
Minnesota	34	48	14
PACIFIC	W	L	GB
Golden State	60	22	0
L.A. Clippers	53	29	7
L.A. Lakers	38	44	22
Sacramento	35	47	25
Phoenix	31	51	29
SOUTHWEST	W	L	GB
San Antonio	55	27	0
Houston	47	35	8
Memphis	46	36	9
New Orleans	38	44	17
Dallas	27	55	28
WEST PLAYOFF RACE	W	L	GB
Golden State
San Antonio
L.A. Clippers
Oklahoma City
Houston
Denver
Memphis
Portland

Looking at these standings, the West was clearly the superior conference this season. There are a lot of teams in the East that need rebuilding, including us.

As a team, we did go 8-8 in the Atlantic Division this year, including 3-1 against the Celtics and 0-4 against the Raptors.

Regular Season Stats:

Brooklyn Nets Stats - 2016-17
Player	GP	MIN	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	TPG	FPG
Brook Lopez	82		18.3	7.5	-	-	1.7
Sean Kilpatrick	23		18.3	-	-	0.8	-
Jeremy Lin	54		15.5	-	8.3	1.6	-
Bojan Bogdanovic	79		15.4	-	-	0.9	-
Trevor Booker	76		8.1	8.1	-	-	0.6
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson	66		8.6	6.4	-	1.0	1.1
Yogi Ferrell	13		4.6	-	6.7	1.3	-
Isaiah Whitehead	19		7.5	-	5.5	1.1	-
Caris Levert	55		7.1	5.5	5.5	-	-
Luis Scola	80		9.2	6.2	-	-	0.4
Randy Foye	76		8.6	-	-	-	-
Chris Mccollough	11		3.4	3.3	-	-	0.2

It should be noted here that Sean Kilpatrick missed 59 games due to multiple injuries. Jeremy Lin missed 28 games, Caris Levert missed 27 games, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson missed 16 games, all due to injury.

Brook Lopez did have a good year for us on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

As a team scored 96.8 points per game (28th in the league) and allowed 105.4 points per game (30th in the league.)

Regular Season Awards:

2016-17 NBA Regular Season Awards
Award	Player	Pos	Team
Most Valuable Player	Lebron James		Cleveland
Rookie of the Year	Ben Simmons		Philadelphia
Sixth Man of the Year	Brandon Knight		Phoenix
Defensive Player of the Year	Lebron James		Cleveland
Most Improved Player	Dennis Schroder		Atlanta
Coach of the Year	Dwayne Casey		Toronto

To note here for other awards, rookie Caris Levert made 2nd team all-rookie for us.

In the playoffs, the Golden State Warriors lost to the 8th seed Portland Trailblazers in the first round, 4 games to 1. Coming out of the West was the San Antonio Spurs. Coming out of the East was the Cleveland Cavaliers. In this matchup, the Cavs won 4-1 and repeat as NBA Champions. The Finals MVP was none other than Lebron James.

At the end of the season, Luis Scola retired. Paul Pierce retired and was elected into the Hall of Fame. Paul Pierce, representing Boston, and Manu Ginobli, representing, San Antonio, had their numbers retired.
We signed a new CFO, head scout, and trainer.

Coach Kenny Atkinson was given a 1 year extension at the end of his current 1 year contract.

Stay tuned for my next post which will cover the rest of the offseason, including the 2017 NBA Draft and Free Agency.

Thanks for reading!

[Funkycorm]

The NBA Lottery has come. We have the highest odds for the number 1 pick this year. But we have the worst of a best/worst swap with the Boston Celtics, who made the playoffs.

The lottery picks and first round draft order are:

1. Boston (via Brooklyn)
2. Dallas
3. Utah
4. New York
5. Phoenix
6. Washington
7. Miami
8. Minnesota
9. Philadelphia
10. Orlando
11. Chicago (via Sacramento)
12. Indiana
13. New Orleans
14. Philadelphia (via LA Lakers)
15. Charlotte
16. Milwaukee
17. Atlanta
18. Brooklyn (via Boston)
19. Portland
20. Denver (via Memphis)
21. Chicago
22. Houston
23. Denver
24. Oklahoma City
25. Detroit
26. Toronto (via LA Clippers)
27. San Antonio
28. Toronto
29. Utah
30. Cleveland

In the draft we hold the 18th and the 48th picks in the draft. This draft class was auto-generated last season with no changes made.

