Nets smart to be wary of the deep end of free agency
The Nets aren’t fooling anybody, especially themselves. They admit after finishing an NBA-worst 20-62 they have far too many holes to fill in one offseason or with one player. The struggle is real – and it’s going to be long.
“We know we have a long way to go, so we understand that. We’re very realistic,’’ coach Kenny Atkinson said Monday. “Obviously the losses weren’t easy. But we understood what we were getting into. I know in the long run the adversity we had to face, it was almost like, ‘You deserve to face that. This is what it is.’ It made me a better coach; it made our players better players to go through that struggle.”
Despite having $33 million to spend, it seems unlikely the Nets will blow it in one place on an older, maximum-salary star such as Hawks forward Paul Millsap or Jazz point guard George Hill. The Nets know no one splashy signing would remake the team. Instead, they must be creative and fill as many holes as possible.
“Where we stand, it’d be silly for us to say we’re only going to go after one particular player or one particular position. None of us are happy – and that includes our players – winning 20 games,’’ general manager Sean Marks said. “We’ve got to continue to build, get the right caliber players to fit into this group and be strategic along the way.”
Millsap, 32, could command a four-year, $154 million max contract. Hill, 30, is reportedly after a four-year, $132 million deal.
“We’ve got to really evaluate the roster,’’ Marks said. “If you go after one of the top-tier guys, you’d obviously hope to get him, but does that really make you better? Does it get you to 30 wins, 35 wins? The objective here is for us to be in the playoffs.
“You don’t want to go and sign free agents and next thing you know your payroll is capped out and you’re a 25-win team. So, we’re going to have to build this strategically, have patience with it. … We’ll look at everything that suits the current roster and the rosters for 2018 and 2019 and so forth. So, we’re going to have a big-picture view on this looking down the road.”
Down the road, the Nets are better off banking on young players’ potential than overpaying for old players’ past. Restricted free agents such as Otto Porter (23), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (24) or even Tim Hardaway Jr. (25) make far more sense, though Porter and Caldwell-Pope could garner max deals.
The Pistons intend to match even a max offer for Caldwell-Pope, according to the Detroit Free Press. But the Nets would be wise to test that.
They also would be wise to scout Europe hard, which they’ve been doing. Marks hit Germany, Russia, Spain and Turkey in a week-plus sojourn last month. He’s expected to go back for more this week (looking at Milos Teodosic), and said assistant GM Trajan Langdon will scout 10 games in the Euroleague playoffs.
While the NBA salary cap has jumped, salaries in Europe have gone down. Ex-Knick Alexey Shved tops the list at $3.5 million, Teodosic is making $2.5 million and forward Nicolo Melli – whom Marks scouted last month at Germany’s Brose Bamberg – is believed to pocket less than $1 million. The Nets have been linked to European teens Rodions Kurucs and Isaiah Hartenstein with the Celtics’ late-first-round pick in mock drafts.
“Right now for the Nets, given their recent past with giving up draft picks, they have to be creative,’’ ESPN international draft expert Fran Fraschilla told The Post. “They’ve got to get lucky with the late-first-rounders, get lucky with free agency, get lucky oversees finding a couple guys who turn out to be good.”