The Brooklyn Nets are within the midst of a rebuild, and whereas it’s nonetheless early, they’re nonetheless seeking a franchise cornerstone. The Nets had 5 first-round picks on this previous draft and surprisingly didn’t commerce up within the prime 5 to pick out a franchise participant like Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey.
Brooklyn does have loads of intriguing younger gamers in Egor Demin, Nolan Traore, Drew Timme, and others, together with a mixture of veterans like Michael Porter Jr., Nicholas Claxton, and Cam Thomas.
Nevertheless, they don’t have a participant with the ceiling of a franchise participant, which might assist speed up their rebuild. There’s one former All-Star that may very well be accessible and has low worth proper now that Brooklyn may reap the benefits of.
The Nets should commerce for Zion Williamson
Williamson has been the poster youngster for the what-if neighborhood since he got here into the league. When he performs, he is among the league’s most unstoppable forces. He’s at all times hovering between 22 and 27 factors per sport, taking pictures practically 60 p.c from the sector, and placing fixed strain on the rim. He has all of the instruments to be a franchise participant.
The issue is that he can not keep wholesome. Williamson has performed greater than 60 video games solely twice in 5 seasons and has missed a complete of 268 common season video games. That’s greater than three full seasons’ price of video games.
So why ought to the Nets take a flyer on Williamson? For starters, he isn’t anticipated to command an enormous bundle on the commerce market. Due to his harm historical past, Williamson shouldn’t be precisely a scorching commodity. Secondly, due to that, he would include low danger by way of what’s given up for him. Brooklyn has loads of draft capital at their disposal and a few wage fillers that they will ship to New Orleans in a deal.
The problem is that, given his harm historical past, Williamson having over $125 million on his contract over the subsequent three years could be a hurdle the Nets might not be prepared to beat. Nevertheless, if the worth is true, they must be prepared to discover.
There even have been rumblings in regards to the pressure between New Orleans and Williamson for years now, and with the group in a bizarre spot the subsequent few years, they could reduce ties with the previous first total decide.
Including Williamson would assist speed up the Nets’ rebuild
Brooklyn simply began rebuilding, so they don’t want to fret about dashing. Nevertheless, with no clear franchise participant on the roster, and Williamson doubtlessly being accessible for pennies on the greenback, a possibility like this could’t be one thing they go up.
Brooklyn has been rumored to be within the star market within the subsequent two years, with names like Giannis Antetokounmpo on their radar. Williamson has that star billing when he’s on the courtroom and would give the Nets the high-ceiling centerpiece they want.