Here is a summary of the top 10 picks in the draft. Milwaukee traded up to the 4th spot with New York. Utah traded up to the 6th spot with Washington. Portland traded into the 7th spot with Miami. New York traded back into the top 10 at the 9th pick with Philadelphia:

2017 NBA Draft Top 10 picks
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	Boston (via Brooklyn)	Monty Gatens (79)	C	6'11"	253
2	Dallas	Terrell Farmer (77)	C	7'0"	272
3	Utah	Cleanthony Schayes (75)	PF	6'8"	236
4	Milwaukee (trade with New York)	Darrell Kirkland (70)	PG	6'2"	182
5	Phoenix	Gary Keller (70)	SF	6'7"	204
6	Utah (trade with Washington)	Jalen Phillips (77)	PF	7'0"	258
7	Portland (trade with Miami)	Dale Cross (72)	SF	6'8"	253
8	Minnesota	Edgar Gatling (71)	SG	6'5"	189
9	New York (trade with Philadelphia)	Bryan Harrington (67)	C	7'2"	302
10	Orlando	Clifford Hooper (71)	SF	6'6"	218

Here is a summary of our picks:

2017 NBA Draft - Brooklyn Nets Picks
Pick	Player	College	Pos	Ht	Wt
18	Shaun Bridgeman (70C+)	Oregon State	C	6'10"	237
48	Trace Milton (61C-)	Canada	PF	6'9"	242

We did not sign Trace Milton.

Overall, this was a pretty solid draft class, especially in the top 10. There are some players here, especially the top 2 picks, both centers, that will have bright futures in the NBA.

Team Options:

Hollis-Jefferson: accepted 2 year
Anthony Bennett: declined
Joe Harris: declined
Sean Kilpatrick: accepted 1 year
Chris Mccollough: accept 2 years

Free Agency:

Overall we remained quiet this offseason in terms of free agency. We still have the contract of Brook Lopez and we are still on the hook for 5.5 million a year for the next few years to Deron Williams through the 2019-20 season.

Our plan to build through the draft and offseason has not changed. We looked to bolster our bench with some role players. Our goal was not to make a splash and as a reminder, to keep this realistic.

Our signings:

SF Doug McDermott (75B-):2 years/$4.06M
PF Thomas Robinson (75B-): 1 year/$1.22M
PG Shelvin Mack (75 B-): 2 years/$2.54M
C Andrew Bogut (76B): 1 year/$1.61M

Some notable offseason signings from around the league:

PF Paul Millsap to Philadelphia for 4 years/$132.32M
C Enes Canter to Miami for 1 year/$17.88M
SF Giannis Antetokuonmpo to New York for 4 years/$100M

These were the major signings, a lot of players accepted options and stayed with their old team or chose to resign with their own team. Kevin Durant and Steph Curry both stayed with the Warriors. The Millsap deal gives the 76ers a plethora of big men, which may mean that they chose not to sign a player like Nerlens Noel after this next season. If that is the case, we may have to make a push for the young defensive minded center.

The Knicks signing of Antetokuonmpo will probably mean the end of the Carmelo Anthony era in New York as this is his last year of his contract. It will be interesting to see what the Knicks do as it will impact our division.

Overall, the Atlantic Division got stronger, so we, the management of the Brooklyn Nets, will have to work harder to stay competitive. This does not mean deviating from our plan.

Offseason Trade:
With us signing Andrew Bogut and drafting Shaun Brigdeman, we have 4 centers active on the roster. We decided to trade C Justin Hamilton, who was now expendable. He was traded to the Rockets for a 2020 1st round (lottery protected) draft pick. This pick may get us a mid first rounder if the Rockets make the playoffs that year, and we may also get nothing out of it if they don’t. We were getting a player not needed off the team who did not contribute last season for a potential player who could contribute in the future. Again, another calculated risk.

Players not brought back:

SG Randy Foye
SG Joe Harris
PF Anthony Bennett
PF Luis Scola (retired)

Training Camp (untapped potential):

Caris Levert: B up to B+
Chris Mccollough: B- up to B
Shaun Bridgeman: C+ up to B-

The upcoming draft class for the 2018 NBA Draft was auto-generated with no changes made.

Stay tuned for our preseason preview for the 2017-18 NBA season, including full roster, starting lineup, and a prospect profile of our newest Brooklyn player, Shaun Bridgeman. I will also do a highlight of the ideal player type I want for each starting position, whether that potential player is currently in the NBA or a future draft pick in a future post as well, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading!

[Funkycorm]

Welcome to the start of the 2017-18 NBA season. All 30 teams start with a clean slate, including us. Day 1 everyone is a contender for the championship. This is a big year for the Brooklyn Nets as we come off a 57-loss season. Something we expected from the get go. A few months back we handed the Celtics our first-round pick, which they own again this year. We do not have a pick in the draft this upcoming summer of 2018. We will need to address that at some point this season. We decided not to move the contracts of Brook Lopez and Jeremy Lin at the all-star break or over the offseason and go into the season with both players still in our lineup.

