Brooklyn Nets: What could have been if they had faith in the draft

It’s no secret that the Brooklyn Nets have had some pretty bad luck recently. But looking at what their team could have been truly puts it into perspective.

The Brooklyn Nets have been horrible recently and it is mostly because of the fact that they cannot rebuild. The reason they can’t rebuild is because they traded away all their draft picks when they got Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Celtics. Had the Nets put some trust into the draft and used their draft picks correctly they could be a serious contender in the East right now which is hard to believe.

In 2012 the Nets traded their unprotected lottery pick in the 2012 draft to the Portland Trail Blazers for Gerald Wallace. This would turn out to be one of the worst decisions the Nets have ever made. Why you ask? That unprotected lottery pick turned into the sixth overall pick which the Trail Blazers turned into future All-Star Point Guard, Damian Lillard.

Yeah that guy who averaged 26.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 6.6 assists last season for the Trail Blazers? Yeah he could have been playing in Brooklyn had the Nets not given up that pick.

Not only that but if the Nets don’t make that trade they don’t get Gerald Wallace who was the key player the Nets traded away in the trade full of draft picks for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. So if they don’t complete the trade for Wallace they might not complete the trade for Pierce and Garnett, but we’ll come back to that later on.

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Now let’s stay in the 2012 draft but move onto the second round, the 35th overall pick in particularly. In 2011 the then New Jersey Nets traded Troy Murphy and a second round pick in the 2012 draft to the Warriors for Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric. Who by the way would both move on from the Nets after that 2010-11 season.

But back to the 2012 draft, that pick that the Nets gave up? Yeah the Warriors ended up using that pick to draft future All-Star and 2016-17 Defensive Player of the Year, Draymond Green. Yes, in the same draft the Nets gave up two picks which would be used to draft players with six All-Star Appearances between the two of them.

Fast forward to June 27th 2013 and the Nets would make possibly the worst move in NBA history. In return for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry, the Brooklyn Nets traded away Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, MarShon Brooks, Keith Bogans, Kris Joseph and first round picks in 2014, 2016 and 2018 as well as the right to swap picks in 2017.

Who did those picks turn into you ask? If you are a Nets fan I’d recommend scrolling down a bit because you may shed a tear. In 2014 the Celtics wound up with the worse of the three picks, the 17th pick where they took James Young (an average player at best).

In 2016 the Celtics wound up with the third overall pick thanks to the Nets. That pick would turn into Jaylen Brown who has been one of the better Small Forward/Shooting Guards in the league since being drafted.

In 2017 the Celtics did end up swapping their pick with the Nets which wound up being the first overall pick in the draft. The Celtics wound up trading that pick to the 76ers for the third overall pick as well as their first round pick in 2019. The Celtics ended up getting the guy they said they would have taken first overall, Jayson Tatum.

Tatum would end up finishing third in Rookie of the Year voting leading the Celtics to the Eastern Conference Finals when Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward went down to injuries. Yet another player the Nets could have had if they put faith in the draft, but I’m not done yet.

If you remember, the Celtics got Tatum because they swapped picks with the Nets in the 2017 draft. Had they not swapped picks the Nets would have had the 27th overall pick, which obviously wound up in the hands of the Nets.

With that pick the Nets took a player who wound up being the biggest sleeper of that draft thus far, Kyle Kuzma. In his rookie season Kuzma averaged 16.1 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Not bad at all considering he was drafted 27th overall.

This of all trades actually turned out to be the best one the Nets have made on this list because in return they wound up with former second overall pick, D’Angelo Russell. So not bad, but a trade they would not have needed to make had they not traded away their draft picks in the first places since they would’ve had Damian Lillard.

Last but not least is the 2018 Draft where the Nets would have had the eighth overall pick, which was traded to the Celtics, who then used the pick as part of the trade that landed them Kyrie Irving from the Cavaliers. With the eighth overall pick the Cavaliers selected Collin Sexton out of the University of Alabama who is already tearing it up in the Summer League.

Recap

So lets put all this together and compare what could be the Brooklyn Nets starting lineup had they put faith into the draft, vs their actual starting five.

The “What-If” Five

PG: Damian Lillard, 26.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 6.6 assists per game in 2017-18, All-Star.
SG: Collin Sexton, 19.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game for Alabama last year.
SF: Jaylen Brown, 14.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists per game in 2017-18.
PF: Jayson Tatum, 13.9 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists per game in 2017-18, 3rd place in ROY Voting.
C: Draymond Green, 11.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 7.3 assists per game in 2017-18, All-Star.

The “Unfortunate Reality” Five

PG: D’Angelo Russell, 15.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists per game in 2017-18.
SG: Allen Crabbe, 13.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists per game in 2017-18.
SF: DeMarre Carroll, 13.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists per game in 2017-18.
PF: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, 13.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game in 2017-18.
C: Jarrett Allen, 8.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 0.7 assists per game in 2017-18.

So yeah the Nets projected starting five in 2018-19 isn’t quite ideal to say the least. If the Nets had faith in the draft the NBA could have been much different. That “What-If” starting five is a team that could’ve seriously contended in the East, especially now that Lebron is out west.

Not only that but that is also a team that could seriously attract some big name free agents. In a big market like New York if you’ve got a team that can contend, players will want to be on that team. For all we know that is a team that might’ve been able to complete a trade for Kyrie Irving last off-season.

Think about it, Kyrie Irving was traded for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic the Nets 2018 first round pick which belonged to Boston and Miami’s 2020 second round pick which belonged to Boston.

Next: Good bad and ugly for each team's draft

If the Cavaliers accepted that for Kyrie (which Kyrie is from Brooklyn by the way), you’d imagine they would accept Damian Lillard, the same 2018 draft pick and a bench player or two for Irving. With that being said, the Nets did not affect just themselves by trading away all their draft picks, they could have seriously effected the future of the league.

If the Nets did have Lillard and they traded him for Irving you are talking about the best player in the world being paired with someone who averaged over 26, 4 and 6 a game last season. That is a duo that might be able to take down the Warriors. If they take down the Warriors Lebron probably doesn’t leave and the NBA we know right now is much different.

But then again that is a lot of ifs. But all in all if the Nets had a little faith in themselves and the draft, their team, and the NBA as a whole could look a lot different than it does today.

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