Even since the initial cursory phone call between first-year general manager Sean Marks and the Brooklyn Nets, the only possible topic of conversation has been the several-years rebuilding process that the team inevitably faces. In recent years, Sam Hinkie was undoubtedly the face of modern rebuilding with his non-stop series of envelope-pushing, future-focused moves. We’re about half a year into Marks’ tenure, now, and none of his moves have been shocking, disruptive, or urgent. Quite the opposite, really. 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It also isn’t necessarily a good thing, either. It will take years until we discover if these moves set the Nets down the right organizational path. 

This is correct way to grade Marks is: to do so eventually. The 16-17 Nets were all but sentenced to be bad well before Marks was hired away from the San Antonio Spurs. The only pertinent question is how his moves from the summer of 2016 impact the Nets three, four, five years from now. If Marks has been making the right moves, here are his techniques for the next generation of rebuilding teams to learn from:

1. Veterans are actually helpful. 

Hinkie’s Sixers famously/infamously eschewed veteran players in order to dedicate as many roster spots to undrafted auditioners as possible. Marks, meantime, clearly went into free agency holding experience as a priority, signing Trevor Booker (two years, $18.5m), Luis Scola (one year, $5.5m), and Randy Foye (one year, $2.5m). The latter two most recently played themselves out of their teams’ playoff rotations, and we have to trust that Marks saw this as well. 

We still don’t have a great feel, from the outside, about how veteran presence influences a rebuild. It’s awfully hard to find statistical proof that they’re helping, but even-keeled benchwarmers like Mike Miller, Joel Anthony, or -- very recently -- Marks himself are able to stay employed for a hell of a long time. 

If Marks is correct, investing in veterans actually does help young players in ways that can’t be otherwise replicated. Aging “high character” guys from around the league should all be pulling for the Nets to do well -- they could be next to wring a few more paychecks out of the back end of their careers. 

2. Trade Deadline leverage matters. 

While Marks traded Thaddeus Young to move into the back end of the first round in June’s draft, he still has not moved two of his more obvious trade candidates, Brook Lopez and Bojan Bogdanovic. 

It’s possible that Marks is waiting until the February 2017 Trade Deadline. There is considerable evidence in baseball that the same players and assets command a much higher price at the Trade Deadline than in the offseason. The theory is that, in the middle of the season, contenders know with certainty that they are contenders; with their goal closer, they are willing to pay more to push themselves over the top. 

Anecdotally, some pretty astonishing players have been moved for first-rounders over the last two deadlines: Anderson Varejao (salary dump), Adreian Payne, Dion Waiters, and Jeff Green -- twice. 

In addition to putting Lopez and Bogdanovic on the block this winter, solid first halves could also see Marks move Scola, Foye, or Greivis Vasquez (one-year, $4.3 million). It may sound ridiculous at this moment, but both Foye and Vasquez were traded for draft picks within the last 14 months. 

3. Restricted free agency deserves the biggest money. 

Marks’ largest contract in unrestricted free agency -- three years and $38.3 million for Jeremy Lin -- pales in comparison to either of the offer sheets he extended in restricted free agency: four years and $50 million for Tyler Johnson and four years and $74 million for Allen Crabbe. Those feel like huge sums for relatively inexperienced players, but the fact that both the Heat and Trail Blazers matched the deals at least shows that Marks was calculating right.  

Pursuing larger targets in RFA is so shrewd for the Nets because, by definition, the players in that pool are incredibly young. This is especially true of any second-rounder or undrafted player who becomes a surprise hit, just like Johnson (23) and Crabbe (24). 

There's a good chance Marks will nab an RFA who gets lost in the shuffle next summer. His D-League signee with the Spurs, Jonathan Simmons (26), will enter the market. The Bulls could face a cap crunch with Nikola Mirotic (25) and Tony Snell (24) both entering RFA. The Thunder certainly have some decisions to make with Victor Oladipo (24), Andre Roberson (24) and Steven Adams (23) all entering their fourth year.(New Zealander connection, anyone?)

4. Your coach leads your program. 

We’re more than accustomed to seeing star players force their teams to change coaches -- like a picky eater sending plates back to the kitchen until some uneasy truce is reached. With the hiring of journeyman assistant Kenny Atkinson, though, Marks has created a structure almost identical to that of Hinkie, Brett Brown and the Sixers: the almost entirely green roster must lean on their coach in order to stay afloat in the NBA. 

Brown’s tenacious optimism has kept the Sixers’ roster remarkably afloat, emotionally, while posting some of the worst records in league history -- and Atkinson is now being called upon to do the same, giant task. The most genius analytics strategy in the world only comes to fruition with this daily sweat and grind.