Pretty uneventful offseason for the Nets, eh? If we're being technical, the biggest move they made was... trading for Royce O'Neale. No blockbusters. No coaching or front office change. No controversial stands that will keep a key player off the floor. Nope. The Nets were content to tweak their roster and ride their existing talent into the season.
If only their best players shared that vision. The offseason began with contentious contract negotiations with Kyrie Irving. The enigmatic point guard ultimately decided to opt into the final year of his deal, but not before rumors of a reunion with LeBron James ran rampant. The moment it seemed as though Irving's future was settled, Kevin Durant asked for a trade of his own. Months of negotiations failed to produce a deal, so despite the best efforts of the stars here, Brooklyn made it through an entire offseason without making a major roster move.
It creates a fascinating dynamic entering the 2022-23 season. All the major pieces here either recently played for a different team or easily could've moved in the past few months. We have no way of knowing how happy anyone is, or, given how unhealthy everyone has been, how well they'll fit together. The Nets could be just about anything this season, so let's dig into what lies ahead for the NBA's most volatile team.
Key changes
- Ben Simmons, acquired at the 2022 trade deadline, will debut for the Nets on opening night.
- Signed T.J. Warren, Markieff Morris, Yuta Watanabe and Edmond Sumner as free agents.
- Traded for Royce O'Neale.
Roster
Player | Position | Age |
Chris Chiozza | Guard | 26 |
Nic Claxton | Forward | 23 |
Seth Curry | Guard | 32 |
David Duke Jr. | Forward | 22 |
Kevin Durant | Forward | 34 |
Kessler Edwards | Forward | 22 |
RaiQuan Gray | Forward | 23 |
Joe Harris | Forward | 31 |
Kyrie Irving | Guard | 30 |
Patty Mills | Guard | 34 |
Markieff Morris | Forward | 33 |
Royce O'Neale | Forward | 29 |
Day'Ron Sharpe | Center | 20 |
Ben Simmons | Guard | 26 |
Edmond Sumner | Guard | 26 |
Cam Thomas | Guard | 20 |
T.J. Warren | Forward | 29 |
Yuta Watanabe | Forward | 27 |
Alondes Williams | Guard | 23 |
Top of the key: An uneasy truce
The Nets might have the most talented roster in the NBA. That might not matter because of how tenuous this newfound peace appears to be. If Durant's faith in the Nets was somehow renewed this offseason, what happens if they're .500 after 20 games? How does the team react if Irving gets involved in another off-court controversy? How comfortable is Simmons... playing basketball?
It makes predicting any sort of outcome for the Nets this season nearly impossible. The personalities involved here are so fickle and so interconnected that pulling one Jenga piece out could topple the entire tower. If that sounds like overkill, remember, Durant himself signed an extension last season offseason. James Harden pushed his way into and out of Brooklyn in the span of around 13 months. Chaos in Brooklyn moves at a faster pace than it does anywhere else.
At the very least, Steve Nash can either get off to a hot start or feel the heat in his seat. While owner Joe Tsai publicly expressed support for Nash during the offseason, owners tend to be more trigger-happy when their luxury tax roster is unsatisfied with a slow start. Brooklyn has multiple former head coaches on its staff, including Jacque Vaughn, who served as interim coach after Kenny Atkinson was fired in 2020. Virtually every major figure on this team could change places at any time, and that is going to force this group to find its chemistry quickly.
Next up: Ben Simmons changes everything
Let's table all of the off-court questions about Simmons for a moment and assume that he's healthy and engaged. Fitting him onto any basketball team is going to be difficult. Philadelphia essentially had to strip its roster of perimeter ball-handling to maximize him. That's not going to be an option in Brooklyn, where Durant and Irving demand significant usage. How much time is Simmons going to spend in the dunker's spot?
There's not a clear answer to that considering the current composition of this roster. Nic Claxton is the presumptive starting center. He can't shoot. There will be small-ball lineups with Simmons and Durant as the nominal big men, but such units should be used sparingly to preserve their bodies. Is there a trade to be made here? If Indiana's flirtations with the Lakers are any indication, Myles Turner is very available.
It's going to take some trial and error to fit all of the pieces together here. The Nets have fortunately surrounded Simmons with as much shooting as humanly possible. If there's a formula for winning with him, it starts there.
One more thing: Who's healthy?
Durant has played 90 games in the past three seasons. Irving hasn't played more than 67 games in a season since 2017. Simmons, Joe Harris and Seth Curry are all coming off of surgeries. Simmons is the only player out of the five that's still in his 20s.
Every team deals with injuries. The Nets traded for Harden in the first place as a form of insurance: having three ball-handling superstars makes it far likelier that you'll have at least two of them on any given night. It's not that simple for this iteration of the Nets. Their playing style likely changes drastically depending on who's available.
Would injuries to Harris or Curry complicate the smaller lineups Brooklyn will no doubt want to use to support Simmons? How comfortable will Simmons be scaling his ball-handling duties up or down depending on who's available? Can a team find an identity without consistent roles? That makes Brooklyn's medical questions so glaring. They may or may not have their full roster in April, sure, but that's true for every team. But Brooklyn needs its full roster as much as humanly possible in order to figure out what the heck it is that they have here. The inconsistency those constant nicks and bruises will present likely won't be conducive to developing on-court chemistry.
Key games
Oct. 19, vs. New Orleans Pelicans: Just getting to this milestone matters. Having Durant, Simmons and Irving on the court together after everything the last eight months have thrown at this team is meaningful. We have no idea what the season will hold for the Nets, but first impressions are going to be important for a team this volatile.
Oct. 26, at Milwaukee Bucks: Yes, yes, I know that the Las Vegas books favor Boston in the Eastern Conference, but Giannis Antetokounmpo is the NBA's best player right now, and the last time these two teams faced off in the playoffs, they produced a classic series. Boston might be a more immediate rival, but this is a measuring stick game against a team they're going to have to beat if they hope to win a championship.
Nov. 22, at Philadelphia 76ers: We all know Simmons hasn't played in Philadelphia since Game 7 of the second round in 2021, but what makes this game so automatically interesting is that it's the first half of a back-to-back. If Simmons wants to duck Philly, the Nets could credibly rest him. Either he plays and has to face a crowd that loathes him, or he sits and adds fuel to the fire for Brooklyn's second trip to Philly, which comes in January and, frustratingly, is also part of a back-to-back.
