Brooklyn Nets to Prioritize Building From Within

A new approach to talent acquisition will greatly benefit the franchise.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jason Terry.

Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden.

Two trios that were supposed to lead the Brooklyn Nets to NBA glory just eight years apart. The only aspect they share is a massive level of disappointment.

Both of these attempts to construct their own "superteam" when that was still the primary goal of many organizations proved to be catastrophic failures. Now, Brooklyn appears to have learned from their mistakes of assembling high-level talent from the outside, and will now look within to grow their stars.

The recent hiring of both head coach Jordi Fernandez and Andre Barrett signals a new approach for general manager Sean Marks. Fernandez, a player development guru, and Barrett, who has an amazing eye for talent, is a tandem that will prevent the Nets from being forced to make another clumsy trade. No more future leveraging that results in another franchise winning a title, as is the case with the Boston Celtics. Remember, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were both selected using Brooklyn's draft picks.

The Nets have not picked inside the top 15 of a draft since 2010, when they selected Derrick Favors third overall. Since then, many of Brooklyn's picks have been shipped to other teams, but that hasn't stopped Marks from finding some late-round steals. Jarrett Allen, Cam Thomas, Nic Claxton and most recently Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney were all selected no earlier than 21st overall. Now equipped with a slew of first-rounders over the course of the next three seasons, the combination of Marks, Fernandez and Barrett will have the opportunity to truly build the Nets into a contender from within.

Brooklyn's entrance into a complete rebuild has been their main headline of the 2024 offseason, but with those three at the helm, the turnaround may happen far sooner than many expect.

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