Brooklyn is red hot before 2025 comes to a close. But does the former NBA guard McCants believe this team needs to make roster changes to spark a playoff run?
The Brooklyn Nets teetered toward roster blowup status amid a rough 3-16 start.
Trade ideas manifested out of the New York region. Many fans and analysts believed Sean Marks needed to pick up the phone and put deals in place to revamp the roster.
Except the general manager and head coach Jordi Fernandez face a new dilemma.
Brooklyn heads into the new year winners of seven of its last 11 games. Although the Nets took a 120-107 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Monday night inside Barclays.
The loss still keeps the franchise way below .500 at 10-20. That still leaves the belief that a few changes roster wise must be made to improve the record further.
But does Rashad McCants believe Marks and the Nets should tweak the roster up? The verbose co-host of "Gil's Arena" and former NBA shooting guard weighed in on the state of Brooklyn in an exclusive interview with Nets Roundtable.
McCants handed the franchise a unique description along with the Sacramento Kings.
"Brooklyn has been just like the Kings and certain organizations. They're graveyards...essentially where guys go to exist until they have no trade value and they lose the asset value," McCants said.
The ex-Minnesota Timberwolves performer dove deeper into why the Nets earn the "graveyard" moniker.
"Essentially, they become role players or players who are added packages for trades. It's becoming that now," McCants said. "With Michael Porter, it becomes 'What do you do with Michael Porter or Cam Thomas?' Even Claxton too at one point had many wondering if he had trade value."
Except both Porter and Claxton are a massive reason behind Brooklyn's late season charge. "MPJ" leads the team in scoring and is garnering votes for the NBA All-Star game in Inglewood's Intuit Dome for the middle of February. The former Denver Nuggets NBA Finals champion is the only Nets player receiving votes for the annual game.
Meanwhile, the lengthy Claxton is a big reason behind the defensive surge. Claxton is cleaning up the glass on the rebounding side and held opponents to under 110 points in the last five games before the Golden State loss.
Brooklyn faces a new dilemma ahead of February's trade deadline. Moving Porter may clear up significant cap space, but that means giving up on your top scoring option. Sending Claxton out via trade loses your top defender. Even the return of Cam Thomas complicates things for trade ideas with the veteran returning and dropping 30 against the Minnesota Timberwolves three nights ago.
For what it's worth, the chances of new players coming to Brooklyn looks slim. The veterans have shown to work in unison with the deep rookie class.