Before we go any further, here is our roster:

2017-18 Brooklyn Nets Roster
#	NAME	POS	AGE	HT	WT	SALARY
8	Shelvin Mack (75B-)	PG	27	6'3"	203	2yr/$1.01M
7	Jeremy Lin (74B-)	PG	29	6'3"	200	1yr/$12.00M
9	Isaiah Whitehead (70B-)	PG	22	6'4"	210	1yr/$1.12M
2	Yogi Ferrell (68C+)	PG	24	6'0"	175	1yr/$925K
22	Caris LeVert (75B+)	SG	23	6'6"	185	1yr/$1.63M
10	Sean Kilpatrick (74B-)	SG	27	6'4"	219	1yr/$1.05M
44	Bojan Bogdanovic (77B)	SF	28	6'8"	226	2yr/7.41M
20	Doug McDermott (75B-)	SF	25	6'8"	225	2yr/$1.98M
24	Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (75B)	SF	22	6'7"	220	1yr/$1.46M
15	Thomas Robinson (75B-)	PF	26	6'10"	237	1yr/$1.22M
35	Trevor Booker (74B-)	PF	29	6'8"	228	1yr/$9.12M
1	Chris Mccollough (71B)	PF	22	6'11"	200	1yr/$1.24M
11	Brook Lopez (82B+)	C	29	7'0"	275	1yr/$22.26M
6	Andrew Bogut (76B)	C	32	7'0"	260	1yr/$1.01M
29	Shaun Bridgeman (71B-)	C	21	6'0"	237	1yr/$1.42M

And here is our depth chart:

Brooklyn Nets Depth Chart - 2017-18
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
PG	Shelvin Mack	Jeremy Lin	Isaiah Whitehead	Yogi Ferrell
SG	Sean Kilpatrick	Caris Levert
SF	Bojan Bogdanovic	Doug McDermott	Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
PF	Trevor Booker	Thomas Robinson	Chris Mccollough
C	Brook Lopez	Andrew Bogut	Shaun Bridgeman

This is our opening day lineup, with changes based upon good/bad performance. Coach Kenny Atkinson has day to day control over the starting lineup and rotation.

Draft picks we currently hold:

2019 Nets 1st round
2020 Nets 1st round and a 1st round (via Houston, lottery protected)
2021 1st and 2nd round

Looking at the future of draft picks, we currently have 2 first round picks in the 2020 draft, assuming the Rockets make the playoffs. As stated before, we also lack a draft pick for the 2018 draft coming up this summer. Our goal is to acquire more draft picks for the future. We are still pretty bare on picks, with only 5 in the next 4 years. This will be addressed at either the all-star break or during this upcoming offseason. We will see where we are sitting in February before the trade deadline and assess from there.

Looking at the league, here are the preseason power rankings:

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. Cleveland
4. Toronto
5. Boston
6. L.A. Clippers
7. Oklahoma City
8. Houston
9. Detroit
10. Portland
11. Denver
12. Philadelphia
13. Indiana
14. New Orleans
15. Memphis
16. Atlanta
17. Chicago
18. Milwaukee
19. Washington
20. Sacramento
21. Utah
22. Phoenix
23. L.A. Lakers
24. New York
25. Miami
26. Orlando
27. Charlotte
28. Minnesota
29. Dallas
30. Brooklyn

As we are still in a major rebuild, we are ranked last in the preseason power rankings. We do not like this but we know it is inevitable in our position. Besides, we know these are only preseason rankings, and they mean nothing once the season starts. Still, it feels unsettling.

Before we get into the season, let’s take a look at our newest draft pick, C Shaun Bridgeman.

Shaun is a 21-year-old, 6’10”, 237-pound, 71 overall, B minus potential center from Oregon State. He was a 3-year player at Oregon State, and a 2-year starter at the center position for the Beavers. During the course of his time at Oregon State, he averaged 18.8 points per game, 9.2 rebounds per game, and 1.6 blocks per game. In his last year, he led the Beavers to the sweet 16, where they lost to the Kentucky Wildcats. His skill set is a 2-star rating in rebounding, post scoring, and defense. As can be seen by his numbers in college, his rebounding and post scoring potential are why we drafted him. Our head scout reports that he can seem lost at times in new offenses and needs to learn to fill and defend the passing lanes better. He will also need to improve his mid-range shooting to be effective in our offense. He will receive only limited playtime this year and it will be at the center position. We would like to see Brook Lopez mentor him this season and teach him the way of the NBA post player. Long term, after this rookie season, Shaun will probably be moved to the power forward spot as his size and strength will be better suited there than at the center position. Overall, with some solid coaching, practice, and a few years to develop, we feel he can be a solid power forward that can provide some interior defense and scoring for us for years to come.

Stay tuned for our midseason update.

Thanks for reading!

[EziioGlory]

Can I just simply say this is one of, if not my favorite series I have read so far on this website! Amazing writing. Just plain exquisite work. I love it. Keep it up!