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 high 5 to pick a franchise participant like Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey.
Brooklyn does have numerous 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 could possibly be out there and has low worth proper now that Brooklyn might benefit from.
The Nets should commerce for Zion Williamson
Williamson has been the poster baby for the what-if neighborhood since he got here into the league. When he performs, he is likely one of the league’s most unstoppable forces. He’s all the time hovering between 22 and 27 factors per sport, taking pictures practically 60 % from the sphere, and placing fixed stress on the rim. He has all of the instruments to be a franchise participant.
The issue is that he can’t 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’ value of video games.
So why ought to the Nets take a flyer on Williamson? For starters, he’s not anticipated to command an enormous package deal on the commerce market. Due to his damage historical past, Williamson just isn’t precisely a scorching commodity. Secondly, due to that, he would include low danger by way of what’s given up for him. Brooklyn has numerous draft capital at their disposal and a few wage fillers that they’ll ship to New Orleans in a deal.
The problem is that, given his damage historical past, Williamson having over $125 million on his contract over the subsequent three years could be a hurdle the Nets is probably not prepared to beat. Nevertheless, if the worth is correct, they must be prepared to discover.
There even have been rumblings concerning the rigidity between New Orleans and Williamson for years now, and with the group in a bizarre spot the subsequent few years, they might reduce ties with the previous first general choose.
Including Williamson would assist speed up the Nets’ rebuild
Brooklyn simply began rebuilding, so they don’t want to fret about speeding. Nevertheless, with no clear franchise participant on the roster, and Williamson doubtlessly being out there 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 court docket and would give the Nets the high-ceiling centerpiece they want.
