Teams Who Didn't Make the Playoffs - What next? Pt. 2: Mourning Division

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Alpha - Mourning

Brooklyn Nets

Like the Pacers, the Nets aren’t too far from success. Kaleb Wesson, Jame Hector and Clay Waters are all aging together, not to mention the best players on the Nets currently. They dished Slim Jenkins for some youth in Laurence Runyon, a clear move to take yourself out of contention and clear out some cap space, and thus did not need to do much else this year. RPF let this team play it out and, considering the whole team is available to trade, RPF’s Nets could have fared a lot worse in S47.

So, what do the Nets need to do next?

I think this is more about what the Nets want to do next, not so much need. They don’t need to do anything yet. While Wesson, Hector and Waters are currently all available on the Nets Trade Block (because they are NOT Fang Shuo), RPF may want to retain at least 2 of these three at the end of next season so that they can keep racking up some points in wins while they wait for Fang to develop some more. The first to go would probably be Hector if RPF had a say, mostly due to his expensive contract, but Hector is good enough now that it’s nothing RPF needs to worry about. He could pass on or retain Runyon next year too. He’s not great anywhere, but he’s good enough to back up the 1, 2 or 3. We got options here!

Cleveland Cavaliers

Biding time, the Cavs seemed to be waiting on Brandon Boston Jr. and Chris Ridley to hit their potential, but on the flipside, Jules Harms and Brad Dodge are good now. Dodge, whom LHamilton just reinvested in this year for a long term deal (a decent contract, to be sure), is not getting any better, though. Chris Ridley is good now, too, but still has room to grow to hit purple (hopefully?), and BBJr. is still 4 years behind Ridley. Harms splits the difference in age, but it seems like the Cavs are the right kind of good in the wrong time as a team. So, the Cavs went out there in their good but hobbled way and held together a good but hobbled record of 32-50. This team could be great - and beat some great (or at least better) teams along the way this year like the Lakers, Heat, Pelicans and Spurs (twice each), not to mention the Magic and 76ers.

What do you do next at the helm of these Cavs?

Aside from say “No thanks” to a few trade offers (or so I’ve heard), at least one of these guys has got to go in the interest of boosting the others. I mean, maybe you are not interested in competing until Ridley or BBJr. pops off some league topping stats, which is fine, but there is a lot of great potential here languishing in a 32-50 record without a super clear strategy for what comes next. An unpopular move might be moving BBJr. sooner than later for a strong win now piece (you never know what near purple current just isn’t working out for a team (looking at you, Pacers and Bronny)), but it might be worth a run at gold to test the market a bit beyond “No thanks.”

New York Knicks

I’m excited to write about the Knicks, like many other GMs here. It takes a special guy to talk about a key player like Corey Chronister in your preseason presser (who was later cut and not picked up by anyone else, for the record), drkavarga and the Knicks had a rotten season, as planned. One of the worst in PBSL history, they hoped. It’s nice to see someone strive for greatness amidst indescribable defeat. But he’s out of the tax, and has no valuable contracts on the books, and a probably top 3 draft pick coming up, so… win. Win. Win.

What do you do now, Knicks?

Max every offer for at least the RFAs and first two rounds of UFA. You’re out of the tax, so why not go buck wild? Points are for paying off debt anyway. If you rack up a handful of great players this way, you got at least the next four seasons to win a title before you have to start paying it off again, so why not go for it?

That’s all I got for now. I’ll come back with a Pt. 3 that should encompass the entire Omega conference, because splitting Kemp across two articles just seems silly. Hope you like it!

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