These last minute trades Brooklyn pulled off look more like financial moves, but not aggressive ones that speak to promising a postseason return.
Names like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, even former Brooklyn Nets star James Harden rose as trade candidates.
Brooklyn instead lands Ochai Agbaji from the Toronto Raptors, Josh Minott of the Boston Celtics. and Hunter Tyson via the Denver Nuggets. The latter player arriving with less than an hour before the trade deadline came to a cease. Haywood Highsmith ends up leaving from here.
Certain that Agbaji, Minott and Tyson's name alone brings forth a "who the heck are these guys" type of response. Also certain that Antetokounmpo, Morant and Harden not arriving fuels criticism and some tantrums among Nets fans.
Yes, a counterargument here is that the three decorated veterans want a contender to play for. They were not in a "get out of here quick and take whatever" scenario. That said, Brooklyn was losing ground anyway from what multiple reports revealed.
Still, either one of those three NBA All-Stars would've re-galvanized a restless fan base -- plus assure how serious Brooklyn is with re-contending again for the following season.
But the Raptors, Celtics and Nuggets deals speak more to this: Financial saving ones.
The ex-Toronto addition "could be another reclamation project for Brooklyn's player development staff" from what Erik Slater of ClutchPoints said. But he's also coming to Brooklyn with his worst three-point shooting percentage to date.
"The Nets can take Agbaji into their $15.3 million in cap space. They could also use their cap space in other salary-dump moves, then absorb the Raptors guard into the $8.8 million room mid-level exception," Slater adds.
Minott has earned starts amid his 33 games of action. But he's only cracked the starting rotation 10 times. He brings 5.8 points per game in tow. Tyson has a lower average -- 2.7 PPG accompanied by averaging 1.7 rebounds.
Sean Marks and the Nets simply traded for financial security -- rather than taking a swing at a disgruntled big name to create some form of spark for fans.
Although Nets fans likely realized that it's a tanking campaign for Brooklyn anyway. These moves now present this assurance: Either AJ Dybantsa of BYU, Darryn Peterson of Kansas or Cam Boozer of Duke will hold up a Brooklyn jersey come June 2026 -- as Marks clearly wants to go all-in on building through the draft.
This tactic looks enticing in the long run. But again, the Nets still risk setting themselves back two to three years by going youth first over veterans. And then relying on mostly backups next to the talents under 22 years of age.
Financially speaking this presents an "A" grade for Brooklyn. But the Nets earn a "C-" here for basically keeping the same lineup -- yet adding seldom used backups who won't likely get much playing time anyway.
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