What is the Nets plan?

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The Brooklyn Nets have just traded their second best player for the 20th pick in this years draft and future second round pick. What does this all mean for the Nets? Well I am going to break it down.

Kelly Kline

First off the Nets traded away every first round pick they have until 2019. The only year they will have a pick is 2017, but most likely it will not be their own. So by getting a pick this year the Nets can start a rebuilding process much faster. They will also be making the team much younger. The down side of having a pick in this years draft is that the draft is not very deep. This will make it extremely hard for the Nets to find the diamond in the ruff even if it is the 20th pick.

Second, let's look at what this move does for the Nets Salary cap space for this upcoming season. The Nets had about 36 million dollars in cap space going into the summer, but by trading Young that figure jumps to around 48.5 million dollars. This would allow the Nets to sign multiple big name free agents, if they would even consider Brooklyn as a landing spot. If not the Nets do not have to use up the cap space this summer. They could very well stay on the rebuilding route they are on rather than opt for a quick rebuild. All that leads into the next point I am about to make.

If the Nets do not find a solid free agent to sign this summer, they will trade Brook Lopez. Lopez is in his prime now and still has two years left on his contract. This means that a team trading for him will get Lopez at his best while he is locked into what can be considered a cheap contract of $20 million a year. I say that because $20 million a year will no longer be considered a max contract so teams picking him up will get him at a great value. Now that the Nets have pulled the trigger on Young it might be time to trade Lopez too while they can still get a lot in return. The Nets could easily get back a solid starting player as well as first round draft pick or a developing player with high potential.

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That all leads up to tonight's draft. Is Sean Marks looking to pull off a huge draft night trade that can land the Nets a lottery pick, or is he just making subtle moves to help jump start this rebuild. All in all this trade is not horrible, but the Nets could have gotten much more for Young. In the end it opened up a lot of cap space and got the Nets a first round pick this year. Hopefully this is the start of good things to come.