Nets 'were always prepared for a rebuild' before Mikal Bridges trade

Through that point, Brooklyn had leaned toward trying to add an All-Star running mate for Bridges, but their underachieving season forced a hard look in the mirror. “Is this the right time to go and chase a big star to get us into the top three seeds in the Eastern Conference? It’s just a matter of opportunity,” the source told The Post. “When we see that our team last year performed below expectations — and it’s something that everybody was just disappointed in — then we asked ourselves can we add pieces that will make us much better? The answer was, well, it’ll just depend on what happens, who’s available.” -via New York Post / July 19, 2024

Nets GM Sean Marks has only spoken publicly once since the team traded Mikal Bridges, and team owner Joe Tsai not at all. But multiple highly placed sources peeled the curtain back on Brooklyn’s thinking, explaining its heel turn from chasing stars to embracing a rebuild as all part of game theory. “[The view had been] that if you’re in New York City, you can’t be a bad team, because the fan base is not going to support you. It’s such a big media market, if you’re a terrible team, everything gets very bad,” one source told The Post of the organization’s initial aversion to a rebuild. “But you also have to think about the long term. You cannot be a mediocre team for a long time. So you have to set yourself up to either be really good, and if you only see a path to be just mediocre in the near term, then you have to consider an option that can take you to a rebuild.” -via New York Post / July 19, 2024

You’ve seen James Harden, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and Mikal Bridges traded within less than three seasons. What has it been like adjusting on the fly through all these transactions? Thomas: “I’m kinda used to it at this point, all this crazy stuff that’s been going on my first three years. It’s been crazy, but it’s just part of the business, like everybody says. You can’t really put your feelings into it or dwell on it. This is where [general manager] Sean [Marks] thinks we should go, so we gotta follow his lead and try to put the best product on the floor. We’re gonna try to do that.” -via Clutch Points / July 16, 2024