Brooklyn Nets: Wait Till Next Year is Dead Ahead

From the desk of: THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION

2019   PLAYOFFS   2020

Raptors def. Nets; 4-0

I - TOR 134; BKN 110

II - TOR 104; BKN 99

III - TOR 117; BKN 92

IV - TOR 150; BKN 122

Trounced in two, swept in four ... I believe game one was closer that the final score indicates.

In any event, when the opposing bench scores 100 points (game four) there's no need sifting through the minutiae of what went wrong.  Give Toronto their respect as defending NBA champs and move on.  It's time for Brooklyn to get back in the lab.

We all know the Nets this season were a very compromised team.  All things considered I'm actually quite pleased with how the season ends.  Caris LeVert, Jarrett Allen and Joe Harris are thrust into the team's primary positions of leadership.  The experience gained is invaluable.  These are the requisite growing pains.  In the meantime, enjoy the rest of summer best you can.  For the Hopes of Flatbush lay dead ahead.

How effective will Kevin Durant be upon his return to the floor?  Will Kyrie Irving be able to sustain a full season?  Will he have kinder things to say about his teammates?  Will the two mega stars mesh?  This remains to be seen.

But what if Irving is right?  Do the Nets have the requisite in-house pieces in order to facilitate a championship?  What if the Nets do not have the right mix of talent?  Does Sean Marks need to go off campus for another formidable threat?

Joe Harris is the team's most notable free agent.  Sean Marks says re-signing him is a top priority.  Whereas I have my reservations.  He is an easily blunted dagger in the Nets attack.  When teams decide to shut him down, they do.

Brooklyn has eleven players under contract entering next season: Kevin Durant; Kyrie Irving; DeAndre Jordan; Caris LeVert; Rodions Kurucs; Dzanan Musa; Nicolas Claxton; Taurean Prince and Jeremiah Martin ... meanwhile, extending the contracts of Jarrett Allen and Spencer Dinwiddie will not be easy.  The Nets have an option on Garrett Temple, but what Sean Marks does about Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot is anyone's guess.

There is also a new head coach up for discussion.

Change is most certainly on the horizon.

But make no mistake, the future has arrived.