The Brooklyn Nets are within the midst of a rebuild, and whereas it’s nonetheless early, they’re nonetheless looking for 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 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.
Nonetheless, they don’t have a participant with the ceiling of a franchise participant, which might assist speed up their rebuild. There may be one former All-Star that might be accessible and has low worth proper now that Brooklyn may make the most of.
The Nets should commerce for Zion Williamson
Williamson has been the poster little one 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, capturing 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 is just not precisely a sizzling commodity. Secondly, due to that, he would include low threat 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 difficulty is that, given his damage historical past, Williamson having over $125 million on his contract over the following three years can be a hurdle the Nets might not be prepared to beat. Nonetheless, if the value is correct, they need to 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 following few years, they could lower ties with the previous first total choose.
Including Williamson would assist speed up the Nets’ rebuild
Brooklyn simply began rebuilding, so they don’t want to fret about dashing. Nonetheless, with no clear franchise participant on the roster, and Williamson doubtlessly being accessible for pennies on the greenback, a chance like this will’t be one thing they cross 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.
