Skip to main content

Featured Post

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park FAQ, timeline, and infographics (pinned post)

2 comments

Brooklyn Nets, admitting "failure" of superstar era, trade disgruntled Durant to Phoenix Suns for hefty package. Reboot to better version of "old" team?

Feb. 9, 2023
After the Brooklyn Nets' trade of Kyrie Irving came the quick trade of (the injured) Kevin Durant, a sign that, in the era of superstar empowerment, even a player signed to a long-term contract can entineer his way out.

So that signals the resounding failure of the "Big Three" era, even as the Nets retool with a solid, albeit superstar-less, roster and numerous draft picks.

It's a remarkable reversal from the remarkable turnaround in December, when pundits had a full-strength Nets team potentially winning a championship. As NetsDaily's Matt Brooks put it, "Blowing it up after going 18-2 in December is the most Netsy thing Brooklyn has done yet."

That also means, yet again, that "you're only rooting for the clothes."Also, it's less likely that team and arena company owner Joe Tsai will be able to keep raising ticket prices, sell sponsorships as envisioned, and even get a new sponsor for the arena. 
Winners and losers

As Steve Kastenbaum tweeted, "@BrooklynNets Season ticket holders are the big losers in this weeks' trades. They were asked to shell out a lot more money this year for all packages, based on the expectation of seeing @KyrieIrving and @KDTrey5 lead the team to the playoffs."

Mike Mazzeo called it "an all-time NBA failure by Joe Tsai and Sean Marks." NetsDaily's "Net Income" (aka Bob Windrem) observed, "The loss of arguably the game’s greatest player in his prime has to be the single greatest failure by ownership and management in NBA history."

SB Nation gave the Suns an A grade, and gave the Nets an A-, calling the team's "implosion... one of the strangest stories in NBA history."

Then again, as shown last night, the new Nets--four new starters! plus Nic Claxton--played hard, played good defense, and, despite no history of chemistry on the court, almost upset the star-laden Philadelphia 76ers. 

So they can quickly rebuild to supply decent sports entertainment, albeit without a star to take over in the fourth quarter, much like the pre-superstar Nets.

That, perhaps, was most glaring when Ben Simmons, the key part of the trade last year of James Harden--the first of the Big Three to demand a trade, one year ago--was not even starting, given his offensive struggles, while Harden helped lead the 76ers.

Wrote the Daily News's Kristian Winfield:
Now that both Durant and Irving are gone, Harden has been vindicated. His decision to leave early showed foresight. He saw the smoke and got out of the house before it burned down.
Feb. 10, 2023
The summary

The New York Post's 2/9/23 summary of the Durant trade:
The Nets also are sending veteran forward T.J. Warren to the Suns, and bringing back a haul of Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round draft picks and a 2028 pick swap.
They then traded Crowder to the Milwaukee Bucks for draft picks. So they've rebuilt some of the draft capital they lost when trading Harden. The Post noted:
When Durant sprained his left MCL last season, the Nets went 5-16. His concern over Brooklyn’s lack of fight during his absence prompted a June trade request, with the Suns one of his preferred landing spots (along with the Miami Heat).

Durant didn’t rescind that request until after an August sit-down in Los Angeles with Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks and Nets team owner Joe Tsai. But it turned out to be just a temporary reprieve for Brooklyn.
The Suns just got a new owner, Mat Ishbia, who decided to swing for the fences, finally including Bridges, an excellent two-way player, in an effort to win a title with aging point guard Chris Paul.

Feb. 10, 2023
NetsDaily put it more on management giving in, rather than, as Irving suggested, overstepping at times:
A culture based on player empowerment failed miserably with the franchise continually caving in to the superstars demands without a commensurate return in the win column. Only after a miserable season capped off by the sweep did Tsai and Marks change but by then, things were settled, as evidenced by Irving’s contention at last season’s end-of-season press conference that he, Durant, Marks and Tsai could “manage the franchise.”

At the end of June of 2022, first Irving decided to opt out and not sign an extension, then Durant requested a trade. The Nets and KD sparred during a series of meetings arranged by Tsai, first in London where Durant argued for the dismissal of Marks and head coach Steve Nash, then in Los Angeles where the two sides agreed to “continue our partnership.”
GM Marks commented, as the Post reported 2/9/23:
“Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. It’s always difficult when you’re trading a player of that stature and that ilk; very difficult,” Marks said before the Nets’ 116-105 win over the Bulls. “My job as a GM and our job as a front office is to try and bring in that caliber of talent and so forth. So those decisions are not easy.” 
Said Marks: “I look at it internally and say as well, it didn’t work. Let’s be honest there. We did not reach the full potential of where we thought we’d could get to, our hopes and honestly beliefs. 
“So, it didn’t work. Some of that is through things we can control, some through things that we can’t control. But the end of the day, now we’re focused on this pathway right now.”
Steve Lichtenstein also blamed management, saying that owner Joe Tsai lets Marks select coaches who he can control, rather than one who retains power. He also observed, New-Look Nets Will Attempt To Maintain Hold On Playoff Seed With Defensive Identity.

That does look to be the strategy. It just may not justify the ticket prices, or the national TV exposure once expected.

Was it all management's fault?
Update: from NetsDaily

So who’s to blame for this debacle which more than one pundit has called the worst management failure in NBA history? The owner, the GM, the “Big Three” themselves, Irving’s maddening and highly predictable brushes with controversy? 
The easy answer — and it may be the right one — is that everyone is to blame. Zach Lowe on ESPN Thursday said the “biggest slice” of the blame belongs to Irving. Others say it’s Sean Marks, Joe Tsai, Steve Nash or Kevin Durant for a supposed lack of leadership. (The trade gave Charles Barkley another chance to identify Durant as a passenger, not the driver of a championship bus.) There was of course an element of bad luck, too, with injuries and COVID, etc. Durant, Irving and Harden played only 16 games together, Durant and Irving only 74 ... out of more than 200. 
 The New York Times, in an article written by Sopan Deb Saturday, has even taken note of the Nets woes. Being the Times, it looked at them through the prism of management and culture rather than what went on between the lines. Deb writes that the buck stops at the top, governor and BSE Global co-proprietor Joe Tsai. The article is entitled, “The Nets Fell Apart From the Top.” 
 Deb doesn’t mince words. His first few paragraphs read like an indictment, a count-by-count listing of transgressions. 
...As one league source told NetsDaily, Brooklyn will be a “fun team” the next few years, but he isn’t sure how soon they’ll be able to convince a superstar to come to Brooklyn. “That’s going to take some time,” he said.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment